Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God

1 ๐ถ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘  15:50 ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐ผ ๐‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ, ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ , ๐‘“๐‘™๐‘’๐‘ โ„Ž ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘–๐‘›โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘˜๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘, ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ข๐‘๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘›โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ข๐‘๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘›.

When the Lord said to Peter, โ€œGet behind me, Satan (Matthew 16:23),โ€ it seemed like Peterโ€™s heart was in the right place; itโ€™s hard to understand that even our good heart needs to die. ๐“๐จ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ซ๐, ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ, ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐ž๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐โ€”๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿโ€”๐ง๐ž๐ž๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ž. Even Peter himself did not see this. After he said โ€œGod be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You (Matthew 16:22)โ€ out of his good heart, the Lord rebuked Satan in him. That was Peterโ€™s most miserable time in his human life, in his human effort. Peter gave up everything for the Lord, just like many serving ones. The darkest hour in their life is when, even after they seemingly gave everything to the church and to the Lord, they find themselves with nothing and are not accepted by the Lord. That was Peter at that moment.

๐ˆ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐›๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ง ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿโ€”๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐โ€”๐ž๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ. ๐Ž๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ, ๐ฐ๐ž ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐›๐ฅ๐ž๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ, ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐ข๐ ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ, ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฒ, ๐จ๐ซ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐œ๐ญ. Actually, there are no high things or low things in the Lordโ€™s eyes. It is we who create that sense of better and worse, good and bad. The self, no matter good or bad, is the root behind the striving and jealousyโ€”and even the fornication, persecution, rebelliousness and divisionโ€”in the church in Corinth. Although the church in Corinth was initiated from a highly educated culture and highly philosophical society, Paul was dealing with a group of people who committed very low sins. Sin oftentimes is camouflaged by philosophy and morality, political exercise, and even religious commentaryโ€”opinions about what Christ is supposed to be, what the church is supposed to be, and what Christians are supposed to be.

It is true that Peter loved the Lord wholeheartedly, but why was his love not accepted? Because ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ; ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐›๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ. In the Bible, gold typifies the divine nature of God. Without gold, human life is driven by ambitions, lusts, desires, good heart and fear. Only when the hollow human life is replaced by the gold, or the divine elements, are we acceptable to the Lord. This replacement was accomplished by the Lord when His death ended flesh on the cross, and the process still goes on everyday when we allow the cross to be effective on our flesh. No matter how good, our good heart, high mind and even our human love are not enough to make us acceptable to Him; it is still from our flesh and blood. Yet Paul tells us, โ€œthey who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lustsโ€ (Galatians 5:24). Through Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit, we may be joined to Him to be made one with Him. Since, in Him, we are no longer living by flesh and blood and since only a life by the Spirit is qualified, the key today is very clear: โ€œIf we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spiritโ€ (Galatians 5:25).

(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering 05/17/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)

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