Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again” (John 3:5-7). 

In the Incarnation of God the Son, the second person of the Trinity stoops from heaven to become human. He takes human nature into His being. God, the Creator, the Word Who spoke all that is into existence, comes into creation and becomes one of us  (Philippians 2, Colossians 1, John 1).

Jesus, the eternal God, lived our human life; He died our death. His life, blood and death have power to destroy our captivity to sin, self, death and Hell. Our sins were taken by Him into His body. Legally, judicially, He bore the penalty we deserve. 

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you are healed (1 Peter 2:24 NIV).

Being saved by Jesus through faith means we are entrusting our entire beings unto not only His death, but His life. Receiving Him as our Savior and Lord saves us from damnation. He puts His life into ours. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “You must be born from above” (John 3:7 Greek New Testament).

We also receive His righteousness. “For He has made Him to be sin, who knew no sin; so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).

He resurrected so that His Life may reign in us. It is the resurrected Life of Jesus that enters into us when we are born from above. He puts His life of victory over sin and over the fear of death, His life of Holy Love, into us and transforms us into the kind of people He always intended we should be.  

 “And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, ‘This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’” (Hebrews 10:15-16).

Our Kingdom living is never found in ourselves, our social services, or our impressive far-reaching international corporate organization. Our Kingdom life is only found in Jesus’ Life. We must recognize that we desperately need Him and His reign. Then His Kingship will move into every aspect of our lives.  

The King invades our spirit, soul and body, and we wholly belong to Him. Best of all, He belongs to us. He re-creates us and restores His image in us (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

We must be careful not to rely upon any of our own goodness, or upon all our symbols, and miss God’s Reality. That is living in delusion. The very Life of God Himself wants to enter into our hearts from outside this world. If we don’t allow Him, because we don’t think we need Him, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Faith means we realize we cannot live the Christian life without Christ living within us. Jesus is now our completely new source of being.  This is belief: to cast ourselves upon Him—depend upon Him. We do not look to ourselves for any resources. With deep gratitude, we fix our eyes upon Him. Faith is to find the source of life in Another. Without that Other, we will die. We draw our life from Jesus.  

Our new appetites, desires, loving service and power are by-products of this surrender and dependence. In every moment we lean upon Jesus. That is the heart of being holy. His Life cleansed sin and conquered death, the grave and Hell. His eternal Life is what He wants to give us today.  

Questions to ponder

• Have you made your “kingdom life” about something other than Jesus’ Life?  
• Do you find yourself having new God-given appetites or the same old desires?

This article was originally titled “Kingdom Life” in the November 2024 issue of The War Cry.