Let me use an illustration here. A dog cannot fly To a dog, flight is a sheer impossibility. But what a dog cannot do, a bird can do with ease. It is the simplest thing for a bird to soar up into the sky. The life of a dog is a life that cannot fly; the life of a bird is a life that flies with ease. The bird has the kind of nature that flies, and it would suffer intensely if you did not let it fly. As for the dog, if you want it to crawl into a hole, it can do that; or if you want it to climb up a hill, it can do that too; but ask it to fly and it simply cannot. It is a matter of life. Our corrupt natural life cannot be subject to God. We need another life for that. We need the life of God. The new birth is the coming of God into man, so that what before was impossible to man now becomes possible. "With God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26). Our problem of authority is no problem to God. When we have His life, it is the most natural thing to come under His authority. It is as spontaneous as for a bird to fly. If we suppress the divine life within us and do not let it submit to the divine authority, then we suffer as a caged bird suffers. But when we submit to the divine control we are wonderfully released. The more we submit, the more released we are until, as Isaiah puts it, we can "mount up with wings as eagles" (Isa. 40:31). Brothers and sisters, do you see that the whole question of the kingdom is a question of life?

The demands of the kingdom are terrific, but the provision of the divine life is equal to all its demands. A full gospel presents the kingdom with its requirements. It also presents the precious blood to cleanse from defilement and the life to supply the power which makes us partakers in the kingdom. The gospel presents these three things—the kingdom, the blood, and the life. The kingdom makes its demands, but by virtue of the cleansing that comes through the precious blood and the power that comes through the divine life, even we who by nature are fallen creatures can live the kingdom life. Praise God, the very source of life is within us—even God Himself! The God who from the throne issues His demands, Himself meets His demands. From the throne He requires that we be subject to Him, and from within He supplies the life that can be subject to Him. This takes no toll of our strength, but it does require our cooperation. There is no need for us to do, but there is the need for us to let Him do. Otherwise, how could the demands of the kingdom ever be met? Listen to these lofty demands! "Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you: Resist not him that is evil; but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man would...take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also" (Matt. 5:38-40). In my youth when I read those words I thought, "Oh, I could not possibly do that! And never in all my life shall I be able; so I'll have to give up being a Christian. I can't be a false Christian, and I can't be a true one, so I can't be one at all. There's no way out!" But a voice within me said: "You can't help being a Christian." I wanted to draw back, but I could not draw back; I wanted to go forward, but I could not go forward. Oh, the misery of it! For a long time I was in great perplexity, but one day God showed me that what I was trying to do was an utter impossibility, and He had never meant me to try. Imagine trying to attain to this: "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). That day light dawned, and I was able to praise God that He was my Father, and that the Father's life in me could enable even me to be perfect. The question is not one of our ability to do, but of giving our consent to His doing. He is impotent if we refuse consent. And that is where the trouble often lies—He is willing, but we are unwilling.

Do you see? The requirements of the kingdom can never be met by man, and God never expected man to meet them. The demands He makes, He Himself meets—and that is the grace revealed in the New Testament! In the Old Testament the law made its demands on man, but in the New Testament it is the kingdom that makes its demands. The demands of the kingdom are far more exacting than the demands of the law. The demands of the law proved how utterly impotent man was; now the demands of the kingdom prove, not how unable man is, but how able God is. There is no need for the demands of the kingdom to prove man's inability, for that has been conclusively proved by the demands of the law. Today the requirements of the kingdom serve to demonstrate the infinite ability of God. He has become our life that in us He may meet all the demands His kingdom makes upon us.

It is important to realize that God's life has been given for the sake of His kingdom. If we do not let Him set up His throne in our lives and assert His authority over us, His life cannot operate in us. God has put His life in us for the specific purpose of meeting the demands of His kingdom, and unless we allow Him to establish His kingdom in us, His life within us cannot function.