The Promised Land, Israel’s Old Testament inheritance from God, was hard to hold on to because of Israel’s own sinfulness (Leviticus 26:1–46; Deuteronomy 28:1–68). So Israel experienced drought, war, plagues of insects, etc. In other words, the shine of the Promised Land faded with the years, their own idolatry defiled the land, to the point that the land spewed them out (Leviticus 18:28). In contrast, the inheritance God has prepared for the reborn will never be polluted on account of God’s penalty on his people’s sins. That of course is because Jesus Christ has atoned for sin on the cross (paying the penalty first mentioned in Genesis 2:17; see also Romans 6:23) and demonstrated the sufficiency of his payment by rising from the dead.
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,