Introduction

In the April 24, 1983, volume of the periodical GRIT, the following story appeared:

Grandpa Gives Boy Lesson in Immortality.

 
One sunny day in Minnesota, grandpa and his five-year-old grandson decided to go fishing using grandpa’s boat and motor. On the way to the lake, they drove past the village cemetery.

“Who’s buried there?” asked the grandson.

“Several are buried there,” answered grandpa. “And do you know what? Your grandpa and grandma are going to be buried there, too.”

Noticing the sad look on the grandson’s face, Grandpa continued, “We don’t want you to be sad, though, because we’ll be up in heaven.”

“Will you die first, grandpa?” asked the grandson.

“Yes, I suppose I’ll die first and then grandma will die, but then we’ll be together forever in heaven,” Grandpa replied.

Grandpa felt he was really getting through to his grandson, but after a time of silence, the boy piped up, “Can we have your boat when you’re gone?”

Little did I know… that this conversation would be the backdrop to the emotional and spiritual questions of inheritance that I have with my clients every day.

The grandson in that story, me, eventually entered the practice of law, where I now provide legal advice on the very topics discussed by my grandfather and me. This area of law, generally called “estate planning,” addresses the legalities of who gets earthly possessions—whether my grandfather’s boat and motor, the valuable business, grandmother’s dinner plate, or the substantial retirement account. Little did I know, as a five-year-old boy conversing with my grandfather about his boat, that this conversation would be the backdrop to the emotional and spiritual questions of inheritance that I have with my clients every day. My five-year-old self was focused on questions of specific earthly items, such as Grandpa’s boat and motor, to avoid more significant questions of eternal consequence. My grandfather was attempting, to no apparent immediate benefit, to leverage the conversation about earthly stuff into a conversation yielding spiritual benefits. In my law practice, my clients who are parents and grandparents feel the same weight of significance to their earthly inheritance decisions because most of us wish to leave an inheritance of eternal significance. Whether they recognize it or not, my clients wish for their estate plan to be imbued with such a deep meaning and purpose that it lasts longer than it takes for their family to spend the cash they left behind.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to encourage those who proclaim Christ as their Lord and Savior to make wise earthly estate planning decisions with an eternal perspective in view. The Bible provides us with sufficient guidance to truly transform our legal decisions so that our earthly estate plan is not an end in itself, but a means to point others toward an eternal inheritance. It is my hope that this book allows you to apply this biblical wisdom at a practical level to your earthly estate-planning decisions.

The apostle Peter describes the nature of our eternal inheritance as Christians in 1 Peter 1:3–5. There, he writes, “According to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

This verse offers four ways in which a biblical estate plan has transformative practical implications on our earthly estate-planning decisions.

1. Our Inheritance Is Unmerited
First, since our eternal inheritance in Christ is unmerited, our earthly inheritances to our children and churches must likewise be unmerited. Peter writes that apart from God’s mercy, we have no entitlement to be a member of God’s family. Only according to His great mercy have we been adopted into God’s family. By reason of our own sin, we ought to have no share in any eternal inheritance. Before God adopted us as His daughters and sons, we were on the outside looking in. We were legal debtors to God. But by God’s grace manifested in Christ, we no longer stand as debtors but as beneficiaries of God’s boundless and matchless estate, enjoying the riches of His glory as vessels of His mercy.

The single most profound disparity between a biblical estate plan and a secular estate plan is the unmerited and conditional nature of our gifts to our beneficiaries.

The good news of salvation is not just for us only; Christ is also the sole Hope of an eternal inheritance for our children or grandchildren. It is the redeeming work of Christ in their lives that saves our children and grandchildren, not any good works they might accomplish. Therefore, the single most profound disparity between a biblical estate plan and a secular estate plan is the unmerited and conditional nature of our gifts to our beneficiaries. By reason of the gift of salvation we have received from our God, we must withhold any sense of moral superiority in allocating a financial inheritance to our family, to our churches, and to our supported ministries.

The principle of an unmerited inheritance implicates important legal estate-planning decisions:

• Our children are the recipients of a financial inheritance from us not because of their success or personal financial needs, but only by reason of their status as a son or daughter.
• Our children and supported churches and charities are not perfect; we can give unconditional gifts even with the knowledge that gifts may not be used to maximal financial effect.
• We ought not leverage our earthly wealth to make gifts conditional or otherwise require family or charities to act in a certain way.
• Our children or other family members are not required to act as our key decision-makers (what we attorneys call “fiduciaries”) when we are no longer able to act.

2. Our Inheritance Is Complete
Second, since our eternal inheritance in Christ is already complete, we have the freedom to follow God’s leading in our earthly estateplanning decisions. Peter states that God has already accomplished the eternal inheritance plan on our behalf. Peter says that “he has caused us…to be born again.” Our secular friends and neighbors are generally anxious about the uncertainties in life and whether it will be possible to accomplish their legacy endeavors. Our inheritance, in contrast, has already been set for us “… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.” We believe that God sovereignly intervened on our behalf two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ to provide us with an eternal identity. God’s completed and ongoing control over the universe extends to our individual lives, such that God will merge our life story into the broader metanarrative of God’s redemption of all things. Our eternal identity in Christ has already been set such that no earthly events can change that identity.

The completeness of our identity in Christ transforms our estate planning decisions in the following ways:

• We should implement an estate plan immediately, not awaiting the completion of a set of life circumstances that we perceive would make us complete.
• We share personal stories of God’s work in our lives with family and friends, trusting that God will finish the seemingly “unfinished” elements of our story into His broader metanarrative of redemption.
• We periodically review and update our legal decisions, admitting that past mistakes and/or lack of information require us to change our minds.
• We financially support the favorite ministry endeavors of our friends and family, free from the fear of lack of financial resources.

3. Our Inheritance Is Inexhaustible
Third, since our eternal inheritance in Christ is inexhaustible, our earthly estate-planning decisions can be made with joy and purpose even with the full knowledge that we might exhaust our earthly resources. There is merit in accumulating assets to plan for future personal financial events. However, in most instances, the end result of a client’s accumulated assets is simply a larger inheritance to that client’s children. The result of a larger financial inheritance is simply a larger boat, a more expensive vacation, or a more expensive college. One study found that the average inheritance is spent in as little as twelve to eighteen months.¹ The law of diminishing returns dictates that we need a greater and greater amount of consumption to enjoy the same items even during our lifetimes. For the same reasons, our children will need a greater amount of financial inheritance after our death to achieve the same level of desired pleasure in their personal living standards. In any secular estate plan, the benefits of a financial inheritance will fade.

In contrast, our eternal adoption provides us with exponentially increasing returns, for our inheritance will not fade and is stored for us in heaven to enjoy for all eternity. In heaven, we will revel in God’s unique and unparalleled attributes, the ways in which He has befuddled scientists and cynics for thousands of years, worship the power by which He formed the universe, and marvel at how He controls the course of all human events, from humbling Nebuchadnezzar to eat grass like an ox to orchestrating the birth of our Savior in a cattle stall. In heaven, we will tell of the wonders of God’s love to us, through good times and bad.

We should use what will burn up—that is, our earthly treasures—to tell the narrative of God’s work in our own lives. Using earthly assets, we can point others to the story of God’s redeeming work. We can use earthly goods to encourage our children and friends in ministry to follow God in the unique narratives God is telling through their personal stories. Our sentimental household items as well as our valuable stock portfolios should be used to elevate the metanarrative of God’s work in our lives. If we can use our perishable goods to tell our story of God’s redemption to our family and supported ministries, the inheritance will indeed last into eternity.

Our eternal adoption provides us with exponentially increasing returns, for our inheritance will not fade and is stored for us in heaven to enjoy for all eternity.

This principle of an inexhaustible inheritance should be played out in a Christian’s estate plan in the following ways:

• We use sentimental items to share stories of God’s provision and redemption in our lives, pointing them to God’s sustaining grace.
• We limit the size of a financial inheritance to our children so that they trust in God, not money, as their provider and sustainer.
• We use our broken bodies as vessels to demonstrate to our Christian community God’s sustaining grace.

4. Our Inheritance Is Unfading
Fourth and finally, since my eternal inheritance in Christ is undiminished by your enjoyment of Christ, we should make earthly estate-planning decisions to encourage a multiplicative mindset among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. An earthly inheritance is a good example of a “zero-sum” game. With a “zero-sum” game, the only way for one beneficiary to receive more is for the other beneficiaries to receive less. The more dinner guests enjoying my wife’s dinner, the less leftovers there are for me later in the week. In contrast to this type of “zero sum” problem with an earthly inheritance, Peter references our inheritance in Christ as one that is “unfading.” Among other attributes, one’s enjoyment of an “unfading inheritance” cannot be reduced by reason of the participation of others. Our heavenly and eternal inheritance will be shared with other believers, yet that enjoyment will not reduce our enjoyment. In Christ, we find a never-ending well of living water that satisfies all who drink of His infinite goodness.

An earthly financial inheritance can be multiplied at our death if we cast a vision for the use of the inherited or gifted financial assets for eternal purposes in the lives of family and ministry partners. If successful, our financial assets will not simply be split at death like my wife’s dinner is split among our guests. Rather, our financial inheritance will have a multiplicative effect of increasing, eternally significant joy in the lives of our children and in our supported ministry partners.

A multiplicative approach will impact our estate-planning decisions as follows:

• We strategically transfer assets to our children for the purpose of teaching them the inexhaustible blessings of wisdom.
• We articulate a purpose for lifetime gifting among children based not on strict financial equality, but to achieve eternally and spiritually significant outcomes.
• We make sacrificial charitable gifts to spread a contagious joy in the gospel and in giving in the lives of others.
• We consider how our end-of-life decisions will bless the relationships that our children and our community members have with one another.

Two Books in One
My ambition for this book is to fulfill two goals. First, and less significantly, I hope you might use it as a comprehensive outline of your legal estate-planning decisions. Second, and more significantly, I hope that you use it to consider how to apply a biblical worldview to critical earthly estate-planning decisions. Whether you are already well-acquainted with your own personal estate-planning decisions or are considering these decisions for the first time, I hope that you will use this book as the biblical framework for your personal estate planning decisions.

“A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.”

In each of the sections, I summarize the decision to be made and apply biblical principles to help guide your decisions. Illustrations taken from my law practice are included, with actual names redacted. I conclude each section with questions or other application materials that provide you the opportunity to personally consider and apply a biblical worldview to your estate plan. I pray your estate-planning decisions reflect a certainty in an eternal inheritance, to the glory of God.

I never received the boat and motor from my late grandfather. But because my grandparents and parents have been purposeful about planning discussions and leveraging those discussions for eternal purposes, these ancestors of mine left an inheritance of eternal inheritance to me and, Lord willing, subsequent generations. I pray that your children, as well as mine, will reap the benefits of the type of inheritance described by King Solomon in Proverbs 13:22, who wrote, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” I pray that you would fully leverage the opportunity presented by an earthly estate plan to have eternal impact on your family and your community.

1 Survey findings from the 2005 Allianz American Legacies Study.