Day 3: John Chapter 3

"No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (v.2)." Notice this is not will see the kingdom but can see. The kingdom is not just a future reality, a place that one may or may not go rather a present reality that is either apprehended or missed. Here Jesus uses the analogy of a second birth. To be born of the flesh is to live in the flesh and see only earthly things. To be born of the spirit is to awake to a new reality, a spiritual reality. Being born from above or "born again" is not just some catchy way to speak about believing in the propositions of the church rather it is a new existence in Christ. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom in this world and enlightened the path to our inheritance of this kingdom. The kingdom is here, it is present but we must have eyes to see! "The Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (v.15)." Again, not will have eternal life but may have eternal life. Eternal life is a way of being specifically being born from above. Eternal life is life in the spirit. We are no longer dying a spiritual death. "Everyone believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (v.16)." Belief in no way prevents us from dying "in the flesh." This is inevitable it is a horizon we are always heading towards yet are not privy to the duration of our journey. Jesus is speaking of a spiritual death. We are dying in the flesh: "those who do not believe are condemned already (v.18)." Already condemned to a life of death a life without the other a life without spirit. Eternal life is life without borders: no beginning and no end. This is the present. We are always and forever presented with two options: life in the present or a blindness to the present propagated by mind. Where shall we live? In our heads? Blind to the other and consumed by our own construction of self? Or open to the dialogue and community of the present.? Yet it is only through the revelation of Christ that we can live in this present. The death of the flesh is to be consumed and defined by both what has happened and what will happen. Kingdom vision, seeing the kingdom, is the acceptance of the nowness of life. Life is eternal. We may be born anew into the presence of God or live out our days in the isolation of the past and future where nothing exists but our own thoughts and structures of thoughts i.e. the world we have constructed for ourselves. "Who ever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life (v.36)." Accept the eternal that is yours in the now. Those who do not obey are not sentenced to death after life rather "will not see life" at all! Life in the Kingdom or death in the self. This is the choice.