Jesus spoke many words that we have not understood, nor applied to our lives.  I personally am always challenged by his statement to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”  My problem is that I see incredible need in the world and want to do something about it.  I pray, but seldom see what I know to be the answer to that prayer.  For example, I have never seen a person raised from the dead, a lost limb restored, a blind person receive sight, etc.  And, I’ve heard about the great “end time revival” for over thirty years and have seen nothing but false signs and wonders and countless false prophets.

That leaves me with only one apparent option, the political one, the option of trying to bring in the Kingdom of God in the flesh.  But, friends, let me tell you, that ain’t gonna happen.  While we dwell in this mortal flesh we will sin.   We will fall into temptation and we will never be able to bring about or “bring in” God’s kingdom through our earthly efforts.

Right now the Kingdom of God dwells only within us who acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh and that he is in fact coming in our flesh.  This mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of Glory.”   We cannot enforce this kingdom in any way.  Remember when the young man wanted Jesus to tell his brother to give his inheritance to him?  Jesus said, “Man, who made me judge over you?”  Jesus claimed no authority over legal matters of this world.  He did not even try to take the religious leaders’ position. 

What does Jesus say about our position in the world?  “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:19 KJV)  And, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:14-17 KJV)

What is our purpose then if God does not call us to change the political scene?  “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”  (John 17:18-19 KJV)

Jesus sends us into the world to bring truth to the world, just as he brought truth to the world two thousand years ago.  If we really know the truth, then that truth sanctifies us, sets us apart for God’s use.  God’s true servants today display this sanctification.  Do not pretend to yourself or to others that you know the truth if you walk in daily debauchery.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 KJV)

And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 2:28-3:3 KJV)

When you allow God’s truth to sanctify you, you will know it.  Others will see and feel your peace and become ashamed of their own sin.  The goal is that they too will become sanctified in God’s truth.  True sanctification means coming into agreement with God and submitting to his molding you into his image, an image “not of this world.”

Let’s read a bit from Titus once again:

The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sensible, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (Titus 2:3-5 KJ2000) 

Paul very specifically ties blasphemy of the Word of God to the actions of women, not to men.  Doesn’t this seem strange in light of the fact that he also places women in a subservient role to men in the order of nature?  Yes, until we understand why, and once again I have to give credit for this revelation to my own wife.  In the order of creation men represent God the Father while women represent Christ Jesus Himself.  The Bible teaches that the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus, that he was fully God and fully man.  Yet the Word also says that Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.  How can this be when further study of the Scripture also shows that Jesus in fact IS the Jehovah of the Old Testament?  Because Jesus came to demonstrate life as a son of God.  The first command with a promise is to “honor your Mother and your Father.”  Jesus showed us how to do this.

Many chafe at the idea that a woman should be obedient to her husband.  We live in a feminist, evil age.  The ideals of feminism have brought many horrors to the world, not the least of which have been the destruction of the nuclear family in western societies and abortion on demand.  (But, I do not blame women alone.  Men allowed it to happen by accepting “liberal, advanced, and progressive” thinking.)  Many who desire to see women do all things men do point to Scripture and rightly point out that Paul also teaches that in Christ no distinction exists between male and female, etc.  Others go on to accurately teach that God Himself consists of both male and female attributes and that Adam, when first created, existed, like God, as both male and female.  True, true.  But, the plan of God included Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the subsequent judgment of God that placed Eve under Adam’s authority.  None of this happened by mistake or because God was caught off-guard by mankind’s sin.  God created man with the ability to sin.  To have done otherwise would have been to create nothing more than a machine that could only do what God programmed it to do, even if those things were only “good” things.  To understand the Word and God’s purposes, we must always remember that God created man in His image and that His goal was to create a being like Himself.

This brings us back to the pattern of women in God’s creation.  Woman is no less important, no less worthy, than man.  To say so would be to say that Jesus is less important, less worthy, than his Father.  No, the pattern of woman is that she fulfill the role of Jesus in creation.  Like Jesus, she is called to willingly lay down her life for others, her children and her husband.  When she does this of her own free will she shows the world Jesus Christ in the flesh.  (By the way, this is the coming of Jesus in the flesh that John tells us identifies the believer in 1 John).  Woman’s calling is very high indeed.  And it is because women en mass have rebelled against this high calling that the Word of God is blasphemed today.

The sons of God experience liberty because they make no plans to do wrong,   Once you begin to practice righteousness, you find that your desire to sin decreases.  Why?  Because you know that if you do that “forbidden thing,” you will have to confess and repent.  Are you a hypocrite?  The hypocrite plans his sins and does them.  Then he says he’s sorry when he’s caught or feels a tinge of remorse.  The hypocrite sins without real repentance.  The son of God sins only because he is still in the flesh.  He does not plan to sin.

Oh, consider that!  Planning to sin!  Do you ever plan to sin?  Do you plan that secret tryst, that secret joint, that secret ….?  Do you plan to sin?  Now read and understand:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also bring to life your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, so that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness:for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Romans 8:1-37 KJ2000)

So, do you live according to the flesh or according to the Spirit?

The promise of glorious liberty applies only to those who live according to the Spirit, by grace, in the hope that all God says in His Word is true!

I can’t see him,
but I fear him;
can’t feel his presence,
but I know he’s near

I can’t understand him,
but I seek his way;
I have heard his words
and know he speaks the truth

Be not like the horse
with no understanding,
whose mouth must be held
with bit and bridle

Be not like the horse
with no understanding,
whose mouth must be held
lest he lose his way

But consider the ox,
clean among unclean,
and consent to the yoke
as he to the plow

Then your path will be straight
and your furrows deep,
for God’s yoke is gracious
and his way is rest.

Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation.”  Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in his own image.”  We have thought all along that this act of creation in Genesis 1:27 was a one time event, a done deal, a completed thing.  But, we were wrong.  God is still creating his masterwork called “man.”  Jesus is the firstborn Son of God, the firstborn of the creation, the first man of flesh fully made in the image of God.

Notice, though, that he is the “firstborn.”  That means that others will be born later and that these others will also bear the image of God.  These others to be born are like Jesus, like God.  They are Elohim.  Selah.

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, [Jesus] answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  (Luke 17:20-21 KJV) 

As always Jesus here stated blunt reality, truth that is.  “The Kingdom of God is within you.”  Why within?  Because this is the nature of creation.  Jesus told His people that the seed of the Kingdom dwelt within them.  This is exactly what he told Nicodemus when he approached Jesus.  “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  (John 3:3 KJV)  Of course, He did not expect the Pharisee to understand Him.  The Pharisee did not know the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, but we do.  When Nicodemus asked Jesus what He meant by this obscure remark, He  answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8 KJV)

The word translated “born again” here is the Greek word gennao and means “to procreate” or “to conceive.”  Jesus speaks of a spiritual conception here akin to that which His mother, Mary, experienced when the Holy Spirit conceived a child within her.  He speaks of man receiving spiritual seed within himself and conceiving a spiritual being. 

Jesus speaks within His prescribed paradigm of reproducing after one’s own kind.  Like all the plants and animals, He created man to have seed within himself and to reproduce after his own kind.  But, he had more than this in mind.   He also created man to be in His image and likeness.  Genesis says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ….  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27 KJV)  Jesus describes here His own actions as Creator God reproducing after His own kind!

In this short dialogue with Nicodemus Jesus reveals at least three profound truths: 

1. A man has to receive the seed of the spirit to even “see” the Kingdom of God.  This means that to even begin to see and understand the principles, truths, and laws of the Kingdom we must have received the seed of God, that is, we must be begotten (born again) of the Holy Spirit.
2. Once a man receives the seed by the Spirit and sees that it is good, then he must submit to being ”watered” by the Word of God in order to grow, give birth, and bear fruit. 
3. Only then may the man, now a spiritual man, enter the Kingdom of God and become Elohim, a being like God.

This is exactly what John means when he says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2 KJV)

The life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a type of this concept.   The Holy Spirit conceived Jesus within her.  Jesus as born in the flesh and became the Biblical manchild of Mary.  Likewise, when God bestows faith in Himself, Jesus, to us, He begets the seed of the manchild in us.  If we faithfully water that seed by His Word, then that seed will grow and, according to the laws of creation He implemented, the manchild, Elohim, will eventually be birthed in us.   Like produces like.  God will make us in His image.  This is His stated goal in creation.  God’s will will be done!