Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Book Installment)
Living in the Kingdom of God
Chapter 6 – “Living…”
In this chapter, I want to begin unpacking the title of this book. We’ll start with the first word.
I wanted to title this book “The One True…” because the first two books in this trilogy were The One True God and The One True Church. However, I could not find a way to make “the kingdom of God” work with that phrasing.
It was critical to have “kingdom of God” in the title because that is God’s term for the eternal state of things. I ultimately decided to start the title with the word “Living” because that’s the goal: living in the kingdom of God.
Don’t take the word “Living” for granted. Let me show – or remind – you of how the Bible uses this word.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Genesis 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
Genesis 2:16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
Genesis 2:17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
We all know that when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they did not physically die that day. They did, however, spiritually die. Their physical deaths came much later.
This cause-and-effect relationship between sin and death is spelled out in the New Testament. It affected not just Adam and Eve – it affects all of us.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
This is why Paul and the other apostles could speak of living people as being dead.
Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh…
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Ephesians 2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Ephesians 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
In other words, we are – spiritually speaking – zombies, the walking dead, dead men walking. Christ changes all this:
Romans 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The coming of the kingdom of God guaranteed that everyone would go to heaven when they physically died. However, there are still a lot of dead men walking the earth. A lot.
The purpose of this book is to help you live in the kingdom of God – not just walk around dead in it until you go to heaven.
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