What Does God Want?

by Michael S. Heiser

As the kingdom of God grows, the kingdom of darkness diminishes.

What do these phrases mean? We can start by asking who rules the nations now? The answer is the fallen sons of God allotted to the nations at Babel. In other words, the nations at this moment have not yet been fully (or even mostly) reclaimed by God. The expansion of the kingdom of God is a gradual process as we’ve noted—a process “already” begun but not yet complete. When the process is complete at the end of days, believers will “judge angels”—we will pass judgment on the fallen sons of God by replacing them. We will rule the nations with Jesus our king—and brother.

We aren’t born into the family of God. We’re outsiders. Yet God wants us in the family. Lacking God’s nature, we abuse our intelligence and freedom to get what we want, often harming others in the process. We live in self-destructive ways. When we don’t image God and we break his laws, when we violate, manipulate, and otherwise abuse others, we sin. We are by nature sinners—self-absorbed and rebellious. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

What I’m describing is the soul-crushing internal life many of those believers are still living. Their guilt has transformed the love and grace of the gospel into a performance-centered, merit-based experience. They begin to wonder if God still loves them like he did the moment they understood the gospel and believed it. They look at the sins they commit as believers as reasons for God to be unenthused and ambivalent toward them. They are convinced they can’t measure up to God’s expectations and wonder if they “believed enough” or perhaps didn’t really believe at all when they thought they did.

The sad truth is that many genuine Christians live tormented, defeated lives, not because of the gospel, but because of the way their guilt has distorted the clarity of the gospel. When they read Scripture they see only their sins and failures. Every sermon is an indictment (and shame on preachers who preach with that as their main intention). The spectacular wonder of the story gets lost and forgotten. Salvation is not about performance. It never was, never will be, and never can be. We can do nothing to put ourselves at the level of God, to make ourselves fit for his presence. We lack God’s perfect nature. We are like God, created to image him, but by definition we are less than God, and God knows it. That’s why his solution was Jesus, not you.

a disciple was a follower—specifically a follower of Jesus. I defined “following” as imitating or imaging Jesus. Being “conformed to the image of Jesus” is our ultimate destiny (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:10).

Salvation doesn’t cost us anything; it’s free for all who believe the gospel. Discipleship, however, does cost us something.