The possession of the land of Canaan was a preliminary stage
in God’s redemptive plan, one that always envisioned something larger than Israel
or a plot of land in the Middle East. With the arrival of the Messiah, the
covenant promises find their fulfillment in the “true seed of Abraham,” Jesus, including the resurrection and new creation.
The receipt of the promises is based on his death and resurrection,
and not on biological descent from Abraham, and their future consummation is
attested in the present by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Scriptural passages that promise land to Abraham employ
words like “inheritance” and “heir,” including the Hebrew word
translated “possession.”
These terms are linked to the Abrahamic covenant and originally
referred to the “possession” of Canaan. “I will give to you and to
your seed after you the land of your so-journeys, all the land of Canaan for an
everlasting possession” - (Genesis 12:1-3, 13:14-16, 17:1-8).
TRUE HEIR
In the New Testament, “inheritance,” “heir”
and “possession” are reapplied to what God has accomplished in Jesus. He
is the true heir of Abraham, and therefore, the heir of all things
- (Matthew 21:38, 28:18, Mark 12:7, Luke 20:14, John 13:3, Romans 8:17, Hebrews
1:2).
Following his resurrection, Christ was appointed as the ruler
of all nations, and through him, God is providing the coming inheritance
for his saints:
- (Colossians 1:12) - “Sufficiently for our share in the inheritance of the saints.”
- (1 Peter 1:3-5) - “He has regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead for an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you…ready to be revealed in the last ripe time.”
- (Romans 8:16-17) – “The Spirit confirms that we are the children of God and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.”
Thus, Jesus is the true “seed” of Abraham, and his
followers become the “heirs according to promise.”
THE INHERITANCE
The Greek noun rendered “possession” in the
passage from 1 Peter is used in his quotation from the nineteenth
chapter of Exodus, a promise given originally to the nation of
Israel. “You
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's
own possession.”
Thus, the inheritance of Abraham has been
bequeathed to those who belong to Jesus, the saints who “are no longer
slaves but sons, and if sons, then heirs through God” regardless of ethnicity
or national origin - (Exodus 19:5, Galatians 3:29).
And the gift of the Spirit received by believers is the “earnest
of their inheritance for the redemption of the possession,” and it is the “blessing of Abraham” for the nations promised by Yahweh to the Patriarch.
Because Abraham believed the promises of God, it was “reckoned to him for righteousness.” And those men and
women who are likewise of faith are the true “sons of Abraham,” both Jew and
Gentile.
When Yahweh promised that “in you will all the Gentiles be blessed,” He proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Therefore, anyone who is of the same faith is “blessed with the faithful Abraham” - (Galatians 3:4-9).
And because of the gospel, believers are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our
inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession.” The gift promised in the Hebrew Bible has
become reality in the church, and it is the guarantee by God of our future
possession of the inheritance – (Ephesians 1:14).
Moreover, if the same Spirit that raised Jesus
from the dead “dwells in us,” we are assured that God will raise us from
the dead and give us immortal bodies. Not only is the Spirit the “earnest”
of the full inheritance, but it also is the “first fruits”” of the coming harvest, namely, the “redemption of our body” - (Romans
8:10-23, 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, 5:5).
FUTURE POSSESSION
At the end of the age, Jesus will declare to all who
respond to him in faith, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” No longer is
the inheritance limited to Israel or confined to the small territory of Palestine.
And the plea in the Lord’s Prayer for the will of God “to be done as in
heaven, so on the earth” looks beyond Palestine to
the entire world.
Jesus did not abandon the original promises but expanded
and universalized them in accord with the purposes of God - to make Abraham a
blessing to “all the nations of the earth” - (Matthew 6:10).
And according to Paul, the original land promised to
Abraham has become a universal reality, for Abraham is now nothing less than the
“heir
of the world,” the kosmos - (Romans 4:10-13).
In Christ, Jewish and Gentile believers become children and
heirs, a reality affirmed and guaranteed by the gift of the Spirit. The coming resurrection
and New Creation will be nothing less than the culmination of the covenant promises
to Abraham.
The tiny territory of Canaan assigned to Israel was only an
early stage in God’s plan of redemption, one that has been put into motion by
Jesus Christ, confirmed by the gift of the Spirit, and is now awaiting its
consummation in the resurrection of the saints and the New Creation.