An inheritance is something a person receives in the future, that has been left to them from someone else. We call the person who will receive the inheritance an ‘heir’. The concept of an inheritance was very important in the ancient cultures we see in the Old Testament. For example, Abraham was deeply concerned that he had no son to inherit his property (Genesis 15:2) and one of God’s great promises to Abraham was that he would have an heir of his own flesh and blood (Genesis 15:4). Throughout the Old Testament, God promises His people an inheritance in the future (Exodus 15:17, Psalm 2:8, Obadiah 1:17), and the New Testament maintains that God holds in store an inheritance for His people. Those who trust in Jesus are told that when Christ returns they will inherit blessings (1 Peter 3:9), salvation (Hebrews 1:14), riches (Ephesians 1:18), the kingdom of God (Matthew 25:34), and eternal life (Matthew 19:29). The metaphor stresses the riches we receive in Christ and does not imply that God must die before we become His heirs - this is a good example of a metaphor that we must not push beyond its Biblical limits.
