Spirit or Flesh??...

The kingdom of this world is not the kingdom of God. God had in His heart a world system
- a universe of His creating -- which should be headed up in Christ His Son (col.
1:16,17). But Satan, working through man's flesh, has set up instead a rival system known in
Scripture as "this world" -- a system in which we are involved and which he himself
dominates. He has in fact become "the prince of this world" (John 12:31).
Thus, in Satan's hands, the first creation has become the old creation, and God's primary
concern is now no longer with that but with a second and new creation. He is bringing in a
new creation, a new kingdom and a new world, and nothing of the old creation, the old
kingdom or the old world can be transferred to the new. It is a question now of these two rival
realms, and of which realm we belong to.
The apostle Paul, of course, leaves us in no doubt as to which of these two realms is now
in fact ours. He tells us that God, in redemption, "delivered us out of the power of darkness,
and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col. 1:12,13).
But in order to bring us into His new kingdom, God must do something new in us. He
must make of us new creatures. Unless we are created anew we can never fit into the new
realm. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh"; and, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:50).
However educated, however cultured, however improved it be, flesh is still flesh. Our fitness
for the new kingdom is determined by the creation to which we belong. Do we belong to the
old creation or the new? Are we born of the flesh or of the Spirit? Our ultimate suitability for
the new realm hinges on the question of origin. The question is not `good' or bad?' but `flesh
or Spirit?' "That which is born of the flesh is flesh", and it will never be anything else. That
which is of the old creation can never pass over into the new.