The Lord Jesus makes a life changing statement in John 3:3, “… Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is true that anyone who enters the kingdom of God must be “born from above” (a literal rendering from the Greek “gennao anothen”). This brings to mind several questions: What does it mean to be born again (born from above)? Why would I want to be born again (born from above)? and the third question, What is the Kingdom of God?
Let’s begin by answering these questions in reverse order: What is the kingdom of God? How is the kingdom of God defined? Well, it always best to let Jesus define His own words, after all He is all-knowing, all understanding, and all wise being the perfect God without error. Jesus tells what the kingdom of God is when He taught the disciples to pray in what we know as the Lord's Prayer. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10). Simply stated, the kingdom of God is a group of people are who are born again, who live God’s will on earth and in heaven. Living God’s will means complete submission to God. One can only live in submission to God's will by obeying His Holy Word, the Bible. The Bible is our guide to living God's will. The evidence of living in God’s kingdom is simply believing and living the Bible as God gave it to us through holy men who wrote the perfect Word of God (2 Pet. 1:16-8).
Why would I want to enter God's Kingdom? It is because of the privilege of “sonship.” It is because only those who become God’s children receive God’s great inheritance, which is too vast to expound, yet it does include the privilege of life with God, the power of the Holy Spirit to understand and correctly interpret the Word of God, thereby one can please God, (obediently living his will joyfully) as well as access to His “throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16.). Unless one is truly born from above (recreated), they do not have God’s nature and will not want His will to be done in their lives. Without being recreated (born from above), they cannot have access to God. Without being born from above they have no eternal joy, only a temporary joy, which is short lived. Those who cannot see the Kingdom of God have no hope. They have no assurance that their hope will not drop them in the end.
This brings us to the first question. What does it mean to be born again? The words born again literally mean born from above. One must have an earthly birth to live upon this earth. One must be born from above to live in God’s Kingdom and know God. Being born from above is to receive a new nature. 2 Cor. 5:17, states, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Mankind was created in God's image and we had God's nature, but it died in sin “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), that is not just physically, but also spiritually. The verse goes on to say “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This comes by trusting fully in Jesus Christ who is revealed in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, that He is God, and He died upon the cross, and rose again from the dead, and His blood made the payment for my sin. Upon this admittance of sin and embracing of Christ, God recreates His spirit (gives us His nature) within us, which is what is known as being born from above, being born again. And it is this new nature which will give you the desire to know God fully through the Holy Scriptures, and will give you the love of living His will according to the whole Word of God. Do you have the desire to seek God in his perfect written pages of the Bible? Do you desire to know God’s will, and live His will according to the Bible at any cost? Then you will know you are born from above and you will see (enter) His kingdom. God's Kingdom is a grand place to be living, and it only gets better and better. May God enrich life in His kingdom.
