So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (13 page)

A few days later, Mark’s phone rang at 6:30 a.m. He immediately became upset and agitated because he could not believe someone was actually calling him so early. Angrily, he grabbed his phone to see who was calling and it was a text message from his friend. It simply said, “The party is still going on!” Tears began to stream from Mark’s eyes. Mark realized in that moment that he had indeed been born again. He was filled with so much joy and excitement inside and goose bumps and chills covered his body. From that time on, Mark’s life has been completely different. God’s grace has flooded him and drugs are no longer a part of his life. He is no longer the desperate man sitting in the dark alone in his basement looking for the next high. Everything in his life changed.

What happened in Mark’s life to change Him? He didn’t turn over new leaf. He didn’t “get religion.” He didn’t just start going to church. He changed kingdoms. He moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. How does that happen? How can we move into God’s kingdom today experiencing His rule and reign in our lives and exercising the power and authority that He has given to us?

Fortunately, Jesus tells us in John 3. In this chapter we read about guy Nicodemus who came to Jesus with some questions. Who was this guy Nicodemus? He was not an unbeliever. He was a Pharisee. We often think of Pharisees as self-righteous religious bigots who looked down their long religious noses at everyone else, and part of that is indeed true. But don’t overlook the fact that in the Jewish community the Pharisees were considered the most moral, upright, God-fearing, and well-respected men in the community. When a man became a Pharisee, he took a vow to uphold every detail of God’s law. So, as a Pharisee, Nicodemus was a very religious man. But Nicodemus was not only a Pharisee. He was also a member of the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was kind of like the Jewish Supreme Court made up of seventy of the most brilliant legal minds in all of Israel.

Nicodemus approached Jesus in the middle of the night. Why? “He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him’” (John 3:2). One of the responsibilities this high court had was to deal with false prophets. There was concern among many of the religious leaders that Jesus might indeed be a false prophet, but Nicodemus was convinced otherwise. There was something different about Jesus from other prophets he had seen. He had witnessed Jesus doing incredible miracles, and he knew that there was an anointing of God on this man’s life. Nicodemus wanted to know more about that. Although he understood that he knew a lot about God and had studied His law in detail, he obviously recognized that he didn’t know God like this man Jesus knew God. He said, “God has to be with you because of the miraculous signs you perform.”

“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again’” (v. 3). Notice, Jesus responds by talking about the kingdom. Nicodemus hadn’t asked about the kingdom. All he had done up to that point was address the fact that Jesus was performing miraculous signs, but Jesus addressed the kingdom. Why did He do that? Jesus referred to the kingdom because the miracles that Nicodemus was referring to were demonstrations of the kingdom. So when Nicodemus pointed out that the miracles indicated Jesus was a man from God, Jesus talked about the kingdom because those miracles demonstrated the kingdom.

Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus, “You won’t understand this or ever make sense out of this unless you are born again.” To which Nicodemus responded: “‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’” (v. 4). Born again? That’s ridiculous! A person can’t be born a second time. You can’t get back into your mother’s womb and be born again.

Some of us have had premature children. Wouldn’t it have been great to be able to put them back in the oven for a while until they were physically ready to face the world? Our son Joshua was born a little early, and he got some fluid in his lungs during delivery. He ended up spending several days in the hospital under a tent with oxygen. At that point we could have said, “Why don’t you just put him back inside his mom for a few more days until he’s ready to come out?” But we knew it didn’t work that way. No one can get back into their mother’s womb and be born again.

But Nicodemus was not a small child who had been born prematurely. He was a full-grown man, and Jesus said to him that he couldn’t see the kingdom unless he was born again. Obviously Nicodemus was confused and wondered how that could possibly happen. Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (vv. 5–7).

Jesus cleared up Nicodemus’ confusion. He was not talking about physical birth but about spiritual birth. You must be born of the water (physical birth) and you must be born of the Spirit (spiritual birth). To enter the kingdom, you must not only be born physically but you must be born again or be born spiritually.

John made sure we knew whom this guy Nicodemus was. He wanted us to recognize that this was no ordinary man. He was not a common criminal. This man Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a religious leader, and not just any Pharisee. He was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Yet to this religious and upright man, Jesus says, “You can’t enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again.” Don’t miss this, because the same thing is true for every one of us. We cannot enter the kingdom of God through religion. We can’t enter the kingdom of God through keeping God’s law. We can’t enter the kingdom of God through being a church leader. We can’t enter the kingdom of God through being a good, moral person. What Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, and ultimately to each of us, is that we don’t need religion, we need a new life. Spiritually Nicodemus was dead and could have no part in the kingdom of God unless he was born again. That is not only true of Nicodemus but of every single one of us. To enter the kingdom of God, we must be born again.

So what was Jesus talking about when He said we must be born again, and what does that have to do with the kingdom? To really understand this we again need to once again go back to the beginning, back to the Book of Genesis and the creation story. Remember that creation starts with God. God is by very definition the eternal and self-existent One. He alone has no beginning or no end. So, for all time God has existed and He alone has always been the Ruler of the kingdom of heaven.

God already reigned as King over this spectacular realm filled with angels who were there to serve Him and worship Him as King. At some point God decided to extend this heavenly kingdom into a new physical realm, so He created the earth. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of earth were one, and God was the King over both heaven and earth.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

—G
ENESIS
1:26–27

There are two different words that are used in this verse to talk about God creating man. The first word is translated “make”; “Let us
make
man in our image.” The second word is translated “created.” We would probably look at those two words and think that the author is just saying the same thing two different ways, but when you look at the original language you find that is not the case. The words translated “make” and “create” are two different words in the original Hebrew with two distinct meanings.

The word translated “make” is the Hebrew word
asa
. This word means “to form from something that is already created.” There is a part of man that is made from something that already existed. The word translated “created” is the Hebrew word
bara
, which means “formed from nothing.” Man is both created and made. We are a composite of two distinct parts: something that did not already exist and something that already existed. So there is this sense in which we are created from nothing but also from something that already existed. This is very important for us to understand. Our spirit is the part of man that came from something that already existed. How do we know that? Because the spirit of man is created in the image of God. When God created mankind, He reached down inside of Himself and He pulled something out of Himself—out of His very own image—and He breathed into man His very own breath and man became a living being. God placed a spirit, made in His image, inside of mankind. It was this spirit given to mankind that allowed him to connect with God in a way that nothing else God created could connect with Him. Only man was made in God’s image, given something of God himself, so he would be able to relate to and connect with God.
¹

Then to this man made in His image, God delegated the authority to take dominion and rule in His kingdom over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, over all the animals, and ultimately over the earth itself. That word
dominion
, as we have already seen, speaks of the rule of the king over a territory. So what was God doing when He gave man dominion over the earth? He was giving mankind the legal authority to rule and reign on His behalf in this new territory called earth that He had created. This was a divine transfer of power where God declared, “I am going to put you in the position to rule and reign on My behalf in this new kingdom, this visible kingdom called earth that I have created.” That was the purpose for which God created man.

So many of us struggle with our purpose in life, and yet God told us in the garden our purpose in life. We have been made in His image, with this spirit that is from God Himself; and He delegated to us the authority to rule and reign in this earthly kingdom on His behalf.

But you may wonder, “If we are created to rule and to reign on God’s behalf on this earth, if we have been given dominion over creation, over the earth, why do I feel so powerless? Why am I not feeling like I’m living in this kind of power and authority?”

To answer these questions we have to ask another question. What else happened in the garden? Mankind committed the greatest act of treason that has ever been committed. God told Adam and Eve they were free to eat of any of the trees in the garden except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and He told them the day that they ate of that tree, they would surely die (Gen. 2:16–17). Enter Satan, the fallen angel who had been kicked out of the kingdom of heaven and now ruled over a different kingdom, the kingdom of darkness. He tempted Eve with the opportunity to be like God. He came to Eve and said, “Did God say you couldn’t eat the fruit of any of the trees in the garden?” She said, “No, just one. God said if we eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we would surely die.” Satan responded by casting doubt on God’s character, “Did God really say that? That won’t happen. What will happen if you eat the fruit of that tree is that you will be like God.” (See Genesis 3:1–4.) In other words, you can have your own kingdom. You no longer will have to rule and reign under His delegated authority in His kingdom; but if you will eat the fruit of this tree, you can have your own kingdom. So Eve ate the fruit and she gave it to Adam who also ate the fruit. They sinned against God; and that sin was not merely disobedience, it was an act of treason.

What was the result of this sin? Satan usurped the dominion God had given to mankind. He became the prince of this dark world. God cursed the earth and said man was going to have to work by the sweat of his brow to get the soil to produce crops because now he would be fighting against thorns and thistles and women would have pain in childbirth. (See Genesis 3:16–19.) And the ultimate result of that sin was exactly what God said would happen. God said, “If you eat this fruit you will die.” One thing we know is that physical death did come into the world at this point. The bodies of Adam and Eve started the process of dying, yet Adam lived over 900 years on the earth after he ate the fruit (Gen. 5:5).

So is there something else that God meant besides merely physical death that happened instantly in that moment? When God said, “If you eat of this fruit you will die,” He was talking not just about that fact that physical death would now enter the world, He was talking about an immediate death of man’s spirit. The spirit was that part of man made in God’s image, that part of man that came from God Himself and allowed man to connect in relationship with God. Spiritual death entered the world at that instant. Mankind could no longer connect with God the way he had been created to connect with and relate to God. Adam and Eve were removed from the garden (3:23) and no longer could they fellowship with God the way they had previously because their spirit was dead.

And that is not just true of Adam and Eve, but the Bible tells us we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). Our default mode is that because of sin, our spirit is dead. We cannot connect with God the way we were originally created to connect with God. So the only way that we can possibly connect with God is to be born again.

How is that possible? How can a person be born again? That’s where Jesus comes into the picture. Jesus came as the second Adam, the Bible tells us (1 Cor. 15:45), to take back what Adam had lost. He came and lived a perfect, sinless life, thus qualifying Him as the sinless sacrifice who could pay our penalty of death by dying on the cross and conquering the enemy of death through His resurrection. In that He gave to each one of us the opportunity to receive His death, burial, and resurrection as a gift to pay for our sins; so that when His death is applied to our life, our spirit is born again and we can reenter that relationship with God. We can return to living in His kingdom, and we can fulfill that original assignment to take dominion, to rule and reign on God’s behalf over the earth and over the kingdom of darkness. Through being born again, we are restored to the position that God created us to experience in the first place.