Life is a matter of receiving and releasing. We receive what we are given by our parents, teachers and mentors, and we release to our children, and other heirs, what we have acquired. As we age, we have to decide what to do with what we have. We have to plan to distribute our estate. Sometimes we resent having to do so. "I hated all the things I toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. For a man may do all his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it." (Ecclesiastes 2:18-21) Who is going to inherit the family heirlooms? Who will appreciate the china, the silver, the paintings, that special collection, the furniture, the books, and the rugs? Who will appreciate our memory, all that we have done, all that we have stood for and believed in?

Some, like Leona Helmsley, leave their estate to their pets. But whoever we are we must release what we have, and be reborn into a new life. "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." (1 Timothy 6:6) Aging requires relinquishing what we have as our world contracts, until all we have is our basic necessities. It is only when we have nothing that we appreciate what we are given. God's plan for us is that we will receive our enduring inheritance in the life to come. We are to look forward to eternal life as a child of God, and receive what God has in store for us in his kingdom. Beyond this lifetime our world expands again to include all that God bestows on those who love him.

"Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." (Romans 8:17 NIV) "For all God gives to his Son Jesus is now ours also." (LB)

St. Paul is at pains to emphasize the absolute certainty of the Christian hope. He underlines the nature of our relationship with God by describing those who are believers in Christ as, not only children of God, nor only heirs of God, but also co-heirs with Christ. He wants to make sure that no one misses his point about our future inheritance. As a teacher he does not want to take anything for granted. He restates what may seem to be obvious but which is often overlooked. He is anxious that we should understand and enjoy the meaning of what it means to be heirs of the kingdom of God.

By describing us as co-heirs with Christ, he explains how we become heirs - not by our own merits, not by what we have done, not because God arbitrarily decided to bless us, but because of our relationship with Christ. Without Christ we would not be inheriting the kingdom at all. We inherit because Christ shares his inheritance with us.

Hebrews 1:2 reminds us that God "in these last days has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things." Christ is the heir, and we only become heirs because we are incorporated into Christ, because we, by faith, are united with Christ. We become heirs because of our faith-union with Christ. We are no longer only in Adam, as natural, sinful human beings. When we put our trust in Christ, and follow him, we became 'in Christ.' All that Christ has won by his life, death and resurrection, is given to us. All blessings come to us because of our relationship to him. Our relationship to God is through Christ. "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." (Revelation 3:21)

Jesus prayed that his followers would be with him, that they might see his glory, and share his love in the future. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." (John 17:24) He looks for them to be with him so that they may see the glory that the Father has given him. What that glory means will be described later in Romans 8. William Temple attempts to explain what Jesus said.

"The perfect love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father - which is the Holy Spirit - is the glory of the Godhead. It is eternal. The prayer of the Lord for his disciples is that they may see, may contemplate with adoration, that glory. His longing is that they may be with him and behold the glory which the Father eternally bestows on him is not chiefly for his sake but for theirs; for this is the Vision of God, the Beatific Vision, the infinite joy of the finite soul."

Glory here then is perfect love which is eternal, and is revealed in the Godhead. Jesus wants us to see what that love looks like. In this life our love is partial, temporal, limited, and flawed compared with the love of God. "We see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Jesus has already promised us that he was going to prepare a place for us. "In my father's house are many rooms...I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2,3) Our inheritance is secured by Christ in his Father's house. We will be with him, where he is, and see his glory.

This is why a relationship with Christ is so important for eternal life. Our future hope is tied to our relationship with Christ. The future inheritance in the kingdom is described in terms of the glory of Christ. We don't just believe in eternal life, or heaven, or a future life in the abstract, but an eternal life in Christ, a heaven in which Christ is ruling, and we with him, a future life in a place which Christ has prepared for us. That is why knowing Christ, following Christ, living with Christ, is so important in this life, to prepare us for the life to come. It is our only real hope, our only assurance of our inheritance. Inheritance is tied to relationship with the benefactor. If there is no relationship we do not qualify for inheritance. Our saving relationship with Christ guarantees our inheritance.

How central is Christ to your faith? Michael Horton in his book Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel for the American Church, maintains that, in many churches the message is one of self-help, and that God exists only for our benefit. "Christless Christianity. Sounds a bit harsh doesn't it? A little shallow, sometimes distracted, even a little human-centered rather than Christ-centered from time to time, but Christless? Let me be a little more precise about what I am assuming to be the regular diet in many churches across America today: 'do more, try harder.' I think this is the pervasive message across the spectrum today....I think our doctrine has been forgotten, assumed, ignored, and even misshaped and distorted by the habits and rituals of daily life in a narcissistic culture."

To be a co-heir with Christ is to share in his divine inheritance. It is something that we receive by grace through faith. It is not the result of doing more and trying harder to be a better person. It is not a matter of self-improvement but of God's perfect love.

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