Jesus says, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:10, 11
Life in the kingdom of God is life in the family of God. God wants our relationship with Him and with each other to be intimate family relationships. These relationships are not the result of church membership; these relationships are the result of being born again into the kingdom of God. Being born again is not about going to church and participating in activities with a “church family.” Involvement with other believers is vital to the Christian life, but spending time at a church building does not make a person a Christian. New birth involves transferring loyalty from one kingdom to another.
When we come into the new kingdom, Jesus is Lord! He is Owner, Master, and Ruler! We cry, “Lord, I want to serve you!” This is what new life in the kingdom looks like. This is how you can tell whether or not you’ve crossed the line from darkness to light.
It is to those who have crossed the line that Jesus says, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…’” Those who are born again are God’s children. God’s children want God to rule over everything in their lives. God’s children learn to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
When we know God as our Father, we’ve passed from death to life, and we’re living in the kingdom of God. Praying “your kingdom come, your will be done” is a joyful expression, not a hopeless resignation.
If we find that our attitude is a belligerent, “Okay God, have it your way,” our King is not pleased. Kingdom living is not a bitter, “God is God and He’s going to do what He wants anyway,” rather, God’s children realize: “Lord, your will is so wonderful. I was blind, but now I see your plan for me is good, pleasing and perfect. I never imagined your love for me. Thank you! I trust you! Have your way in my life.”
This is how we learn to pray, not trying to bend God to do our bidding, but instead, rising up to do God’s bidding. We want to serve Him as part of His forever family who will spend eternity ruling and reigning with Jesus.
Fishing 101
I have found that some people, even faithful church attendees, are not certain what it means to be born again. They seem to grasp that they are supposed to obey God’s commands, but they don’t understand where the power to obey God comes from. I have discovered the source of the confusion is usually self-righteousness.
Occasionally, I am asked to teach an evangelism-training course in churches. Often, I have used a four part program I call “Fishing 101.” In the first session, I talk about what it means to be born again. I discuss two basic diagnostic questions used in evangelism by many churches. First, “Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain, if you were to die right now, you would go to heaven?”
Second, “If, God forbid, you were to die right now and stand before God and He were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would your answer be?”
I always start the course by asking those being trained in evangelism to answer the questions themselves. As a result, I often have the joy of leading people to Christ who had originally come to the seminar to learn how to lead others to Christ.
In one church, when asked, “If God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would your answer be?” a deacon answered with a typical self-righteous response: “I have always tried to live a good life and to do the best I can to do what God says we ought to do. I know I’m not perfect, but I’ve done the best I can to live a good life.”
More often than not, when I ask this question, I get variations of this deacon’s answer. This is not how a person who understands what it means to be born again responds. If the basis on which someone hopes to go to heaven is because he’s lived a good life, he is not trusting Jesus. He is trusting in his own good works.
The questions are asked in written form, and I explain salvation during the following sessions. I feel sure, if I had explained to this deacon personally that night that no one is going to heaven on the basis of his own good works, he would have said, “I know that.” And, if I had said, “Our only hope is that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins,” he would have said, “I believe that.”
When he hears the truth, he agrees with the truth intellectually. But, his written answer to the second diagnostic question reveals where his real trust rests. Jesus says, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” And sadly, that deacon was trusting in his own self-righteousness.
Just as the Bible is clear about rebirth involving transferring from one kingdom into another, the Bible is also clear about the essence of the transfer. If our hope of eternal life is based on trusting our own self-righteousness, we’re still dead in our sins.
Paul describes this pointedly when he tells the Galatians that if they accept circumcision, hoping that by doing so they can make themselves acceptable to God, they are cut off from Christ. We cannot be saved by our own self-righteousness. Our only hope is Jesus.
Self-righteousness is a widespread problem among professing Christians. Many people think their salvation depends upon them. Make no mistake: the Bible says our salvation depends entirely upon Jesus. Where is your trust?
