Thoughts From The Mind of Christ

February 5th, 2024 § 2

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 Power Of God

January 11th, 2024 § 0

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

On Earth As It Is In Heaven

January 4th, 2024 § 1

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

An Account in the Name of Yourself or of Jesus?

December 21st, 2023 § 1

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 Godforgiveness 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/)

What Did The Apostle John Mean By Walking In The Light?

September 25th, 2023 § 0

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

See Where You Are And You Will Never Be The Same

July 7th, 2023 § 0

We are now with Jesus in Heaven and He is now with us on Earth.

This awesome truth needs to be shouted from the housetops to all believers.  Jesus really did prepare a place for us in three days that we may be where He is always.  Paul plainly said we have been translated out of this world of darkness and placed into the Kingdom of the beloved Son now by the Spirit.  Paul wrote that we are now seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places.  This is not just flowery language and nice spiritual words.  This is an awesome reality in Christ.  Paul said know you not that your old man died with Christ and your new man is now hidden with Christ in God? 

Jesus said the Father was in Heaven at the beginning of what many call the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who is in Heaven.” He prayed that Heaven would come to earth when He said, “On earth as it is in Heaven.”  Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is not coming like men think for it shall be within you.  Jesus told Peter as He was approaching His death on the cross that Peter could not follow Him now but that Peter would follow Him later.  Three days later.

Jesus taught that when He finished His work on Earth and the Spirit was sent then the Spirit would take the believer on His “great wings” to the place He had prepared for the believer in Himself that we may be comforted and nourished. He said in that day you will know that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me and that I am in you and you are in Me.  The Spirit is given to show us the things that are freely given to us in Christ Jesus. 

Behold the meaning of the Feast (or Celebration) of Tabernacles (or Dwelling Places)!  Jesus said, “In My Father’s House are many dwelling places.  I go to prepare a place for you.”  Jesus is the House of God that God raised up in three days!  In this union with God through Jesus by the Spirit a mighty river of life flows in us from our innermost being.  

The apostles never prayed that the Spirit would fall on believers afresh as some church songs say.  Rather the apostles said to stir up the gift of the Spirit that is already in you by remembering the truth.

James Barron

JESUS: The Greatest Fisherman

March 7th, 2023 § 2

(John 4:1-42)

I was pondering this morning the time when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in Samaria. She was half Jew and half Gentile (as was all the Samaritans). She stands for all of humanity on earth, whether Jew or Gentile. She was despised and rejected by both Jews and Gentiles. Going from husband to husband five times and finally just living with a man. Five divorces. Thirsting for life. Searching for meaning and purpose.

When she is honest with Jesus about one simple fact: that she has no husband, Jesus immediately encourages her and tells her she has told the truth. He proceeds to tell her all about her life, without a condemning tone, and she is amazed. Now He has her attention. What does Jesus focus on? He said, “Woman if you knew who I was, you would ask of Me and I would give you living water and you would never thirst again.” He starts with knowing Him. He goes on to answer her question about where she is to worship God by telling her the time is coming and now is that the new place to worship is in another realm and not on any mountain on this earth. In the Spirit. He spoke to her about the reality as opposed to the shadows that the law displayed. He spoke about a spring of living water that would be inside her, springing up within. Jesus talked with her about simply believing on Him.

She left him and ran back to her home town with great joy to tell everyone to come and hear Him. She could not stop speaking what she had heard and seen. Instinctively she wanted to share this Jesus with even those who had rejected her as a woman who went from man to man in relationships.

How so different is the way Jesus approaches fallen man to lead him to faith in Him and life by Him. So many preachers are obsessed with sin and determined to make a sinner feel the weight of his guilt and condemnation so that they will appreciate God’s mercy and call out in desperation for forgiveness. Sinners in the hands of an angry God is the mindset of most ministers today. Blind leaders of the blind they both fall into the ditch and offer no spiritual help for the poor in spirit.

Jesus calls all of mankind to come to Him, all who are weary and burdened, and He will give them rest. For His yoke is easy and His burden is light and man shall find rest for his soul in Him. 🔥

James Barron

The False Doctrine of the Judgment Seat of Christ for Believers

January 18th, 2022 § 1

The amazing grace of God is revealed in Jesus and in His finished work in that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto Himself, not counting our sins against us any more.  God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Jesus.   Those who believe on Jesus receive this awesome gift of righteousness.  (II Corinthians 5:19-21)  Under the New Covenant God no longer remembers the sins of the believer because of the offering of Jesus once for all sin, for all people, for all time.


And yet . . .


It is widely taught in churches today that every believer in Jesus will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds they have done in their body, whether good or bad.  A weak attempt is made to explain away this glaring contradiction with the Gospel of Jesus by saying this is not a Judgment Seat where the believer’s sins are brought up or their eternal destiny is determined but rather it is a Judgment Seat where the believer’s rewards are given.  Never mind that the passage quoted specifically says that the good and bad deeds done in the body by the individual will be examined, in other words the person’s sins will be addressed, and never mind that the passage quoted does not mention the word “reward” at all in the entire chapter.  The passage that this false doctrine is primarily based on is II Corinthians 5:10-11.  In addition, Paul says in this passage:  “knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade people, . . . ”  The “terror” of the Lord?  That does not sound like this is a meeting before the Judgment Seat of Christ to hand out rewards to believers.


Because it is not. We have been taught a false doctrine regarding the Judgment Seat of Christ.  

What do you think Paul is seeking to persuade people to do, knowing the terror of the Lord?  We find that answer a few verses down in the same chapter.  Paul writes: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.  Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (II Corinthians 5:17-21)


Paul was seeking to persuade people and even begging people and making an appeal to people to be reconciled to God!  Paul was seeking to persuade people to believe on Jesus so that they could receive the gift of everlasting righteousness from God!  Paul was seeking to persuade people to receive the death of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins so that they would not face the terror of the Lord in their sins and have to give an account of what they did in their body, whether good or bad!  Paul said God Himself was making this appeal through the believer to the world!


This chapter has nothing to do with rewards for the believer.  That is why the word “reward” never appears nor is ever discussed in the passage.

 
This chapter is simply the apostle saying that every person will stand before God one day and there will be only two groups of people before God.  Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  If your name is found in the Lamb’s Book of Life then that means you put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of all your sins and you will not stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account of what you did in your body on earth, whether good or bad.  But if your name is not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life then that means you did not trust in Jesus and you will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account of what you did in your body on earth, whether good or bad.  As the Book of Revelation states in Chapter 20, other books will be opened for those whose names do not appear in the Lamb’s Book of Life where there is a record of all the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad, and all in that group fall far short of the perfect righteousness of Jesus and will never see Heaven.


The apostle Paul said a little leaven will leaven the whole lump.  He was referring to the law and how if a believer has a mixture of law and grace in their thinking that even a little legalism will eventually ruin the mind of the believer and blind that person to the awesome freedom they have in Christ.  That is what this false doctrine concerning the Judgment Seat of Christ is doing to believers who have adopted this view.  In the back of their mind they believe that one day when they die they will have to give an account to God for the good and bad they did on earth.  That erroneous thinking is eating away at the powerful revelation of their union with Jesus and the great love of God for them.  It is eating away at the revelation of the gift of everlasting righteousness that they have from God in Jesus.  The scripture says that blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will not take into account.


Paul said do not think it strange that Satan himself can appear as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness.  (II Corinthians 11:14-15)  Strong words from the apostle but very true.  Not everyone who is teaching this false doctrine of the Judgment Seat of Christ is a minister of Satan, obviously, but they are doing the devil’s work by teaching something that is not scriptural and is in direct opposition to the true liberating Gospel of Jesus.


I urge you to search this out for yourself.  Read the scriptures yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you personally what the apostle Paul was trying to say in this Chapter 5 of II Corinthians.  Read the whole chapter.  See the whole context.  I pray the Spirit will open your eyes to see and when you see go tell someone.  This horrendous false doctrine in the church must be exposed for what it is that the saints of God might be released in their minds to the great freedom found in Jesus.  Jesus said that he who believes in Him shall not come into judgment but had already passed from death and into life.  (John 5:24)


James Barron

The True Gospel Destroys All Legalistic Teaching

December 30th, 2021 § 1

A lynchpin is something that holds together something else. For instance, a lynchpin is used to keep a wheel from flying off or something similar like that. There are two lynchpins that literally hold legalistic religion together. Remove these two pins and the wheels come off of man’s version of the Gospel and the true Gospel will be seen and accepted by the people with great joy.

The FIRST is understanding that neither Jesus nor the apostles ever taught that a believer must confess or name their sins daily, or even hourly, to get their sins continually cleansed so that fellowship with God can be continually restored. Fellowship with God is never broken for the believer, even when the believer sins, for we are cleansed and in union with Jesus by His blood, His one act of giving Himself in death for our sins, once for all time and eternity. Sin is not imputed to the believer because he is not under law but under grace.

The SECOND is that the believer is a new creation with a new heart and is perfectly and actually righteous and there is absolutely no sin in the new heart of the believer. That needs to be repeated: There is no sin in the new heart of the born again Christian. God made it so in order to join Himself to the believer in that new heart. The believer is not just “positionally righteous.” The believer is “actually righteous” by a creative act of God and through spiritual circumcision the new inner man of the believer has been separated from the flesh, the outer man, where the power of sin abides in the members of our body. God Himself is joined to the believer’s new heart through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. As Jesus is so are we now in this world. (I John 4:17)

When these two truths are seen then the house of cards which legalistic religion built will come crashing down and Jesus will be glorified in His people. As Jesus said, “Not one stone shall be left upon another.” It shall all come crashing down to be replaced by a living expression of the life of Jesus in His people.

The true gospel destroys legalistic teaching but the true gospel is resisted and opposed by those who have a vested interest in promoting a legalism which serves their purposes and agenda.

A wise man once said that truth goes through three stages with people generally. First they mock it and ridicule it and even laugh at it. Secondly they oppose it and resist it and sometimes angrily persecute the messenger. Thirdly they see it, believe it and declare it to be self-evident and begin to promote the truth themselves. The apostle Paul went through these three stages himself but he lost all that he had invested in his religious world as a result. In response to his loss the apostle said he counted as “dung” all that he lost in that religious system, the friends, the prestige, the money, the position, the authority, the name recognition, all of it, in comparison to knowing Jesus.

James Barron

The Magnificent Door

December 21st, 2021 § 1

The concept of Jesus being our Door now as we live on earth that we might “go in and out” between two realms to find “pasture” or spiritual nourishment is a mind blowing truth that most believers have never been taught.

The message of the Door is in essence the good news of the Kingdom of God. Through Jesus we are forgiven and made righteous and now have access through the Spirit to a whole new world where the love of God is continually shining upon us in this new reality.

In this world we will have trouble but we can be of good cheer for He has overcome this world and carried us by the two wings of the great eagle (the Holy Spirit) to His world where we are nourished in the place He prepared for us in Himself, sitting together with Him in those heavenly places. For we have been translated from the kingdom of this darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son through the Door, the Son Himself.

James Barron