For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 2:14-18 NKJV

Many Christians think all of our eternal promises are heavenly in nature. This is simply not true. Our future and eternal promises have a heavenly component and an earthly component. As we will look at in the last chapter of Ephesians, we will see how the ministry of prayer connects to and engages us in the pursuit of God’s eternal purpose in heaven and earth. For the time being, we will focus specifically on how God’s eternal purpose relates to our inheritance in Christ.

Heavenly Inheritance

Our eternal heavenly inheritance bears much similarity and likeness whether we are Jew, Gentile, young, old, male, female. Our human uniqueness (the characteristics which make us different) does not determine our spiritual authority in heavenly matters. God’s mercy in cooperation with our obedience to His will are the primary determining factors of our heavenly status and authority.

In mercy is the revelation of our value and worth to God. In obedience to His will, we relate to God’s mercies in fellowship through relationship with Him. It is through the same fellowship of obedience we are guaranteed to walk in the grace made sufficient for us.

Earthly Inheritance

Our eternal earthly inheritance is what we will inherit on this very same earth in the age to come, while being present in our immortal, resurrected human bodies. We often take the idea of “heaven is our home” a little too far sometimes. In the age to come, Jesus’ bride will have a very active role, physical presence, and inheritance on earth in the age to come.

While our heavenly inheritance pays no respect to our human uniqueness, our future earthly inheritance will differ significantly based upon our ethnic characteristics. The primary difference God highlights is the ethnic, societal, and covenantal difference between Jew and Gentile. In the age to come, we will retain at least some of our ethnic and cultural heritage. This is not preserved or perpetuated for the sake of any manner of segregation, but rather to honor the great and inherent beauty, dignity, and human value which God created in our ethnic and familial identities.

Our earthly inheritance is in part determined by God, who through the lineage of Noah brought forth the foundation of the earth’s many ethnic tribes. Could the covenantal “colorful bow” in the sky be, in some part, a prophecy concerning the faithful and everlasting promises granted to a coming multitude of many ethnic peoples?

It is possible to honor our common salvation as well as our unique inheritance.

In the New Testament, when the word nation is used, it usually doesn’t refer to a political country. The word in Greek is ethnos. You can just as accurately translate the word nation as “race” or “ethnicity”. The word Gentile is similar, which is ethné in Greek, meaning race (typically in the New Testament, it means a race foreign to Israel).

While we are most certainly one race and one people in the sense of salvation, human value, and human dignity before God, we do have many promises waiting for us that are linked to our race, history, and heritage.

This should be especially encouraging for those who have suffered because of your ethnicity. Your vindication will come on the clouds with Jesus, who will return to earth with an army of angels to throw every unrepentant oppressor into an eternal fiery prison, and you (if you are indeed in Christ), will inherit a redeemed and restored heritage!

Are you a Jew? What is your ethnicity? Mankind has done a thorough and terrible work of isolating, enslaving, and destroying people on account of our human uniqueness. Think of the atrocities women, children, and cultural minorities have faced throughout human history. God longs to redeem and restore honor to those whom these atrocities have afflicted.

You will not lose your ethnicity, heritage, or history in the coming Kingdom. In fact, God wants you to receive the full honor and earthly inheritance designed for you that was lost due to the gross injustices inflicted upon you and your ancestors.

God created our human uniqueness and He loves it. He wants to honor, redeem, and restore it. This is actually a major emphasis of His coming Kingdom. This process will begin by God restoring the covenant promises He made to ethnic Israel. Afterward, His eternal purpose is to bless and restore the nations (every tribe, ethnicity, and tongue) through Israel.

The promises to Israel are recorded very specifically in Scripture, and we who are not Jews have been given a promise that we who “were not a people” shall become “a people”. Many read this and begin applying Jewish promises to their lives. This is the incorrect response. Instead, we should rejoice in the promises God gave to the Jews and help them labor to know Jesus so that they can receive their earthly inheritance.

The Jewish redemption, which can only come through Jesus returning to earthly Jerusalem, corresponds with the resurrection at the end of the age. Only then will the Gentiles begin to inherit our eternal promises.

Centrality of the New Covenant in Jesus’ Blood

Bear with me for a moment while I get a little off topic. We’re going to consider communion for a moment. Communion, also called “The Lord’s Supper”, is the Passover meal. While sharing in the Passover with His disciples, Jesus declared, “This is the new covenant in My blood.” For this reason we are commanded to take communion to remember Jesus in light of the great covenant promise He made, which He also assured to us through the shedding of His own innocent blood.

One day, when He restores the Kingdom of God to Jerusalem (according to the New Covenant prophecy in Jeremiah 31), Jesus will again share the Passover meal with us. Later in the New Testament, we see the Passover communion being shared by Gentile believers as well. If the nations have been invited into this fellowship and remembrance of His suffering, it is because we will also have an inheritance in Christ when He restores the Messianic throne to Israel.

As we will look more deeply in Ephesians, Paul states that we are co-heirs with Israel. We are co-heirs of a heavenly promise that sees no distinction. Even more, we are also co-heirs of an earthly promise containing many distinctions, one which will be divided among us in equity by a just King who loves the nations He is coming to serve.

Though our earthly inheritance might not be as clearly stated to us who are Gentiles, we need to trust that if God has a co-heir status promised to us, our own people will in fact possess a great earthly inheritance and future as well. All nations/ethnicities will be blessed through Israel, which means the Jewish King himself will oversee our blessing and ensure its everlasting future.

Think about it! Could this be an invitation to dream big dreams with God? Consider the messages to the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three. Each church was promised a reward which was based upon how they overcame this present age. The promised inheritance differed from church to church, yet they all had rewards available if they remained steadfast in Christ. Think of how your church, cultural region, or ethnicity has faced trials and afflictions. Consider also the beautiful mixtures of cultures and ethnicities who over the generations have developed their own heritage and identity. If the many nations in Christ are in fact a glorious inheritance to Jesus, we must also consider what it might look like when Jesus accomplishes the full promise of making the many nations glorious.

Do you think God wants to erase your history and heritage so that you can inherit all of the promises given to different people? Of course not! God wants to redeem your people and give to your people a specific inheritance that brings honor to that which you overcame. In Christ you have rich earthly rewards in the age to come!

Imagine all of the people groups who have been devastated by injustices. If they receive Christ, God will not only remove their shame and give them everlasting life (which would be good in and of itself), but God is also going to redeem the culture, heritage, and identity of afflicted peoples all over the earth. Their future honor and glory will be fantastic, eternal, and all because of Jesus! This is truly good news to the poor!

We live in a generation that wants to push a message of “everybody is the same” under our skin. This is true in the sense that God desires we all receive the same love, equity, honor, and opportunity to thrive. However, God also created us with unique promises according to our differences, and true unity between cultures and ethnicities requires us to love and honor our differences as well as our similarities.