OUR PRECIOUS HERITAGE -WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

"Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world." -MATTHEW  25:34.


ALL humans have things that they inherited.  For some the heritage may include a materially comfortable way of life.  For others it is a life of poverty.  In some cases, former generations, because of what they had experienced of heard, passed on a legacy of intense hatred toward another ethnic group.  All of us, however, have one thing in common.  We have all received from the first man, Adam an inheritance of sin.  That inheritance eventually leads to death. -Ecclesiastes 9:2, 10; Romans 5:12.

Jehovah, as a loving heavenly Father, originally offered humankind a far different heritage-eternal life in perfection  in Paradise.  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were given a perfect, sinless start.  Jehovah God gave planet Earth to humankind as a gift.  (Psalm 115:16)  He provided the garden of Eden as a sample of what the entire globe could become and set before our first parents a wonderful, challenging assignment.  They were to bring forth children care for the earth, and all its varied  plant and animal life, and extend the borders of Paradise around the globe.  (Genesis 1:28; 2:8, 9, 15) Their offspring would share in this.  What a marvelous inheritance to be able to pass on to them! 

If they were to enjoy all of this, however, Adam and Eve and their offspring would have to have a good relationship with God.  They owed Jehovah love and obedience, but Adam and Eve failed to appreciate what God had given them and disobeyed his commandment.  They lost their Paradise home and the glorious prospects that God had set before them.  Therefore, they could not pass on these on to their offspring. -Genesis  2:16, 17; 3:1-24.

Mercifully, Jehovah made provision so that the offspring of Adam and Eve could have the opportunity to receive the heritage that Adam forfeited.  How? At God's appointed time, his own Son, Jesus Christ, laid down his perfect human life in behalf o the offspring of Adam.  By this means Christ purchased them all.  However, the heritage does not automatically become theirs.  They need an approved standing with God, which they can gain by exercising faith in the sin-atoning value of Jesus' sacrifice and by demonstrating that faith by obedience. (John 3:16, 36; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6; Hebrews 2:9; 5:9) Does your course of life show appreciation for that provision?

Next time: OUR PRECIOUS HERITAGE-WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU - An Inheritance Passed On Through Abraham

The Watchtower, 2000