This is an example illustrating how love flows through the kingdom of heaven. The intent is that this will serve as an example to take the abstract and make it tangible.
Love Initiated
Consider one of the Father’s first expressions of love for his Son, the one that inaugurated Jesus’ journey to earth.
John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten (μονογενη, monogene) Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV)
Jesus was God’s only begotten Son. The Greek word for only begotten is μονογενη, monogene: mono meaning singular, and gene relating to genesis, genetics, or conception. Begotten applies to both the mother and the father. It takes two to tango, so they say. Jesus was the only one conceived by God, the Father. The details of how Jesus was conceived are in Luke, and those details are of utmost significance.
Luke 1:30And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor (charis) with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 34And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin? 35And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” (ESV)
This verse in Luke is the first time charis, the Greek word for grace, is used in the New Testament. Favor was the English word chosen to express charis, which can make it a little confusing. This gives us our first clue that grace should be the word assigned to represent the divine love that flows through the kingdom of God.
The Father conceived Jesus by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. This is not the only instance where love came from the Father by means of the Holy Spirit, but it was the first one recorded in the New Testament. As it turns out, all love from the Father is directed to the Son through the Holy Spirit: that is what makes this love divine.
This was a unique event, Jesus being the only begotten of the Father. The Father working directly with a person, Mary, initiated this conception. In this one encounter, Mary received the law written upon her heart, and fulfilled that law. The law was the favor, the grace, the divine love, found in her heart. She consented to fulfill the law as she said, So be it unto me, and Jesus was conceived.
Overshadowing happens when the Spirit simultaneously works on both sides of the transaction, in this case both Mary and her soon-to-be Son. In this example, overshadowing included the fulfillment of the law in Mary, the conception, and the writing of the law in the embryo that was to become Jesus, the only begotten of the Father. Life begins at conception.
Jesus was born, lived, and died without fulfilling the law that was written upon his heart, to love you as he had been loved, but his account was not closed when he died: Jesus fulfilled this law after his death. God begetting his Son by the Holy Spirit launched a brand-new dynamic. Let us go back to the beginning where the rules of the reproductive process were established.
Genesis 1:11And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (ESV)
As you can see in Genesis 1, every living being would bear fruit that would contain seed by which they could reproduce after their own kind. Essentially, they would conceive children as they had been conceived, and that would be done by the same seed by which they had been conceived. Taking this dynamic into account leads to profound conclusions.
Isaiah 53:8By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (ESV)
Do you notice anything unusual about the Lord’s offspring: they were conceived after his death. Notice that when Jesus died, he was considered cut off and without children. It was not until after his death that he would see his offspring. It was not until after his death that his children would be conceived, and the law fulfilled, conceiving others as he had been conceived.
Jesus Fulfills the Law
This brings us to the next phase: Jesus’ first expression of love for you. The Father conceived Jesus by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, and he conceives you in the same way.
1 Peter 1:23since you have been born again not of perishable seed (spora) but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25but the word of the Lord remains forever.” (ESV)
To love us as he had been loved by his Father, Jesus steps into the role of the Father. God cannot remain in the role of the Father, otherwise Jesus would not be the only begotten of the Father. Like his conception, ours also involved the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. And, since he was conceived by the same seed with which we are conceived, he must also have been conceived by the word of God. That would make him the Word of God.
Here is the picture that illustrates what happens when he conceives you into the kingdom.
Jesus having died and ascended to the Father, is no longer visible. He is now fully God and has disappeared into the realm of things not seen. The diagram shows the first law written upon his heart, his conception. Now it is time for him to fulfill that law, and he selects a servant, one who steps into the role of the mother, who will birth you into the kingdom of heaven. This servant had previously been born into the kingdom of heaven, so there was already a law written upon his (her) heart.
This servant is to become your spiritual parent: not your father, but your mother. This servant is the bride of Christ, and Jesus is your Father.
There is an overshadowing that takes place as the servant, the mom, is credited for fulfilling the law by birthing you into the kingdom, and at the same time writing a law upon your heart as you receive the divine love of being born into the kingdom.
And here you stand with a law written upon your heart, waiting for it to be fulfilled. Now it is your turn to be the mom.
Jesus, loving you as the Father loved him, remains in the role of the father. You take the role of the spiritual parent, but instead of you being the father, you are the bride, the mother. Together, you as the bride and Jesus as the husband, conceive children. You, male or female, take the place of Mary. You, genetic male or female, are the mom.
Isaiah 54:1“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children ofthe desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. 5For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. (ESV)
You are the bride of Christ, bearing his children into the kingdom of heaven. This is subtle, but the curse on the woman has been lifted; no longer will you suffer the pain of labor while giving birth. This is something to sing about!
You, especially males, may laugh at the idea of bringing children into the kingdom. After all, you are a male, and men don’t have babies. Well, Sarah laughed too. She didn’t think she would be able to bear a child either.
Remember how the genealogies were to contain only the names of the father? (The genealogy in Matthew is not the genealogy of Christ, but the genealogy of Joseph. The Matthew genealogy shows that Joseph could not have been the father of Jesus because it includes Jechoniah who was cursed in Jeremiah 22:30: that no descendant of his would ever sit on the throne of David. Jesus’ genealogy is Mary’s genealogy, given in Luke.) In the genealogy of the kingdom of heaven, everyone’s father is Jesus. We are all connected directly to the True Vine, Jesus Christ.
Matthew 23:9And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
In the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is everyone’s Father. God is also considered your Father by extension. The church is the bride of Christ, and Jesus is the bridegroom. Everyone in the kingdom of heaven has two parents: Jesus the Father, and his bride the mother. We are to bring children into the kingdom of heaven.
In the kingdom of heaven, God works through his people. We are often portrayed in church as being worthless, God being everything and we as being insignificant, having significance only due to his mercy. Although it is true that we cannot do anything apart from him, it is also true that he does nothing apart from us. We both, Jesus and us, bring something to the table. Jesus is looking for partners in the work of the kingdom. Will you marry Him?
Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
Romans 4:12And the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
The point I would like to make here is that there is more than one step of faith by which we enter the kingdom of heaven. Each step serves a purpose, and it is important, but not necessary, to understand each step.
Earlier, I showed where Jesus, being the judge on the day of judgment, said that he would judge according to the content of our account. My account is managed according to the law, but there are two laws, and the law used to manage your account is determined by the priesthood you are under. Are you under the priesthood of Moses, under the law of sin and death, or the priesthood of Melchizedek, under the law of the Spirit of life?
Under the priesthood of Aaron, a person’s account was purged of sin with a blood sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Where this process fell short was that it only dealt with past sin.
Hebrews 10:1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Sacrifices could not provide continuity of relationship with God. Your heart would remain purged until you sinned again. Before coming into presence of God the account would need to be purged again with a blood sacrifice. Continuity of relationship required a person to get out from under the law of sin and death. It required one to get under the priesthood of Melchizedek.
Romans 7:1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
To get out from under the law a person would have to die.
Psalm 23:4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Luckily, there are shadows of death that fulfill this requirement. David, experiencing a shadow of death, was removed from under the law, and as a result, God remained with him, despite the sins he had committed afterward.
So the process was to purge sin from your account, then die to get out from under the law.
Joseph experienced salvation that more clearly illustrates this process. His brothers provided the blood sacrifice when they killed the kid goat and dipped Joseph’s coat in its blood, and his heart was purged from sin. His brothers then threw him into the pit which served as his shadow of death. Joseph was then brought out of the pit and sold as a slave to an Egyptian. Although he never had opportunity to make further sacrifices in Egypt, God continually remained with him. Everlasting life is not only about duration, but also continuity.
In the New Testament, the issues are the same: there must be a clearing of the account and a dying to the law. This is done with a blood sacrifice, but perhaps not in the way you thought.
Leviticus 16:21And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
A blood sacrifice was sufficient for a family, but the scapegoat could cover the entire nation. Jesus was the scapegoat upon whose head were placed all the sins of the nation. Let us review how this would happen.
Jeremiah 17:1The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Our sins are written on our heart with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond. Written in stone, our account contains our permanent record. But then, Jesus said he would take our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Jesus takes custody of our account, and with it, he takes responsibility to pay the price: death, his own death.
It is my opinion that, when we experience our shadow of death is when he performs this heart surgery. When we get our new heart, we get a new account that is without sin. It remains without sin because we are no longer under the law of sin and death.
What is our shadow of death? Like in the Old Testament, there being more than one shadow of death, there may be more than one shadow of death in the New Covenant.
Mark 16:16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Baptism saves us by supplying a means of death and resurrection, but it is not the only means. The thief on the cross believed and died. Could it be that physical death also qualifies as death when it comes to getting out from under the law? Believe and be baptized is one way to avoid damnation. This verse does not say it is the only way.
Death is a necessary step, but it can be achieved in more than one way.
1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
The shadow of death for the eight souls that were saved by water was the flood. In their case, they were saved by water because that was their shadow of death. That is what brought them out from under the law of sin and death. We can be saved by baptism, and I highly recommend this approach. It comes prepackaged: death and resurrection. I also recommend that baptism not be delayed. Why would we want to delay someone from getting out from under the law? Are we waiting to see how they are able to perform in the flesh to establish the sincerity of their belief?
Justification
Now that you have entered the kingdom of heaven, there is one more step. It is called justification, but the Greek word for justification is the same Greek word for righteousness.
Matthew 5:20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
This passage is interesting. I have always wondered if there was a difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps the kingdom of God is on earth, and the kingdom of heaven is in heaven.
Someone just entering the kingdom of God on earth, would not have had time to fulfill the law which would credit righteousness to their account. They would be under the priesthood of Melchizedek, so they would have their new heart, and they would be subject to the law of the Spirit of life. They would be in a position to fulfill the law, but their entry into the kingdom of heaven would be contingent on righteousness being credited to their account.
Matthew 7:22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
A worker of iniquity is one who receives love from the Lord but does not continue in that love. How exactly does Jesus know us?
1 John 2:3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
His commandments are the laws written upon our hearts. Perhaps we only need to keep one of them, and that would be sufficient. Perhaps we need to only keep the first law written upon our heart. When Adam knew Eve, they had children. Must we also have children, realizing that we may have children even after we die? The thief on the cross had no opportunity to have children in his brief moments before his death. But he left a legacy, his testimony, recorded in the Bible to persuade many to believe on Jesus.
And that brings up another issue. What does it mean to believe. The Greek word for believe is sometimes translated as obey. Unbelievers are disobedient. Unless you obey at least once – again, your account is not closed until the day of the Lord – there will be not righteousness in your account.
2 Corinthians 5:10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
You get no credit for things the Lord does without you. You get no credit for the things you do apart from the Lord (I will remember your sin no more). You only get credit for things you work together with the Lord: the things done in your body.
New Wine 