Is forgiveness and cleansing of our sins a requirement to enter the kingdom of God? Or is it one of the benefits that comes along with entering the kingdom of God?
Does one receive forgiveness and cleansing to enter the kingdom of God or does one enter the kingdom of God by the new birth and then receive forgiveness and cleansing?
The answer depends on what we think is the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God to most people is heaven, it is about going to heaven.
But my understanding of Kingdom of God when I first came to Christ and read the Bible was very simple, Kingdom of God is a place where God (Christ) is the king. He should be King in my heart, in my personal life, in my home etc.. I am so thankful that no pastor taught me that if I believe in Christ I can die and go to heaven and that is the kingdom of God! Those thoughts did not even cross my mind when I read the Bible plainly for the first time!
Christ cannot be king in a place where self is still in throne. So for us to enter the kingdom of God we need to first yield our will, repent from our self life, seek forgiveness for living a self pleasing life.
Repentance precedes forgiveness and remission of sins past which are cleansed by the blood ( Romans 3:25)
Then we must also be born again to enter the kingdom, here we are cleansed by walking in the light of His presence (1 John 1:7)
Often the Lord uses a proxy (parable) to illustrate a principle so it can be applicable in our personal experience.
One that I have found useful is viewing the "world” as a fish bowl,... we aren’t saved in the fish bowl but are saved from it... that is to say we are saved into His kingdom. In order to do this we must "die” to the life in the fish bowl that we may live in His kingdom. If after we are born again, we go back to the world to sow and reap, (rather than abide in His kingdom), we neglect our salvation from the fish bowl.
Paul says that he was crucified with Christ, he was crucified to this world...
AND he crucified the world to himself- this is sorely lacking in most of our lives and if we are totally honest with ourselves... we are far too friendly (dependent) on the world. This will come at at great cost as we are heaping condemnation upon our heads.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting
/I am so thankful that no pastor taught me that if I believe in Christ I can die and go to heaven and that is the kingdom of God!/
I couldn't agree more. That is not what Christ and the early church taught. My pastor has been discussing this a lot with me lately. The kingdom of God. My pastor thinks we need to be taught more that we switch kingdoms when we become a believer. We are delivered out of the kingdom of this world into another kingdom - the kingdom of God.
How does one enter the kingdom of God? You must be born again.
Thank you.
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