Within You
QUESTION
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)
Does this passage refer to regeneration?
ANSWER
When we consider the state of fallen man, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), we can be certain that NOTHING of the Kingdom of God can be found within him. Being ever and only in the flesh, it is clear that no good thing dwells within him and thus no aspect of the Kingdom of God (Romans 7:18). Only at regeneration, when the Spirit of God takes abode in a child of God and quickens him to spiritual life, can the Kingdom of God be said to dwell "within you." Since, in their most essential forms, death and life are binary opposites, regeneration is therefore an instantaneous occurrence. It consumes no portion of time. Rather, it marks the boundary between being dead in trespasses and sins and the subsequent state of spiritual life. It follows that regeneration is not an observable event (v20) and that only its subsequent effects can be observed (John 3:8), and thus regeneration is the time in which the Kingdom of God begins to reside within one of God's children.
The Lord's statement in Luke 17:20-21 is regarded as somewhat enigmatic by many in Christendom. No doubt it encompasses more ramifications that what I have laid out here. Whatever else might be said about it, we must conclude from the aforementioned observations that regeneration is the occasion upon which the Kingdom of God can be said to be "within you" and in that sense Luke 17:20-21 refers to regeneration.
- Elder Daniel Samons
FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS
Since we continually have the kingdom of God within is, how do you explain that with regeneration, is the kingdom of God itself regeneration?
How do you explain John 3:8?
How can we hear the Spirit before it cometh if that’s regeneration? Seems you cannot hear until regenerated.
With Luke 17:20 compared with John 3:8, are they saying you can’t see the kingdom of God before and the instant moment it regenerates you but after, but can either before or can hear the kingdom at the time of regeneration but can’t see it?
What about Luke 17:20 when it says it comes without observation, that seems to say you can’t see it before, but might see it the moment it happens.
FOLLOW UP ANSWERS
Since we continually have the kingdom of God within us,
To be clear, God’s elect do not ALL have the kingdom of God within us. Only the regenerate elect can be said to have that. Not trying to be ponderous, just want to be clear.
How do you explain that with regeneration, is the kingdom of God itself regeneration?
I believe I stated that in my previous answer: “When we consider the state of fallen man, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), we can be certain that NOTHING of the kingdom of God can be found within him. Being ever and only in the flesh, it is clear that no good thing dwells within him and thus no aspect of the kingdom of God (Romans 7:18). Only at regeneration, when the Spirit of God takes abode in a child of God and quickens him to spiritual life, can the kingdom of God be said to dwell ‘within you.’”
To state that another way, regeneration is NOT the kingdom of God, per se. It is the monergistic act of God wherein the Spirit takes up residence in a child of God and thus the moment from which the Kingdom of God can be said to be “within you.”
How do you explain John 3:8?
Let’s look at that verse:
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
The “wind” depicts the Spirit of God. The phrase “bloweth where it listeth” speaks of sovereign regeneration. It is the creative fiat of God whereby men are quickened unto spiritual life. It is not a function of man’s will but of God’s will. The remainder of the verse speaks to the effects of the wind, indicating that what we often see and call “the wind” is not technically the wind but the effects generated thereby. When we see leaves rustling in the breeze, we are not seeing the wind itself but rather the subsequent effects of wind applied to an object. So it is with the matter of regeneration. While many Christians might say, “I got a warm and fuzzy feeling and I know that this was the moment I was born again.” This observation is not true, irrespective of how zealously it is believed. John 3:8 teaches that what was felt was an after-effect of regeneration, not regeneration itself. I’ve often said it this way, “Any spiritual experience you’ve ever had was an experience in spiritual life.” The dead in trespasses and sins are incapable of having spiritual experiences. One must possess spiritual life to have spiritual sensation. It follows that any spiritual sensation is not the new birth itself, but a subsequent effect thereof.
Thinking of this another way, since life is a binary proposition (dead or alive) with no gradation between the two, it follows that regeneration is not a process but an instantaneous quickening that consumes no duration of time. If a man is born again at high noon, then he was dead in the morning and alive in the afternoon and any experience in spiritual life must also have occurred in the afternoon as well.
How can we hear the Spirit before it cometh if that’s regeneration?
Because the “calling” of regeneration by the Spirit is not an informative declaration. It is a creative fiat, a call unto spiritual life, a quickening. This call does not require any capacity of reception from the dead object to which it is intended. It imparts life to that dead object by the mighty power of God (Ephesians 1:19). People often confuse regeneration with conversion, at times using the terms interchangably. They are not the same. The former is the resurrection of the dead by creative fiat from the voice of the Son of God (John 5:25), the latter is the proper motion of the spiritually alive under gospel instruction (Luke 22:32).
Seems you cannot hear until regenerated.
You cannot hear spiritual instruction until you are regenerated. But there is no state of deadness, whether possessed by inanimate matter or fallen man, that does not respond to the creative call of God that says, “Live!” (Ezekiel 16:6) The bible metaphorically refers to this as “hearing” (John 5:25) but in so doing it is speaking of God’s omnipotent power over life and death, not affirming some extant receptive capacity in the passive object to which the calling is directed.
I believe it’s only when we improperly conjoin the effectual call with the gospel call that we muddy the waters on this matter. To put it bluntly, consider the following:
Romans 8:30 mentions men being “called” as part of the golden chain of redemption which occur for ALL of God’s elect family.
Some of God’s elect do not receive the explicit NT gospel call of I Corinthians 15:3-4 and II Corinthians 5:21. (OT saints, Abijah, Rachael’s children, etc.)
It follows that the “calling” of Romans 8:30 cannot be the gospel call.
I think I wrote an article on that a while back, I’ll see if I can dig it up.
With Luke 17:20 compared with John 3:8, are they saying you can’t see the kingdom of God before and the instant moment it regenerates you but after, but can either before or can hear the kingdom at the time of regeneration but can’t see it?
John 3:3 states that unless someone is regenerate, they have no spiritual capacity whatsoever. John 3:8 states that regeneration is a sovereign act of God and that you can only ever see its after-effects. Luke 17:20 affirms what is stated in John 3:8, you don’t see regeneration, only its subsequent effects are visible.
What about Luke 17:20 when it says it comes without observation, that seems to say you can’t see it before, but might see it the moment it happens.
I don’t see how you can interpret “cometh not with observation” as “might be able to see it," or for that matter, why you would want to interpret it that way. When it speaks of regeneration coming “not with observation” it is like an uninvited friend that shows up at a party. You see him at the punch bowl but you didn’t see him arrive. He cometh not with observation but there is evidence that he is at the party nonetheless.
- Elder Daniel Samons