Seeing Grace

When we read Jesus refer to “the word of the Kingdom” think about it as if He said “the message of another world.” When we see a reference in the Book of Acts to “the good news of the Kingdom of God” think about it as if Luke wrote “the good news of the other world of God.” When we read the Apostle Paul say “we have been translated from the kingdom of this darkness into the Kingdom of the beloved Son” think about it as if Paul wrote “we have been translated from this fallen world to another world where the beloved Son is now.”

We literally have died to this world and live in another world within through the miracle of the indwelling Spirit. This is the apostolic teaching that rocked the planet. Paul said we have been crucified to this world and live now in a different reality. Paul said why do you subject yourself to rules like “touch not” or “taste not” as if you were still living in this world?

The Spirit renews the mind to see the unseen and experience Heaven on earth within.

I think this is what Jesus was referring to in the parable of the pearl of great price or the treasure found buried in a field. He said these were like the Kingdom of Heaven. He was saying that if you find the door that opens up to Heaven on Earth so that you could have the reality of Heaven within you every day while you lived on Earth then that would be the greatest pearl and the greatest treasure. Jacob saw it. Jacob saw the Door and the House of God. Jesus fulfilled it. Jesus is the Door. Jesus is the House of God that He raised in three days. In Jesus we are seated with Him in this other world. Seated. With Him.

The whole scene of Jesus coming to them on the lake, walking on water, as they in fear were sinking in the boat in the violent storm, is a picture of Jesus calling us to see Him and go to Him to walk with Him in another world. Peter walking on water with eyes on Jesus is the picture of all believers walking with God in another world where sinking boats, violent storms and devastating waves have no power.

I love how Paul said “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard and neither has it entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for us in Christ, BUT the Spirit is given to us that we might know these things!” Most teach this verse to mean “in the sweet by and by” we will finally see and know all this great stuff but Paul is not talking about an after death experience but a present living experience through the Spirit giving us revelation to see the unseen reality.

The Gospel is really a radical revelation. It is not only radical because grace is given to sinners but also because it is the revelation of the death of all men from the first Adam and the creation of a new man from the last Adam, a new man who lives in another heavenly realm in union with God while he walks the earth in these bodies. So radical. People who want to just hear sermons on five ways to become a better person or read books on ten steps to be more holy are missing out on the most amazing truth this earth has ever heard, God’s mystery which is Christ Jesus.

James Barron

The law was a tutor to teach the Jews about God and if they had learned from their tutor then they would not have missed the day of their visitation by God. The law was only for the Jew. Never for the Gentile.

The Jew was to understand the utter holiness of God and the concept of blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin so that they would be able to grasp the revelation of Messiah and His work and bring that message, that good news, to the world in the fullness of time. Only a remnant saw it. Only a few of the Jews proclaimed it. But it does not take many to put a voice to the revelation of God in Jesus in order to change the world because THE REVELATION ITSELF IS THE POWER OF GOD.

The message that God is no longer counting your sin against you if your faith is in Jesus turned the world upside down. The announcement that God gives His own righteousness to a believer as a gift is the wisdom of God. The good news that the believer is one with God through Jesus by the Spirit is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The awareness of an everlasting love that never leaves you is Heaven on Earth.

James Barron

Believe and see!  

The apostle John wrote:  What is the victory that overcomes the world?  Even our faith!

Believe and see.  

Jesus said, “Did I not say to you that if you would only BELIEVE you would SEE the glory of God?”

We really did die.  We really are new. We really are where He is.  Heaven is really inside us.  Jesus is really inside us. God is really inside us.  Holy Spirit open our eyes to see.  

We are in Heaven now in the same moment we are on earth.  Seated with Jesus in heavenly places. Now. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “And what if the Son of Man were to ascend now before your eyes into Heaven, where He is now?” 

We live in two worlds at the same time.  We are in the immediate presence of God in this very moment for Christ is in us and we are in Him.  Jesus said, “I am with you always, even until the end of the world.”  This revelation and understanding cannot happen with a sin consciousness.  This is the wisdom of God and the power of God. The Lamb of God took away sin so that man can walk with God every day on earth with the gift of righteousness from God. On earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus did it!

James Barron

Jesus frequently used money as a metaphor—in 13 out of 39 parables according to one source. Among its uses, decisions concerning money represent resentment toward God, forgiveness from moral debt, and divine generosity.

The Money Metaphor Once More

Assume you can have only one account at the bank. You can have it in your name or in the name of Jesus, as a co-signer.

The account in your name would go something like this: sometimes you’d have a positive balance of moral assets, sometimes negative. When positive, you’d feel pretty good about yourself. You might even look down on others who were in the negative. You would undergo stress at times, considerably so if you began to lose your ground. If you lost too much ground, you’d suffer insufferable guilt—and that’s too much guilt to be sure.

The account in Jesus’ name would go something like this: everything you need would have been paid for (note the past tense). His account offers no pride for being righteous, nor guilt for past sins. It is his account, not ours. We are purely beneficiaries, and that is a humbling thing, but also a peaceful, joyful loving thing.

Need forgiveness? Done, first from before time in the heart of God and in history made unforgettable while he was on the cross. Need redemption? Already done. Need better behavior, also called sanctification? It’s yours by faith, which is the only thing you are asked to contribute, the rest being a gift.

One can piece all these things together easily by reading the letters of Paul and others in the New Testament. But one statement from Paul says it all: “But it is due to God that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (I Corinthians 30). In Jesus’ account there can never be a negative balance. It’s all too good to be true in this world, but is standard fare for the kingdom of God.

What, then, is the downside of signing on to the account of Jesus? First, it’s invisible. It takes faith, and one will never have faith without listening to the revealed words of God and allowing the Spirit of God to reveal their meaning. This happens to me over time, not over night. Second, there’s no boasting, no pride. Any sense of one’s importance must be replaced by one’s sense of being loved. No more judging others, no more taking credit for one’s successes—everything shifts to a sense of Jesus’ accomplishment.

The upside of the second downside is that guilt and fear also disappear. One is defined no longer by one’s track record but by the success Jesus possesses as a redeemer.

Which will it be, this day and every day? Are we so significant that we somehow are too bad or too weak for Jesus to save? Must we force open an independent account just in case he fails or in case he needs assistance?

God forbid.

God bids us to be redeemed not redeemers. Let’s trade in our worry and anxiety for gratitude and thanksgiving. Close that independent account, you, the beneficiary of the life of Jesus!

– Louis Burkhardt

Original Blog: https://mygod.myplaza.xyz/2023/an-account-in-the-name-of-yourself-or-of-jesus/

Evangelical “Grace” and “Truth”

Certain evangelicals contrast grace and truth because they think grace is only mercy and truth is an updated version of the law. (link to read more: https://mygod.myplaza.xyz/rebuttal/)

I John 1:7

Most preachers and teachers say that John meant by walking in the light doing righteous acts or being obedient to God.  If walking in the light meant walking in obedience to God or doing righteous acts then why would John reference the cleansing of sin while we walked in the light?  

There would be no sin to cleanse if walking in the light meant walking in righteousness.  

Walking in the light is a reference to living in another realm.  

John says we are in the light “as Jesus is in the light.”  Jesus is in a place.  He is in the light.  To walk in the light is to be where Jesus is.  The Apostle Paul said we believers have been translated from this kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son.  Into the kingdom of light.  

When you read down further in John’s letter you can see John saying that walking in darkness is synonymous with being spiritually dead and walking in the light is synonymous with being spiritually alive.  

John is not saying a believer can walk in the light but sometimes walks in the darkness.  Impossible.  

Paul said we were once darkness but now we are light in the Lord.  We are light as Jesus was the light of the world.  A believer acting fleshly at times is not the same thing as walking in darkness according to the Apostle John.  

Look at every reference to “walking in darkness” in John’s letter and you will see what he means by “walking in the light.”  The point John is making is that we now have fellowship with the Father and the Son because we are WHERE THEY ARE.  THEY ARE IN THE LIGHT.  WE HAVE BEEN BROUGHT INTO THE LIGHT BY THE POWER OF GOD. 

Jesus told Paul that I send you to open the eyes of the blind and to bring them from the darkness into the light with the message of the finished work of Jesus.  John was drawing a contrast between the Gnostics who claimed to be in fellowship with God because of their so-called special knowledge but they denied that they were sinners in need of forgiveness and in need of a Savior.  John said the Gnostics walked in darkness.  The believer walked in the light because their sin had been cleansed once for all time and being in the light has nothing to do with our acts of righteousness but rather the one act of death by Jesus when He gave Himself for us and became sin for us.  This truth catapults us into the light to be where He is.  

That verse is almost always taught like John is saying “as long as you walk in obedience to God, then, and only then, will you have fellowship with God.”  That teaching basically puts the believer back under the law and makes fellowship with God conditional upon our good works.  That teaching is gross error.  

If you remember that John is contrasting the true believer with the false teachings of the Gnostics then the “if” simply means “if you are a true believer in Jesus” (i.e., if we walk in the light as He is in the light) then you have fellowship with God.  

John describes someone “walking in darkness” as someone who has not the truth in them, has not the Word in them, is deceived, is calling God a liar, has hate in his heart and does not have eternal life abiding in them.  That is not a description of a believer who walks after the flesh sometimes.  That is a description of a person who has not been regenerated and who has not the Holy Spirit abiding within.  

The new creation is now light.  Our behavior does not change that and that is why John simply says if a true believer sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the righteous One, and He has become the complete propitiation for all our sin.  

True believers still sin as they walk in the light, in the new realm, but the blood of Jesus continually cleanses the believer from all sin as John states.  Actually when you read the original Greek language, John is not saying that as a believer sins the blood of Jesus cleanses the believer of those sins.  The Greek language is saying a past act (i.e., the death of Jesus) has a continuing effect in the present and the future for all time.  The believer’s sins are not ever imputed to the believer because the believer is not under law and where there is no law sin is not imputed.  There is no imputed sin to the believer that requires more cleansing.  The cleansing took place when Jesus died as us and we died in judgment with Jesus.  

Furthermore, the new man cannot sin, the apostle John says, because the seed of God remains in the believer, the new creation.  When a believer sins, Paul says it is the power of sin in our mortal body that causes a believer to stumble and not the new man within the body for the new man within the body has a new heart by the creative power of God which came into being from the resurrection of Jesus, the last Adam.  The body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  The outward man (i.e., the body) is decaying day by day but the inward man is being renewed every day.  Believers do not have two natures, as is commonly taught, but rather only one nature.  We have been made a partaker of the divine nature, the Apostle Peter said.  To have two natures means you have two fathers.  We have one nature and one Father and our identity is a beloved son or beloved daughter of the living God.  

Nothing can separate us from God’s great love in Jesus. Our fellowship with the Father and the Son is continuous with no interruption because we are one with the Father and the Son through the Spirit within.  The believer is always in the light and “in God’s light we see light” and understand these deep things of God.

James Barron