Willard Wednesdays

The Divine Conspiracy: Chapter 3 What Jesus Knew: Our God-bathed World (pp. 66-74)

Willard spends a good number of pages helping readers understand that the kingdom of the heavens (found 32 times in the Gospel of Matthew) means that God is here...invading the air around us...near and present rather than far off and distant as we've come to understand when we think of heaven.

Willard shares interactions of OT and NT friends of God that show us"heaven is here and God is here, because God and his spiritual agents act here and are constantly available here." And of course, "incarnation in the person of Jesus is the most complete case of 'God with us,' or 'Immanuel'.  

Nicodemus had trouble understanding the birth 'from above'.  "To be born 'from above,' in New Testament language, means to be interactively joined with a dynamic, unseen system of divine reality in the midst of which all humanity moves about -whether it knows it or not.  And that, of course, is 'The Kingdom Among Us.'"  

"But do we actually believe this?  I mean, are we ready automatically to act as if we stand here and now and always in the presence of the great being...who fills and overflows all space, including the atmosphere around our body?"

"The damage done to our practical faith in Christ and in his government-at-hand by confusing heaven with a place in distant or outer space, or even beyond space, is incalculable.  Of course God is there too.  But instead of heaven and God also being always present with us, as Jesus shows them to be, we invariably take them to be located far away and, most likely, at a much later time- not here and not now.  And we should then be surprised to feel our selves alone?"  

How might we think and live differently if we recognized Christ and His Kingdom right next to us, all around us, all the time?  As Paul says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)  Consider this absolute reality and nearness of God as you go about your day today.   

"We may ignore, but we can never evade the presence of God.  The world is crowded with Him." -C.S. Lewis