The apostle Paul, as you would expect, had something to say about what we are given, and he asked the Corinthians, why are you divided among yourselves and jealous of one another and envying of one another?
So Paul said that both life and death serve us. While the unconverted are victims of life carried along by its current and questioning if it has meaning, the converted use life wisely because we understand God's true purpose.
The unconverted can only fear death. For the converted, however, death holds no terror because Christ has conquered it all. Death is merely the start of eternal life with God.
Now the physical universe and the spirit realm are ours to inherit because we belong to Christ and the apostle Paul was thrilled with this knowledge. A test of our faith and conversion is whether we are thrilled by all things are yours, everything! Because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Please turn over to Romans 8, verse 16. When a person becomes a saint, he gains all the privileges and responsibilities of a child in God's Family. The most important privilege is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We may not always feel like we belong to God, but His Spirit is our witness to this truth. His inward presence reminds us who we are and encourages us with His love. And because we are God's children, we inherit great treasures as joint heirs, and God is already giving us His best gifts: His Son, His love, forgiveness, and eternal life.
It does not matter what the world thinks of us, all things are ours. We are joint heirs with Christ.
Let us turn over to II Corinthians 4, verse 16. Now this world and universe we are in right now are only temporary. They are not the real or permanent world. Here in II Corinthians 4, we are going to read verses 16 to 18.
We have no reason to have anxiety over this because we share Christ's inheritance, His possessions. He puts these things into our hands.
And I will add to that dignity. The foolish man lacks unrivaled allegiance to God since wealth is his god.
So the Kingdom of God itself is compared to an immense treasure that is worth securing at all costs, as Matthew 13:44 tells us.
The rich man has replaced genuine trust in God, and his reward, that is, treasure in heaven, with worldly riches. He thus breaks the first commandment, You shall have no other gods before Me.
This does not mean that every disciple of Christ must sell all he owns. Instead, the heart should be focused on God, and every possession should be yielded to God, with the result that possessions will be handled as a form of stewardship.
Everything is God's and everything we own is God's, and so we are stewards of it. The path to eternal life lies in turning away from reliance on self-achievements and worldly securities, and instead trusting in Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom.
