Sometimes I think it is little appreciated what Jesus meant when he said we had to become like children to enter the kingdom. Jesus didn’t come to teach a new religion or give us a new set of rules to “be good.” He came teaching a new way of being in the world. I was struck in my studies today that Jesus’ disciples forsook all and followed him. They left their jobs, their friends and families, all that they knew, and began to follow Jesus.
Becoming like little children and forsaking all, means starting over again — It did to the disciples and it does to us. We must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Without a new life we can’t even see the kingdom. If we hold on to old ways of thinking and living, we simply can’t follow Jesus. He’s marching to the beat of a different drummer — the Spirit.
To a person without the Spirit of Grace, this seems terrifying, or at least foolish! Paul said it this way: “The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He CANNOT understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14).”
Old wineskins cannot contain new wine.
If we are unwilling to allow the Spirit to renew our minds, we’ll live a very immature Christian life. Jesus didn’t come to make failures. He came that we might have life and life in abundance — to have a faith that overcomes the world. But new life won’t come if we don’t follow and we won’t follow if we don’t humble ourselves like little children. There is a lot we need to relearn.
Kingdom responses to life stand in direct contradiction to the philosophies of this world; thus, they become foolish to the worldly man (or christian). Loving our enemies, forgiving, giving, walking by faith, going the extra mile, and humbling ourselves, don’t seem wise to a natural person; but for us, Christ has become the power of God and the wisdom of God (1Cor 1:24).
The kingdom of God is upside down. We live and walk focusing on what is unseen to the natural eye and living with our spiritual eyes enlightened.
Jesus’ words to his followers, that they must hate their own lives in this world and even hate their mother and father, makes sense if we realize the life we inherit from our parents is a life separated from God by spiritual death. We received our first life, the Adamic life, from our mom and dad. It is a natural life tied to the world and the flesh. We must die to all that is of Adam to walk in the kingdom (Christ, Spirit, etc.… ) We must hate our lives in Adam to live the new life in Christ. There certainly is a process of transformation (2 Cor 3:18) but the journey starts at once when we decide to follow Jesus. Jesus promises this new life will be a life of fruit bearing abundance. What are we waiting for?
“But God forbid that I should GLORY, save in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. By whom the world was crucified to me, and I unto the world (Gal 6:14).”
“Therefore, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh…Therefore, if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, ALL things have become new (2 Cor 5:16, 17).”
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the GLORY of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4).”