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　　John 3:3 ...Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

　　5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

　　The revelation of the kingdom of God in John is based upon two verses in John 3....Verse 3 speaks of seeing the kingdom, and verse 5 speaks of entering into the kingdom. To see the kingdom we need to be born anew. To enter into the kingdom we need to be born of water and the Spirit. Water signifies the death of Christ, into which we all have been baptized, and the Spirit signifies resurrection.

　　[John 3] speaks of Nicodemus, a real seeker who came to the Lord in the night (v. 2)....The Lord...unveiled to him that he needed to be born anew. Nicodemus responded by saying, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). The Lord then told him that he needed a second birth, a new birth.

　　If we are not born anew, we do not have the capacity to see the kingdom of God. To be born anew is to be born of water, signifying the death of Christ, and of the Spirit, signifying Christ's resurrection. We need to die with Christ and be resurrected to be a new person of another, new species, new kind. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” p. 438)

　　The kingdom of God is the reign of God. This divine reign is a realm, not only of the divine dominion but also of the divine species, in which are all the divine things. The vegetable kingdom is a realm of the vegetable species, and the animal kingdom is a realm of the animal species. In the same way, the kingdom of God is a realm of the divine species.

　　God became flesh to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in His life and nature, but not in His divine Godhead, to enter into His divine species. In John 3 the kingdom of God refers more to the species of God than to the reign of God.

　　For something to be in the animal species, it must be born of an animal. Also, to enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the divine nature and life.

　　That man was created in the image of God and according to His likeness indicates that man was created in God's kind, in God's species. Genesis 1 says that each of the living things was created according to its kind. But God created man, not according to man's kind but in God's image and according to God's likeness to be God's kind.

　　The believers, who are born of God by regeneration to be His children in His life and nature but not in His Godhead (John 1:12-13), are more in God's kind than Adam was. Adam had only the outward appearance of God without the inward reality, the divine life. We have the reality of the divine life within us, and we are being transformed and conformed to the Lord's image in our entire being. It is logical to say that all the children of God are in the divine realm of the divine species.

　　Thus, in regeneration God begets gods. Man begets man. Goats beget goats....If the children of God are not in God's kind, in God's species, in what kind are they? If they are not gods, what are they? We all who are born of God are gods. But for utterance, due to the theological misunderstanding, it is better to say that we are God-men in the divine species, that is, in the kingdom of God.

　　These God-men, who are children born of God, not only constitute the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17; John 14:2) but also are the constituents with which the Body of Christ is built up, and the Body of Christ will consummate the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God and of Christ (1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 11:15). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 438-440)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 12; Life-study of John, msg. 9