WE still need to consider the other thing these verses reveal to us, and so we are coming to these verses again. This second thing is embodied in the words of Jesus where Jesus says “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”. In Mark's account we hear Jesus amplifying this statement in the words “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

This amplification from Mark's account shows us how important is this revelation Jesus is giving here. Jesus is expressing something that is at the heart of saving religion. Jesus is describing a characteristic of the kingdom of God, and of its subjects, which determines who is a member and who is not a member.

To belong to the kingdom of God is to be saved from our sin and to have been reconciled to God and to be the recipient of eternal life. Salvation is to be translated from the kingdom of this world and brought into the kingdom of God. Salvation is to be enrolled as a citizen of the kingdom of God. This being so, when Jesus describes the character of the citizens of the kingdom of God here, then it is paramount that we understand what this character is, and that we know that we have this character.

In the first place we need to be clear what these words of Jesus are not teaching. Jesus is not saying that unless we receive or enter the kingdom of heaven when we are children we will never enter it. This would be a denial of all the teaching of the bible, and the very evidence of conversions which are plain to read in Scripture, where people come to faith in their adult life. There would be little point in evangelism if adults could not enter the kingdom of God.

Also Jesus is not saying here that we must return to childish ways, and childish ignorance, and childishness if we are to be members of the kingdom of God. Here again this would be foolishness. We grow into adulthood and grow in understanding and learning and experience, and this is right a proper.

So what is Jesus teaching here? As we tackle this search for understanding, let us consider for a moment so much thinking that is prevalent today. Thinking today centres around the use of reason. We are told that God has given us reason and reasoning powers, and we must use them in our faith. From this, reason is used to criticize faith in the bible, and reason is used as justification for denying the truths of the bible, and refusing to believe the testimony of the bible. In this way large chunks of God's revelation in the bible are rejected, or allegorised, or changed to fit with what reason dictates. What makes matters worse is the fact that each person finds reason to be unique to themselves so there are as many interpretations and views on the bible as there are people who reason.

The cry is that we have grown up and we have put away childish things. Paul indeed speaks of putting away childish things, but not in such a way that we deny the truth of God.

The words of Jesus in the verses before us speak directly to this syndrome. Firstly such an attitude as I have described above is not characteristic of membership of the kingdom of heaven, and to have such an attitude is to show we have not entered the kingdom of heaven.

Secondly when Jesus says we must receive the kingdom of heaven like a little child, what does he mean? Consider a child. A child knows their ignorance, and humbly seeks to be taught. A child bows to the authority of its teacher. A child does not deny his blossoming reason and intelligence, but uses it to understand the thing which are being taught. A child humbly submits to the teacher. This can be called a childlike spirit, and this is what Jesus is talking about.

In earthly life teachers are fallible and can teach children wrongly, and the child who trustingly follows such a teacher will be led astray. But this is not so in the kingdom of God. The true believer comes with a childlike spirit, which has been worked in him by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has taught the believer the sinfulness and corruption of his heart, and that in spiritual things and things of the kingdom of God he is totally ignorant. In this understanding and in such a spirit the believer humbles himself under the word of God, receiving it as the truth of God, submits to that word in faith, trust and obedience. The believer has a childlike trust in God's faithfulness, and in the truth of his word, and rests his soul on Jesus in such a faith.

Reason is not renounced, but reason becomes the tool, under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, by which he seeks to understand the revelation of God in the Bible. The childlike spirit receives the bible as the whole truth, so does not reject what is difficult to understand, or which seems hard to accept, but prays for more light and understanding as to the true meaning of the revelation. The believer with a childlike spirit believes God to be God as he has revealed himself, and believes that he can do all things, and all things he does are good, and for the wellbeing of members of the kingdom