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The Entrance Requirements To God's Kingdom
 In John 3:5 Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that the entrance requirements to God's kingdom are repentance and spiritual rebirth. God promised to restore His people not only physically, but also spiritually. To accomplish this, God would give them a new heart for following him and put His Spirit within them (see Ezek 11:19,20; Psalm 51:7-11) to transform them and empower them to do His will. This is the new covenant promised and reiterated in (Ezek 16:61-63; 34:23-25). This new covenant is ultimately fulfilled in Christ Jesus. No matter how impure your life is right now, God offers you a fresh start. You can have your sins washed away, receive a new heart from God, and have his Spirit within you - if you accept God's promise.
The history of Israel emphatically demonstrates that in order to live in obedience to the will of God, we need more than our own best human efforts and intentions. To live obedient lives, people need a new life from God, followed by an understanding in how to develop that new life. God promised to supply that new life. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you." "Behold, the days are coming...when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel...not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" (Jeremiah 31:31-32).
When anyone embraces the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ (the mediator, the great High Priest of the new covenant), that person is born again by the Spirit of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). This is a necessity. "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Human "flesh-birth" brings with it a hard spiritual heart (a dead spirit). Spiritual new birth from God replaces this hard heart (this dead, non-responsive spirit). "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you." Think of our desperate need for this work of God that brings us a new heart, a new life.
Why try to patch up your old life when you can have a new one? Those not born again are described as living "in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God... because of the hardening of their heart" (Ephesians 4:17-18). Yet, whoever relies upon the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ becomes a newborn child of God. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Eternal God, the giver of new life in Christ, I thank You for replacing my old, hard, dead heart with a new, responsive, living heart. I long to grow and walk in the newness of life in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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