A few months ago, I read a story on my iPad about a 60-year-old Japanese man who discovered that he’d been switched at birth. Born into a noble family, this would-be prince was accidentally mixed up in the hospital and raised by a single mother living on welfare. The other boy, who was brought up in his place, became a successful realtor, while the actual son struggled through various jobs and eventually became a truck driver. “I wish I could turn back the clock,” he said. “I wish I’d been raised by my real parents.”

We can’t help but feel sorrow for a life marked by missed opportunities and roads not taken. After all, the real son was denied a birthright that was his due. But this story should also remind us of another— one that runs in the opposite direction. It’s a story about those who are born with no inheritance and don’t deserve one, but are given a gift beyond imagination.

In Christ, the eternal Son of God, we have become heirs to an inheritance we don’t deserve—and could never attain. It’s a spiritual inheritance – one of eternal life with God. “In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12), ESV.

Sometimes when we hear the word “inheritance” we tend to think of money or property handed down from generation to generation. But the New Testament offers another perspective. As we trust in Christ as our Savior, we become co-heirs with Him. We get to share in his inheritance! That inheritance doesn’t involve houses or bank accounts, but eternal communion with God. Unlike earthly goods, it can’t be frittered away or depleted, and it doesn’t depend on biological ancestry.

I am so grateful that, through Christ, we are all sons and daughters of the one true King – our Father God – and by the power of the Holy Spirit, our identity and inheritance will never be lost.

I’m Joseph Tkach, Speaking of LIFE.

Joseph Tkach has been president of Grace Communion International since 1995. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Azusa Pacific University.