Jesus continually spoke about “entering” heaven’s, or God’s, kingdom.(1) He was talking about coming under God’s reign, and he claimed that therein a person encounters a new possibility for life. The ways of heaven can be experienced and practiced as one lives within this new realm of being with, under, and in God. Jesus’ good news was that the kingdom of God was near (Mark 1:14-15).
Truly anyone may come in, Jesus proclaimed, but he also identified some who find it difficult to enter, not due to God’s lack of generosity, but of their own unwillingness to conform to the life within. Repentance, a change of life is required. Those unwilling to be like children (Matthew 18:3), whose piety will not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), who fail to do the Father’s will (Matthew 7:21), and the rich (Mark 10:23) are some who find it difficult to “enter” this new existence.
What is needed by all who would enter he described as being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). The change necessary to participate in God’s reign is so profound that Jesus calls it a new birth, commensurate with a new life.
The apostles continued to speak about entering God’s kingdom. Peter, after describing how we have been given everything to participate in the divine nature, lists the virtues that we are to develop (2 Peter 1:4-7). He then concludes:
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. 2 Peter 1:10-11
Growing in the virtues which imitate God’s nature assures us of a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. Virtue guards us against stumbling. But is Peter saying only the virtuous can be saved?
If entering the kingdom is equated with how today many think of being saved, then both Jesus and Peter seem to be saying that only the spiritually mature can be saved. Fortunately, entering the kingdom is about learning to experience how God reigns, and is not the same as receiving God’s mercy. All who call upon God are saved (Romans 10:13), but actually getting to know and live in God’s ways is the process of coming into and living under God’s reign.
God’s kingdom involves a way of daily life in which one acts in harmony with the ways of God. Humility and a radical reorientation of priorities is the beginning of coming into God’s realm, and then one develops more and more an affinity for heaven’s life and becomes accustomed to it.
It is much easier to simply “be saved” rather than actually enter into God’s kingdom. We may prefer forgiveness and assurance of heaven without the repentance (change of life) and work of developing virtue so that we live in God’s kingdom now. Being recipients of mercy without living a new life of imitating God (Ephesians 5:1) is having everything and yet experiencing nothing.
Leave a Reply