Entering the Kingdom of God

This post is part of a Series and I therefore request you to please read the earlier posts before you read this one. (Read: The Kingdom of God Series)

In this post we will talk about how you can enter the Kingdom of God. The Good News of the Kingdom is that whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ can enter in. The key words here are 'whoever' and 'believe'. 

It is the will of God that the Good News of Jesus Christ be preached to all the nations before the end of the age. (Matthew 24:14) When the Gospel is preached in the power of the Spirit and you hear it, it is said that the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin and makes the death of Jesus Christ real in your heart. (John 16:8-9) When you experience this calling in your heart, you are exactly where God wants you to be spiritually. The Holy Spirit might be convicting you of your need for Jesus Christ right now as you read this post. The truth is that you did not love or choose God. It is God who chose and loved you. (1 John 4:10) (John 15:16) God constantly gives you the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ during the course of your life. These opportunities are not happenstance but are according to God's predetermined counsel and will. (Ephesians 1:5) It is God way of saying: I love you and I choose you. It is your responsibility to respond to God's call in your life the minute you get it and when you do, God will give you the faith to believe. 

Jesus said that no one can enter or see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again. (John 3:3-6) The word translated 'born again' in this verse really means 'to have another birth'. 

Let me give you an illustration. I am a citizen of India because I was born in India. Similarly you are the citizen of your country because you were born there. In the same way you become a citizen of the Kingdom of God when you have another birth by the Spirit. This is the reason I believe Christianity is not a religion. It is an encounter with the real God. You cannot just become a Christian by natural birth. You cannot inherit Christianity. Every man must hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, be convicted in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, respond positively to the call of the Holy Spirit (by believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior) and finally believe in the regeneration of Spirit to become a Christian. (Titus 3:5) 

Christianity is a personal decision to receive the new birth that God offers you through His Spirit. When God made Man, He breathed into him Life. (Genesis 2:7) Similarly when you are born again, God breathes into you New Life. (John 20:22) (2 Corinthians 5:17)

When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by responding to the call of the Holy Spirit in our hearts we receive the New Birth. 

Jesus said that this is the only way to enter and see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3-6)

Holiness

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:13-16) For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8)

The truth I am going to share with you in this message is mainly to correct your wrong beliefs about God and his Nature. 

God wants his children to be Holy. However, God does not want us to be Holy so that we can get something from Him. God is not interested in giving something to us because we are Holy. God does not relate to us based on our performance. The bible says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) God did not die for us because we were so holy. God died for us because He is holy. Stop and think about this for a while.

We are justified freely by his grace. (Romans 3:24) The greek word for freely used in Romans 3:24 is the same word used for the phrase "without a cause" in John 15:25. Truly, God loved us without a cause and once you receive Jesus Christ as Lord, God loves you much more without a cause. There is nothing you can do make God stop loving you. You did not do anything to make him love you in the first place.

The truth to be learnt here is that no one can become right with God by self-effort. The bible says that we are made the Righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) God makes us Righteous. It is an act on God's part and not on ours.

Righteousness is separate from Holiness in actions. 

When a person is made Righteous by God that does not make him Holy in his actions. Righteousness is an eternal position or a standing that God offers to those who put their faith in Jesus. 

The Bible says: But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed... even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, (Romans 3:21-25) 

Truly, there is no sin that is not covered under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. God does not love you because you are Holy after you become a Christian. As a child of God, God continues to love you based on His grace and mercy and not based on your performance. The Christian message is primarily not about making you a good and moral person. It is about informing you that God loves you even when you fail Him. He is not waiting to punish or rebuke you the minute you make a mistake. Rather when you sin God is right there with His hand stretched out towards you to lift you up and strengthen you with His Word. 

Therefore if you pursue holiness as a means to get right or receive from God it is in vain. Truly, God loves you and will bless you regardless. The only way to receive from God is by faith in his Word. 

If Holiness can get you nothing from God, then why should you live Holy? 

Now this is an appropriate question. Sin is very destructive in Nature. Therefore, the only reason God wants you to be Holy is because He loves you and does not want to see sin destroy your life. 

Satan is the enemy who wants you to sin and destroy your life. 

The method God uses to make you live Holy is also very interesting. God knows better than anyone that a list of do's and don'ts will not help you live Holy. (Romans 3:20) 

God's make you live Holy by revealing to you who you are in Christ. When you understand your identity in Christ through the scriptures the power of sin over your life automatically losses its grip. 

When you understand that you are united with God (1 Corinthians 6:17), that you have partaken of His divine Nature (2 Peter 1:3-4), that you are a new Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), that the old man has been crucified with Christ 2000 years ago on the Cross of Calvary, that you are a new Man alive to God (Romans 6:9-11), that sin no longer has dominion over you (Romans 6:14), that you were slaves of sin, that you were set free from sin, that you have become slaves of God in the Spirit (Romans 6:17-22), that the Holy Spirit is in you and will make you walk Holy (Philippians 2:13) and so on and so forth you will automatically begin to walk in holiness effortlessly. 

When you understand who you are in Christ, you automatically begin to live holy as a response to God's great Love for you and because that is your New Nature. Just like it was natural for you to sin when you were an unbeliever, it becomes natural for you to live Holy when you are born-again and understand it. (John 3:1-8) 

When you are made a good tree by the grace of God, you will naturally bear good fruit.

New Creation

While I was at the Railway Station this evening, I saw a young lady pass by with tears in her eyes. Right behind her was a young man, so angry, he could not help but behave unreasonably in public. He took the girl by the her hand, turned her around and slapped her. Everybody had their attention on them and the site was getting ugly. I felt like doing something about it but the girl made a quick escape through the crowd to another part of the station. 

This Question came to my mind after dinner as I sat by my computer thinking about all that had happened in the evening: Violence against women, will it ever end? That is when the Holy Spirit began to lead me into this post. He began bringing scriptures to my mind one after another about the New Creation. The Bible teaches us that anger, rage, hatred and the like are all works of the flesh. These works are an integral part of every Man from the day he is born. (Proverbs 22:15) The truth is that there is only one way to end the works of flesh, and that one way is faith in the Cross. (Galatians 5:24)

The Good News of Salvation includes a mighty work of God where He takes our sin Nature, our sin and the just punishment for that sin upon himself. In exchange he gives us His Nature and his Spirit to live unto Holiness. (2 Corinthians 5:17) (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus said: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3) Even Paul's Epistles centre around one thing i.e. the New creation. (Galatians 6:15) 

"You must put your faith in Christ and be born from above. (John 3:6-7) And you must read the Epistles thereafter and learn to live out your brand new Life."

The New Life-Explained!

When you come to Christ you are united with him. (1 Corinthians 6:17) You are like him. (1 John 4:17) You are made so one with Jesus that you are in Him and He is in you. You have His Nature, His Character, His Authority, His power and all of Him inside of you. The Christian Life is about you living out what God has accomplished inside of you. That is what Paul meant when he said: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Walk according to your New Nature. Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things for your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3). Whenever God tells us to do something in the New Covenant, it is also followed by the will to do it. The 'will' part of equation is the New Nature that God puts within us when we are born again. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. (Colossians 3:5:11)

Whenever the Bible talks about putting on the New Man and putting off the Old man, it is really talking about the renewal of the mind. (Romans 12:1-2) The only way to live out what God has accomplished on the inside of you is to renew your mind to the Truth. That is why Paul said: Reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:11) To walk in the Spirit, simply means to set your mind on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) You need to first awaken your soul the truth that you are one with God. Putting off has to do with you dying to your old thoughts and separating yourself from them. Jealousy, fornication, anger, wrath, murder, drunkenness and the like are no longer who you are and that why you are asked to distance your self from the very thought of sin. I do not mean to say that you will not be tempted or have a thought of sin but when you do, you must know that it is no longer your Nature to do those things and therefore distance yourself from it. As Paul aptly said: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

The New Man

Ephesians 4:17-24

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.