Christ and the security of our inheritance

If your life is not completely devoted to him and his kingdom, then you have no future in his land. This problem of Israel and all humanity is the reason that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is such good news. He accomplished what the Levites and their ministry pointed toward. He did what no Israelite was able to do. Led by the Holy Spirit, he lived the perfect life—a life completely devoted to God, a life in submission to all of God’s commands, no matter what it meant for his comfort. And as a result, in the words of Hebrews 9:15, he can be the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Through faith in him we can have a future in God’s land—a future not in Palestine or modern-day Israel, but a future in the new creation, the new earth that God will bring about when he renews this world. That is the inheritance to which we can look forward as Christian believers, because Christ has redeemed us from all our transgressions.

Knowing that as Christians our future in God’s presence is secure through Christ, we should read these lists in Joshua in a new light. Israel’s inheritance in the Promised Land was real and our inheritance through Christ in the new creation will be just as real and tangible. We have been redeemed from judgment for life in a physical world that will be just like this one, except with no sin. No curse, no suffering, no grief, no war, no death, no pain, no arguments in the car, no abuse at home. Too often when people talk of heaven there are images of clouds and everyone wearing white garments playing on harps and singing all day long, giving the impression that life will be less real and less physical than this one. But that is not the case, and these lists in Joshua as well as the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are proof that life in God’s presence will be physical life in a new land. We will be given new resurrection bodies; we are not going to float around in the sky.