WHY FLESH AND BLOOD CAN NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD- 1COR.15:50

By Edward O’Hara

People that believe in salvation by works like the doctrine of original sin and sin nature doctrines teach are those who think that the reason man is separated from God is because they are bad because they have done bad things, or because they are accountable to God for Adam’s sin, and need to be made good enough to be acceptable to God. And that this is the reason that Jesus had to die for our sins. To pay a penalty for sins so that by faith in Jesus His righteousness would be imputed to us to assuage God’s anger at mankind. Making us good enough for God to accept us into His kingdom. 

But, this construct is a rejection of what the Bible plainly says. Because the Bible says that it is only because we are natural, only flesh and blood when we are born, just as Gen.2:7,7:15,22 and 1Cor.15:45-49 says Adam was when he was made, that there is separation from God so that keeps us from inheriting God’s kingdom. Because only those who are spiritual can inherit the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. Which is why Jesus said “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John3:1-8. 

Jesus told us here that the reason we must be born again, or born from above, is because what is born of the flesh, which is the water birth from our mother’s womb when her water breaks, is only flesh. And that only what is spirit can enter into the kingdom of God. 

This is why Jesus told them “the kingdom of God is within you” in Luke17:21. He was speaking to them about the potential for the spirit birth that He said every man has need of. Because only through the spirit birth do we have access to the kingdom of God. 

This is how we have the kingdom of God within us. Because it is the spirit birthed in us that was never there before that makes us children of God, and therefore heirs to His kingdom. Those who are only born of the water/flesh are not heirs to God’s kingdom. They are only potential heirs. Because first they are only flesh just as Paul says Adam was in 1Cor.15:45-49 when he was made, with no spirit in them. 

In Rom.6:1 Paul asked “shall we sin that grace might abound? God forbid” he said. Paul said this because those who have been set free from sin have a liberty that comes to all who are in Christ Jesus. And having been set free they can not be slaves again. John attests to this also in 1John3:9 saying he that is born of God can not sin. 

All of the apostles spoke this way as we see in 1Peter1:23, 1John3:9, James1:17,18, and others. Because the liberty that those who are in Christ have puts them on another level. A spiritual plane where slavery to the desires of the flesh is only a memory that’s becoming more and more distant as they have their minds renewed as Rom.12:1,2 says they do by the Holy Spirit. Works of the flesh that Heb.9:14 says are purged from the consciousness of those who have trusted in Jesus. 

Those desires no longer have the hold on them they once had because by the Holy Spirit communing with theirs they become more and more spiritually minded. The desires of the flesh can’t make him a slave even if he were to do them because of the liberty he now has in Christ.

This is why Paul says in 1Cor.6:12 that for him all things are lawful. This is why Paul said in Rom.8:1-6, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” 

What is this law of the Spirit of life in Christ? It is the liberty that we now live in because of the new birth. The birth of a spirit in us that was never there before that makes us forever children of God. This liberty makes it impossible for us to “walk after the flesh”. We couldn’t if we tried because we are now spiritual beings. And no longer only natural. 

This has nothing to do with works or behavior. It can’t. Because works or behavior is the works of the flesh system that was Israel’s under the law. A system that Paul is saying in Rom.7:6 they were delivered from by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 

Therefore they no longer live by the flesh or works for righteousness. But, righteousness is instead by the spirit that has been birthed in them. Because it is by that spirit that we are in relationship with God. Having been made sons of God by the spirit birth and by the Holy Spirit in us who teaches us and leads us into all truth. 

Paul goes on to say, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

Paul says the weakness of the law was that it could not do for the flesh what can only be done through the Spirit of God by the spiritual birth. Because when we are born into this world we are just as Adam was when he was made. We are flesh and blood, we are mortal. 

But, when we are born of the Spirit we are made immortal by the spiritual birth. Not by works of righteousness, but by grace through faith. This is why no matter how good a person’s behavior might be in the flesh, even “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” as Luke1:5,6 says Zachariah and Elizabeth did, it can not change our flesh from mortal to immortal. This is why the law was weak through the flesh. Not because the flesh is evil. But, because it is not spiritual. 

This is why Paul tells us in Gal.3:21 the law could not give life. It could only make the flesh behave in a way that would allow men to live peaceably with one another. Which while that is a good thing, it still can not give us the life and immortality that makes men children of God and heirs to His kingdom. 

Paul says that the purpose of the law was to keep Israel” bloodline a fully human bloodline for Jesus to come through when it was fully time. This is what Paul said in Gal.3:19when he wrote, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” 

The reason Paul tells us that the law’s purpose would only be until the seed should come is because once Jesus came there was no need for a law that preserved Israel’s bloodline for Jesus to come through. The “seed that should come” is Jesus who Heb.2:16 says was “the seed of Abraham.” The seed who Rom.1:3 says “was made of the seed of David according to the flesh”. And who 1Cor.15:46 says was “the last Adam”. 

These show us that Jesus was as fully human in His flesh as any man. As well as being fully God in the spirit. And that this was the purpose of God giving Israel the law. Because only as a fully human being could He join with us in our death. And only by joining with us in our death could He conquer our death by the resurrection. 

And because only Jesus has conquered death He is the only way to eternal life. This is why Jesus said “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” in John10:10. 

The abundant life is the eternal life that comes from the spirit birth. This is why Jesus said “It’s the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing” in John6:63. This is why satan wants to keep men focused on works. Because by that he keeps men under death’s power by keeping them from having the immortality that the life in the spirit and the spirit birth brings that only comes by grace through faith. 

This is why Paul said in Rom.10:9,10 that by trusting in Him as Lord and by believing in His resurrection we receive His life in us. The life of the spirit birthed in us. So that the natural life that separated us from God is changed now by a new spirit that never existed before. And afterward the promise of a new spiritual body we receive at our resurrection. The parable Jesus told of the old and new wine bottles and the old and new wine is an explanation of this. 

All this has nothing to do with works or behavior that so many believe has separated man from God. Adam’s sin did not separate mankind from God. It only exposed his mortality. Because he found out that when he could no longer eat from the tree of life he began to die just as God said he would. 

Not because God penalized him with mortality. Adam was always mortal. God made him that way. This happened so that through the knowledge that he is mortal mankind would realize his need for God. This was to show him that his need for God was to have the eternal life that only God can give. And that it comes only through a relationship with Him. A life that would destroy Satan’s power. The fear of death. The fear that comes from being mortal. 

For by Jesus God saw to it that men could pass from life to life. And that he would no longer only “return to the dust from which ye were taken” as God told Adam in Gen.3:19. God’s plan from before He made the world was for man through faith in Jesus to have eternal life. That man could be made immortal by the birth of a spirit in him that is eternal life. The eternal life that comes from knowing Jesus as Jesus said in John17:3. 

So when you hear someone say something like “The gospel teaches that we’re all separated from God by our sins, and there is nothing we can do to satisfy the righteous demands of God on our own”. We realize that this person has believed in a salvation by works construct devised by satan. A construct known as the doctrine of original sin and sin nature. Because that doctrine makes them think that works separate us from God. 

When the truth is that it is our mortality from which the separation comes. Not works. Which is why Paul taught in Titus3:4-7, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

The washing of regeneration is not a fleshly cleansing. Our flesh will go back to the dust from which it was taken just as God said in Gen.3:19. We get a new body after we shed this one. It is the life of the spirit born in us that is the washing of regeneration. And this can not be by the works of righteousness we have done because only God who makes all things can put a spirit in us. Therefore it is through the spirit birth, and not by works of any kind that anyone can do that we have the hope of eternal life. 

To come to a saving faith in Jesus all one needs to do is confess that He is Lord. And believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Works of any kind are completely unnecessary. Just know the love of God and live in that love and you will have eternal life. Begin to read the Bible and believe what it plainly says. 

And I will see you there or in the air!This message can also be heard at: Rumble