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The Lord has said that until a man is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Let alone “entering”, he cannot even see it. The bodily eyes see only physical and material things. But God is a Spirit, and to see Him and His Spiritual Kingdom we must be born of the Spirit (John 3:5–6), and then not only will our spiritual eyes see Him, but we shall also reign with Him. When a man repents of his sin and turns to God, then the Spirit of God works in him, and he is born anew and becomes a new creature, and then and there the Kingdom of God, or Paradise, begins in him. Christ said to the thief on the Cross, “To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). This shows that the Lord had full knowledge of and authority over Paradise. He did not say, “Perhaps after some time you will be with Me in Paradise,” nor that, “I shall go there first and get permission from God, and then arrange for you,” but as an owner speaking with authority of His rightful possession He gave this comfort to the dying thief, and took this the firstfruits of His Cross with Him into Paradise. So those who now are crucified to sin and the world with Him are on that very day born again, and, entering Paradise, or the Kingdom of God, feel a wonderful joy and peace in their hearts. Worldly-minded men can neither “see” the peace of Paradise, nor can they understand what is the meaning of this new birth, or of the Kingdom of God.
The Lord gives every man his chance to repent, and be born anew, and enter into the Kingdom of God. He knew what kind of man Judas Iscariot was, and how he would betray Him. Still He did not treat him with harshness, but gave him the precious opportunity of living with Him. No one can say that He did not give an evil man his chance. But Judas committed the great folly, that, instead of repenting of his sin and coming back to Christ, he went out and hanged himself. So nowadays there are many who commit Judas’s sin, and instead of entering into Paradise and the Kingdom of God, they go to their own place, and are punished (Acts 1:25).
“His own place”, or hell, means a condition in which man by the exercise of his own free will, in disobedience to God, creates a state of suffering within himself. Hell is not the name of a particular place, because if it is a place, then God, Who is present in every place, would then have one part of His being in hell—and that can never be possible. But hell is a state which does not exist in God, and the true worshipper, who is in spiritual union with God, will be saved for ever from this state of sin and its suffering.
Wherever God is there is heaven, or the Kingdom of God, but God is present everywhere, therefore heaven is everywhere. Knowing this, His true worshippers are happy everywhere, and under all conditions, whether in pain or discomfort, whether among friends or among enemies, or whether in this world or in the world to come. For they live in God, and God lives in them eternally; and this is the Kingdom of God (Luke 17:20–21).
Outwardly, the sinner may appear to live in a state of ease and luxury, but he can never get rid of the disquiet of his heart. If indeed he could enter heaven, that also would be hell to him, because hell is in his heart itself. He cannot enter the Kingdom of God till his heart is changed and he is born anew.
The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Love. A man of God saw in a vision that he had gone into a strange country. When he arrived there he was astonished that the people of that land came out and welcomed him with joy, as if he were a long-lost brother, or a friend who had just returned to them. He went into the city with them, and saw great mansions in which were all kinds of costly furniture, but their owners had gone out and left them open. He asked some of the men why this was, and they said, “There are no thieves here. As long as men’s hearts are locked up to God, so long do they need to lock their doors. But when the door of the heart is open to God, and He lives in it, then there is no need to put a lock on any door; for where the Kingdom of God is in the heart it is the kingdom of love, where each serves the other in love and desires only his good. Once there were two brothers here. The younger brother learned that the elder had need of some goods, so he took a quantity and set out to take them to his brother’s house. It also happened that the same thought of helping the younger had occurred to the elder brother. They were moved by love alone, and without either saying anything to the other, each set out for the other’s house with some goods. They met on the road. When each saw the unselfish love of the other, they embraced in real happiness. This is the way we should help and love one another, and seek the good of our fellow-men.”
When the stranger had gone on a little farther, he saw a man and an angel meet as true brothers, and begin with one heart worshipping Christ, the Incarnation of Love. On seeing this the stranger’s heart was filled with inexpressible love and happiness, and instinctively he exclaimed, “Without doubt this is the Kingdom of God, and our real and eternal home for which the heart of man longs.” Although heaven begins in man’s heart while he is in the world, yet it continues beyond this life in that state where there is neither suffering, nor pain, nor death, nor tears, but endless life and unbroken joy.