Confidence in Jesus Leads to God's RealmJohn was, Jesus remarked, as great as any human being who ever lived. Yet, he still functioned from within the limited framework where God's action, rule, or governance was primarily channeled through the official practices of Jewish rituals and institutions: through "the law and the prophets," as that phrase was then used. But since John, Jesus continued, we no longer "stand on proprieties." "The Kingdom of the Heavens is subjected to violence and violent people take it by force" (Matt. 11:12). That is, the rule of God, now present in the person of Jesus himself, submits to approaches that were previously not possible. Personal need and confidence in Jesus permits any person to blunder right into God's realm. And once in, they have an astonishing new status: "Those least in the Kingdom of the Heavens are greater than John." From The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. Copyright © 1997 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
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