The Daily Word of Righteousness

Fifty-two Kingdom Concepts, #2

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:13—NIV)

Christianity has suffered much because it is not made clear to people that being born again is to have God's Nature conceived in us. The believers attempt to save their original adamic nature. They are under the impression God is going to save what they are and bring it to Heaven. The truth is, God will never accept our adamic personality. God's salvation kills the adamic nature on the cross and then brings forth a new nature, a new creation, a true brother of Jesus Christ.

Until this is thoroughly understood Christianity is only another of the world's numerous religions, another discipline by which men hope to please God and earn enough merit to guarantee their acceptance into Paradise when they die.

The Kingdom of God is not Heaven. The Kingdom of God is that which is born in us when Christ is conceived and formed in us.

There are two aspects of having Christ in us.

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19—NIV)

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23—NIV)

The first aspect is that of the conception and formation of the Divine Nature in us. For this to be true, we must take up our personal cross and follow the Master, permitting the Holy Spirit to guide us in the crucifixion of our adamic personality. Christ is formed in us through the travail of the ministries of the Body of Christ.

The second aspect of having Christ in us is the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell for eternity in our transformed inner nature. God will never dwell in Adam. He will walk with Adam in Paradise but He will not dwell in Adam.

The Father's only House is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only to the extent Christ has been formed in us that God can dwell in us; for He dwells in Christ in us.

First, Christ is formed in us. This is the new creation. Then the Father and the Son come to dwell in the new creation that has been formed in us. The Father and the Son are not formed in us. What is formed in us is the supernatural Divine Nature that has come from the Father and is planted in our personality.

It is as though a man had a son and then came and dwelled in his son. This, of course, is not possible in the human realm. If it were possible, it would be true then that the son would be in the image of his father, having been born from his father and then indwelt by his father.

The consequences of being born again are not always stressed. All of us know of the miracle of the seed, how a great oak tree can come from a small seed. Do we stop and ponder how all the characteristics of a tree can be in a tiny seed?

To be continued.