Table of Contents
FLESH AND BLOOD SHALL NOT INHERIT
When most Christians hear the words inherit the kingdom of God, they immediately think about dying and going to heaven. When the apostle Paul warned that certain people would not inherit the kingdom, many have understood him to mean that those individuals would be denied entrance into heaven after physical death.
But is that what Paul was actually teaching? Was he describing where people would go when they died, or was he addressing who could inherit the kingdom of God during the first-century transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant?
To understand these passages, we must first recognize something fundamental: The kingdom of God is not simply a destination awaiting believers after death. It is a present spiritual kingdom established through Jesus Christ, into which people enter through faith while they are still alive.
THE KINGDOM WAS ALREADY BEING RECEIVED
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Colossians 1:13
Notice Paul’s language. He did not tell the Colossians that someday, after they physically died, they would be translated into the kingdom. He declared that they had already been delivered and translated into the kingdom of God’s Son.
They were alive when Paul wrote those words. They were already participating in the kingdom.
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luke 17:20-21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus was correcting the expectation of an outward, observable kingdom. The kingdom was not something that could be identified merely by pointing to a geographical location. His reign was being revealed through His presence and work. The expression translated within you can also be understood as among you, particularly because Jesus was addressing the Pharisees.
And consider what Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10
The prayer was not about escaping the earth to enter a kingdom after death. It concerned God’s heavenly reign being manifested on earth.
This is why we must be careful not to confuse the kingdom of God with the common understanding of heaven as a destination after physical death. They are not interchangeable expressions.
WHO COULD INHERIT THE KINGDOM?
Now we come to the passages that are so often misunderstood.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
Many read these passages as though Paul were presenting a checklist of behaviors that determine whether someone will be allowed into heaven after death.
But consider the historical setting.
Jesus and the apostles ministered during a generation in which the Old Covenant order was approaching its end. Jesus repeatedly confronted the unbelieving religious leadership of Israel for its hypocrisy, wickedness, and rejection of God’s righteousness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Matthew 23:28
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Matthew 12:39
These descriptions reveal the spiritual and moral condition Jesus encountered among those who rejected Him.
The behaviors Paul listed were certainly present within that generation. They reflected the unrighteousness of people living contrary to the Spirit of God. However, Paul’s warnings also addressed the congregations to which he wrote, including Gentile believers. We should not assume that every person practicing those behaviors was Jewish or that every unbelieving Jew practiced them.
The important distinction is that the absence of sinful behavior was never the means by which someone earned the kingdom inheritance.
Paul was not establishing a system of salvation through moral performance.
And we can demonstrate that from his own writings.
RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES THROUGH FAITH, NOT BEHAVIOR
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Romans 4:5
Did you catch that?
God justifies the ungodly!
Paul did not say that God justifies only those who have successfully eliminated every sinful behavior from their lives. He declared that righteousness is counted to the one who believes.
Now return to the very passage where Paul listed those who would not inherit the kingdom.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:11
These individuals had practiced some of the very behaviors Paul had just condemned. Yet they had been washed, sanctified, and justified through Jesus Christ.
What qualified them to become heirs? Was it their ability to establish a perfect record of righteous behavior? Absolutely not!
Their righteousness came through Christ.
This does not mean Paul considered sinful behavior acceptable or meaningless. His warnings against the works of the flesh were genuine calls to live according to the Spirit. But we must not confuse the conduct expected of believers with the basis upon which God justifies them.
A believer does not become an heir after achieving moral perfection. A believer becomes an heir through faith in Jesus Christ.
And that brings us to the inheritance itself.
THE INHERITANCE WAS NEVER THROUGH THE LAW
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Romans 4:13-14
This passage is fundamental to understanding the inheritance.
Paul explicitly declares that the promise to Abraham did not come through the law. It came through the righteousness of faith.
And if those who relied upon the law were entitled to the inheritance on that basis, the promise through faith would be made void.
This was the great covenantal conflict of the first century.
Many within Israel had become deeply rooted in the Mosaic system. They possessed the law, the temple, the priesthood, and the traditions of their ancestors. Yet natural descent from Abraham and possession of the law could not establish their standing as heirs of the kingdom.
That did not mean all Jews rejected Christ. Quite the opposite! The apostles themselves were Jews, and thousands of Jewish believers entered the kingdom through faith.
The distinction was never simply Jew against Gentile. It was faith in Christ against reliance upon natural ancestry and the law as the basis of inheritance.
THE BONDWOMAN AND THE FREEWOMAN
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Galatians 4:29-30
Notice the word heir.
Paul was discussing two covenantal orders, which he had already identified in Galatians 4:24. The bondwoman represented the covenant associated with Mount Sinai, while the freewoman represented the Jerusalem above.
The son of the bondwoman could not inherit with the son of the freewoman.
This was not a declaration that Jewish people were excluded because of their ethnicity. Paul himself was Jewish! Rather, it demonstrated that the inheritance could not be claimed through the covenant represented by the bondwoman.
Those who placed their faith in Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, became children of promise.
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:29
There is the qualification for the inheritance!
If you belong to Christ, you are an heir according to the promise.
Not because of ancestry. Not because of circumcision. Not because of keeping the Mosaic Law. And not because of a perfect record of personal behavior.
The inheritance belongs to those who are in Christ.
FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1 Corinthians 15:50
This passage is commonly understood as teaching that physical human bodies cannot enter heaven without undergoing a bodily transformation.
But within the CORPORATE covenantal understanding of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul’s words can be examined in relation to the transition from the Old Covenant administration of death into the incorruptible life of the New Covenant.
The phrase flesh and blood, in this reading, concerns natural human standing, particularly the ancestral identity upon which many Israelites relied.
Consider what Paul wrote elsewhere.
That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Romans 9:8
Natural ancestry could not establish the inheritance.
And that principle was not limited to the first century. No one today, whether Jew or Gentile, becomes an heir through natural birth, religious heritage, or human achievement.
The inheritance is received through faith.
This covenantal reading of 1 Corinthians 15:50 differs from the traditional interpretation of Paul’s resurrection argument, but the distinction between natural descent and inheritance through faith is explicitly established in Romans and Galatians.
THEY REFUSED TO ENTER THE KINGDOM
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Matthew 23:13
Notice what Jesus said.
The religious leaders were refusing to enter the kingdom, and they were hindering others who were entering.
Jesus was not describing people waiting to die so they could enter heaven. He was confronting living people who were rejecting the kingdom being revealed through Him.
And then consider His words:
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
Matthew 21:43
Jesus announced the removal of the kingdom from those who had rejected Him and its being given to a people who would produce its fruits.
This was not the rejection of every Jewish person. The believing Jewish remnant participated in the kingdom, and Gentile believers were brought into that same inheritance.
The kingdom was not transferred from one ethnicity to another. Its inheritance belonged to those united to Christ through faith.
During the first-century transition, believers were already receiving New Covenant life while the former covenantal administration was passing away. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70 marked the historical end of that temple-centered order.
Within this covenantal understanding, the kingdom reached its completed establishment as the Old Covenant administration passed away.
WE ARE HEIRS RIGHT NOW
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Romans 8:16-17
Notice the relationship.
If we are children of God, then we are heirs.
Paul did not say that believers must first physically die before they could become children of God or receive their standing as heirs.
And consider:
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26
Faith establishes our relationship with Christ, and belonging to Christ establishes our standing as heirs.
That is the message of grace.
A person who believes in Jesus Christ does not have to wait until physical death to enter the kingdom. Neither must that person complete a lifetime of moral improvement before becoming an heir.
We are justified through faith, made children of God through Christ, and brought into His kingdom while we are alive.
The kingdom is not merely something we hope to enter someday.
The kingdom of God is a present reality, and believers are its heirs right now.
CONCLUSION
For too long, the expression inherit the kingdom of God has been automatically associated with dying and going to heaven. Yet the Scriptures repeatedly describe the kingdom as something people were entering, receiving, and participating in while they were alive.
When Paul spoke of those who would not inherit the kingdom, he was writing within the historical setting of the first-century covenantal transition. His warnings concerning unrighteousness and the works of the flesh must be taken seriously, but they must not be turned into a system in which good behavior earns the inheritance.
The fundamental question of inheritance was never whether someone possessed Jewish ancestry, observed the Mosaic Law, or achieved personal moral perfection.
The question was whether they belonged to Jesus Christ.
Those who rejected Christ could not claim the inheritance through their natural standing or religious heritage. Those who believed, whether Jew or Gentile, became children of God and heirs according to the promise.
The kingdom is not a reward we receive for dying. It is an inheritance we receive through faith while living in Christ.
And that inheritance is ours today.