Holy Unclaimed Inheritance!

 "It turns out it’s not just in the movies that you can get a huge inheritance from that uncle you never knew about.” Those are the opening words of an October 24, 2022, article by Mack Liederman posted on the internet @ blockclubchicago.org. The long title of the article succinctly summed up its contents: “A Chicago Man Quietly Left Behind $11 Million — The Largest Unclaimed Estate In American History.” The article told about Joseph Stancak who lived a quiet life in Gage Park (near Chicago). Stancak, who never married and had no children or immediate family, was found dead in his modest bungalow in 2016, according to the state treasurer’s office. He was 87 years old. Little was known about him. He left no will. But according to Rudy Quinn, president of

Linking Assets Inc. (a company that finds unclaimed money), what Stancak did leave was $11,000,000! It took a while but Linking Assets Inc. finally unraveled his accounts and family tree. That tree includes 119 heirs located in the U.S. but also Canada and several European nations. Piercey noted that after taxes, the average heir would get a check in the $60,000 range. None of them had heard of Stancak before, said attorney Kenneth Piercey who represents Stancak’s estate, adding, “There’s no shortage of people who had money tucked away and nobody ever knew.”

Anybody reading this thinking about checking it out to see if you were distantly related to Stancak?! His estate may be the largest estate in American history, but it is not the largest unclaimed estate in the world’s history. Not by a long shot. The apostle Paul describes that estate in Galatians 4:1-11. His words in that text are part of his long argument that salvation and right standing before God are not achieved through the works of the law of Moses or dependence upon any merely human work that earns or merits salvation. Instead, he argues justification before God is received as a gift through an obedient faith that spiritually puts us in Christ (the gist of that message in Galatians is succinctly summed up in the passages found at 2:16 and 3:26-29). Now, in the passage at 4:1-11 Paul argues the law of Moses had a temporary purpose “until the time appointed” (vs 2) ... But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent for this His Son ... to redeem those born under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (vs 4-5). He continues in vs 6 that “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” providing an intimacy with God so close we can cry out, “Abba, Father!” That phrase was used by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in His agonized prayer the night Judas betrayed Him (see Mark 14:36). “Abba Father” occurs in the New Testament only one other time at Romans 8:15. There Paul uses it in the context of us having “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ ”, indicating a an especially close intimacy. God has declared He wants to adopt us! If we trust and obey the Gospel of Christ and live in union with Jesus, we are no longer slaves to sin but sons  (and daughters of God), “and if a son, then an heir, an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 3:7), and a “joint heir with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17)! The inheritance He promises is literally out of this world (1 Peter 1:4), and gloriously rich (Ephesians 1:18). Those who obey God’s will tap into staggering spiritual riches, summarized in Ephesians 3:8 as “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” God has an eternal inheritance for all who are willing to come into and stay in Christ. Don’t leave that holy inheritance unclaimed!

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN