Grace, Inheritance and the Easter Economy

We reach this Easter weekend heartbroken for countries torn apart by war, and many of us also carry the weight of financial burdens as we struggle to keep up with rising prices. But Jesus’ death and resurrection reminds us of a different kind of economy. One with infinite hope, where power-hungry people can no longer hurt us.

A little while, and the wicked will be no more;

    though you look for them, they will not be found.

But the meek will inherit the land

    and enjoy peace and prosperity. (Psalm 37:10-11 NIV)

Psalm 37 reminds us of this heavenly economy, repeatedly telling us of the ‘inheritance’ that will be given to the ‘righteous’ (v29), or in the above verses, the ‘meek’. The spirit of this psalm is echoed in the New Testament, in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the mount, where he expands this promise further to say that the meek will inherit ‘the earth.’ (Matthew 5:5). Another phrase from this psalm is used by Peter: ‘And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.’ (1 Peter 5:10 NIV). Reminding us that evil and suffering only last for ‘a little while’ in comparison to that inheritance of enjoying God’s loving presence for eternity.

Unlike the popular narrative of today that working hard and dreaming big will get us everything we want, there’s no guarantee that we will be blessed with plenty when we live a Christian life, and financial struggles will hit many of us. But God offers us more than earthly wealth.

Better the little that the righteous have

    than the wealth of many wicked;

for the power of the wicked will be broken,

    but the Lord upholds the righteous.

The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care,

    and their inheritance will endure forever. (v16-18 NIV)

We are invited into a relationship of care with God where we can speak to him at any time and ask for whatever we need. But even more than that, we are blessed with peace that we cannot find in any other way – everything else has the potential to let us down, but knowing the one who has ultimate power listens and cares for the details of our lives gives us a peace that ‘transcends all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7 NIV).

We may not feel righteous, in fact, we know that our own righteous acts are like ‘filthy rags’ in the eyes of a pure God. But we praise God that because of what happened over 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross, now when God looks at us, he sees Jesus’ righteousness instead of ours.

All we need to do to gain this inheritance is to believe and accept that Jesus has taken that punishment that we deserved. Those who’ve been Christians for many years know this, but we still need the truth of the gospel message to penetrate our hearts each day. From what we see in the news, to the personal problems we face, every day can be a battle to keep ourselves from anxiety. In this passage, the psalmist, David, tells us several times not to fret. He is speaking as a man who was pursued by many evil men many times, determined to bring him to destruction.

Instead, he encourages throughout the psalm to continue turning to Jesus – to trust him, delight in him, commit to him, hope in him, to be still and wait for him. We may be in evil times on earth, but our heavenly happiness will go on for eternity. We rest on the one who has defeated death.

‘Through the cross my great debt has been paid, and through the Resurrection my future wealth is assured.’ Tim Keller