Two Unchangeable Things Release Believers From All Guilt Forever

August 20th, 2021 § 1

The big point that the writer to the Hebrews was making in that amazing letter was that we have a superior priesthood in Jesus after the order of Melchizedek.

The Levitical priesthood was a priesthood of “covering of sin” and the blood sacrifices offered had to be done “daily” and “continually” by many priests who lived and died.

Jesus, on the other hand, is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (which means King of Righteousness) and that priesthood has only one priest and only one sacrifice to “take away sin” once for all people “for all time.” Furthermore, God installed Jesus as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek by an Oath that we would have strong encouragement and know that our sins will never be counted against us again. They are gone. Our sins are gone. The King of Righteousness has given to the believer His own righteousness as a gift.

God made Jesus our High Priest forever with an Oath so that by two unchangeable things we would know our sins have been removed and we have been cleansed from all unrighteousness forever. And what are those two unchangeable things? They are (1) God’s own Word and (2) God’s Oath confirming His Word. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.

To say it another way, God wants the believer to know that He will never count our sins against us again ever! Jesus was raised from the dead to be our living High Priest forever having offered up Himself as the only sacrifice necessary for the complete removal of all our sin forever and this includes past, present and future sins not yet committed, for all our sins were future sins when Jesus died on the cross for us and as us.

Any teaching which says a believer must confess his sins on a “daily” basis and “continually” in order to have those sins forgiven and in order to have unrighteousness cleansed from that believer is directly opposing the Word of God and God’s own Oath regarding the High Priestly ministry of Jesus and is in direct opposition to the eternal purposes of God Himself for all believers. Those who teach that I John 1:9 is a word to the believer, to the saint of God, are teaching serious error in opposition to the New Covenant, the finished work of Jesus and all the apostolic writings.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

James Barron

This Is The Gospel That Turned The World Upside Down!

August 8th, 2021 § 0

I was thinking this morning how God rolled away the stone so men could see Jesus was not there. He was gone. He had risen. In the same way God wants you and I to see that we are not there. We are gone. We have been raised in Him. We died in Him and were raised in Him. We are not here. We are gone. We have risen and ascended with Him and now sit with Him in the heavenlies. The real new man is really not living in this world anymore, just as the apostle Paul taught. Our body is living in this world but the new creation lives in Heaven and we access this world now through our bodies to be a light to those on earth. We are witnesses of Him in this world and of His new world. We are gone. We are not here. We walk in the light as He is in the light, we are where He is, and our fellowship is with the Father and the Son and Jesus’ death has removed all sin and darkness from us forever. This is the message He has sent us to proclaim. This message is the joyful sound that turned the world upside down when it was first heard!

Radically different from a religious mindset that only sees the flesh and focuses on sin in order to modify behavior and to manipulate someone to do the right things. So different from God’s way of the death of the old man and the resurrection of a new man with a new heart and the ascension of that new man into another reality, into heavenly places, all through the mystery of Christ!

As the apostle said, we have already been “translated” from the kingdom of this darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son! To be “translated” from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son means to be moved from one place to another place. The believer is in another place. This movement is not like a movement in the natural like moving from the USA to England, for example. This is a movement from one dimension of reality to another dimension of reality.

The new you is still in your body, although separated from it by the Spirit of God by spiritual circumcision through the hand of God and the power of sin is quarantined in the members of your body. The body is dying because of sin but the spirit is alive because of the everlasting righteousness of Jesus, which the believer has as a gift. The outer man (the body) is decaying and growing old but the inner new man is continually renewed and refreshed with the life of God. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so the power of God is clearly seen to be of God and not of ourselves. But as the apostle Paul said, we have access now to God Himself through our union with Jesus by the Spirit. You sit in the heavenlies with Jesus while you walk the earth in the same way Jesus said He was in Heaven as He walked among us. We are no longer from below but now we are from above.

Jesus’ words are Spirit and life and are spiritually discerned. He is the Door or Gate of Heaven and He has brought us through that Gate and we are now in His kingdom and the kingdom of Heaven is now in us. Jesus said the kingdom of Heaven does not come like men think for it shall be within you.

This understanding of the mystery of Christ brings the believer into a deep rest and a completely new perspective as the believer now sees everything as God sees it. We no longer know ourselves or other people after the flesh but by the Spirit. This understanding releases the believer from a sin consciousness, as the book of Hebrews says, and allows the Spirit to reveal the thoughts of God to the believer without hindrance. This understanding reveals the great love of God to the believer and fills the believer with that everlasting love.

These are the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus said are revealed to His own. The Spirit shows us these things that no ear has heard or eye has seen or has even been thought about. His Kingdom is not of this world and His ways are as different from our ways as the heavens are above the earth. This is why the real Gospel will turn this world upside down every time it is proclaimed!

James Barron

See What You Have Found!

July 22nd, 2021 § 0

Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who stumbled on a treasure hidden in a field so he went and sold all he had to raise enough money to buy that field. Or it is like the merchant in search of fine pearls, when he finds a pearl of great value, went and sold all he had to buy that pearl. The Kingdom of Heaven is a new reality that Jesus was bringing to mankind. Heaven on earth by putting Heaven in man by the gift of the Spirit.

It is another reality where a man can live without fear in peace with God and be loved unconditionally. A reality where his sins are no longer being counted against him and all his failures do not disqualify him from a God who is near, even within. This new reality is the treasure that some people stumble over and find by accident and others find while on a quest for it.

Jesus was saying that once you really see what you have found, nothing in this world can be compared to the awesome reality of this new world in Him.

James Barron

Jesus Sees You

March 19th, 2021 § 0

In John 1:44-51 it written: Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” 50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Nathanael said to Jesus, “How do you know me?”  Jesus said, “I saw you.”  Jesus went on to say that because He saw Nathanael that Nathanael would now see something.  Someone.  Nathanael would see Heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on Jesus Himself.  

Jesus first sees us that we might see Him.  Heaven is open now for those who have been given His eyes to see.  We see because He is now within us and we see through His eyes.  

It is also written in Isaiah 53:11:  “As a result of the anguish of His soul,

He will see it and be satisfied;  by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.” 

Jesus saw you too.  Just as He saw Nathanael.  While dying on the cross He saw you.  He saw “the result of the anguish of His soul” and “He was satisfied.”  He saw you that you might see Him.  

Lift up your eyes to Heaven and see with new eyes.  Heaven is now open to you.  His eyes are your eyes now. 

All because He saw you first. 

James Barron

God Is Satisfied

March 19th, 2021 § 0

In the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire”, there is a famous scene where the actor playing Eric Lidell (400 meter Olympic gold medalist in 1924) says “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure”. 

Do you believe that God not only made you for a purpose but that He actually wants you to “feel His pleasure?”Better still, do you believe it is possible to “feel His pleasure” regardless of how fast, how attractive, how successful, how poor, or how educated you are?  As Christians, speaking or hearing the words “God loves you” can sometimes come across as trite and cliche, and we can almost become numb to it. 

So it is my sincere prayer that Father God’s “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” would open the eyes of your heart so that you may come to understand those three words in a fresh new way.   That in fact, Father God is very pleased with you and that you are entirely acceptable to Him.  In other words, He not only loves you, but He likes you, He delights in you, and He is completely satisfied with who you are in Christ.   

May you come to realize more fully that the blood Jesus shed for you was not in vain, and that His life has been joined to you by His Spirit forevermore.  

Lastly, I often like to end with one of my favorite scriptures, so I leave you with this:  “God is faithful, through whom you have been called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (I Corinthians 1:9)

Chris Wiley

Grace & Wrath

July 18th, 2020 § 6

To understand how the grace of God in Jesus and the wrath of God for an evil world are both a present reality, you must be able to see the two worlds.

As a believer we have been translated from this world of flesh and darkness through the Portal into the kingdom of the beloved Son.  The evil world still exists and those who are in the flesh are subject to that world and in that world the wrath of God abides upon them.

“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”  John 3:36

We have the Good News that Jesus took all of the wrath of God for us and if we only believe then all our sin will be considered as taken away completely and we will pass through the Door into a new world where there is no law and no judgment.  A new reality in the Spirit.  We are witnesses to this new world.  Witnesses of Jesus primarily. 

As Paul said to the Galatians, Christ will be of no benefit to the one who does not believe.  No benefit.  The unbelieving world receives no benefit from the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, except for the love of God they receive from believers.

So while it is true that God loves the whole world and that He judged the whole world on the cross at the death of Jesus, that universal act only benefits the individuals who believe on Jesus.  If we believe then God baptizes us into the Spirit of God and thus into the history of Jesus where we also died and where we also were raised again.  If a person does not believe then he has no history with Jesus and he remains one of the fallen sons of disobedience still in Adam under the power of the evil one and subject to judgment.  Still a prisoner of this fallen world.

We see the judgment of God falling on Herod in the book of Acts after the resurrection.  Ananias and Saphira were also judged as unbelievers who were trying to become a member of the body of Christ with the wrong currency, a living faith being the only coin of God’s realm.  These were judgments from God falling on unbelievers even as the Good News of God’s grace was being proclaimed.  Believers need not fear the judgment of God.  Jesus said, “He who believes in Me shall not come into judgment but has already passed from death and into life.”  Believers have passed over into another world.  His world.  His realm where we sit with Him in heavenly places.

Paul said, “Behold the goodness and severity of God.  Goodness toward you who have believed but severity toward those who have refused to believe.”  So Aslan is not a tame lion and though He seeks to rescue the lost and has given His life that all may live, His roar and terror still lives because He lives and evil will be judged, one way (the cross) or another.

James Barron

What Men Call Balance God Calls Mixture

July 13th, 2020 § 1

Men sometimes mix law and grace when they teach the Gospel. They are afraid of teaching “too much grace” so they will say we need “balance” when we preach the Gospel. But when you add law to grace it is no longer the Gospel and God calls it mixture and not a pure Gospel.

This mixture of law and grace (that men call balance) goes something like this: A person is forgiven and born of the Spirit when they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He took away all our sin by His death on the cross and that He was raised again on the third day, BUT a believer must keep the law in order to be righteous and confess his sins every day and ask God to forgive his sins again and again every day to stay right with God. Those added words after the BUT are not balance. That is mixture. That is error.

This thinking will cause a believer to not enter into God’s rest and allow Jesus to live His own life through the believer. Now as a believer we let the Spirit guide us, not the law, and when we sin as believers we thank God for the forgiveness we already have because Jesus died once for all sin, for all people, for all time and we don’t keep asking God to forgive us.

The true Gospel leads us to a growing revelation that we are one with Jesus. Paul said he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one with Him even as He was one with the Father. He in the Father, the Father in Him and now we in Him and He in us. One. That is now the reality for every believer. This awareness of our union with Jesus, where He Himself is our righteousness, is what brings a deep peace in our lives. We have peace with God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. This is the root of all rest.

When we know God’s love is toward us unconditionally and that we have the gift of righteousness then we know we can never mess up or not measure up before God. He loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Jesus said that in John 17.

So let this unconditional love of God and this rest in Him grow in you and you will find a new freedom and you will not worry about meeting other people’s expectations or be concerned about being perfect all the time. Ask God to make life full of joy again for you. Ask Him to show you how you can mentor other believers because that will bring joy. Ask Him to give you the desires of your heart and then go after it knowing Jesus is with you and in you to bring it to pass. Dream big because He is a very big God and He likes to bless your socks off. If you are a believer, you are His son or daughter and there is nothing you can do to cause Him to love you less or love you more.

James Barron

Heaven Is Within You

March 7th, 2020 § 0

“If it were not so, I would have told you.”   Jesus (John 14:2)

Jesus began His public ministry by proclaiming to all who would hear that the Kingdom of Heaven was suddenly near and within reach of anyone.  This was His simple but profound message.  Heaven was coming to earth through Jesus.  He called on the people to change their minds about Heaven.  He said to “repent” or, in other words, “change your mind,” for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. They had heard from the prophets that it was coming one day in the future and that only the holy would ever see it.  Their view of Heaven was a far away place and certainly not a place within reach now.  Yet, that is exactly what Jesus was announcing.  Heaven was coming to mankind.  Now. 

He demonstrated the power of Heaven by healing the sick and even raising the dead.  He told His disciples to go out and tell everyone the Kingdom of Heaven is here and heal the sick in my name.  If the people rejected these disciples’ message, Jesus said tell them the Kingdom of Heaven came close to them today and move on to the next city.  This was revolutionary.  How can these things be?  That is what thousands began to ask themselves as this carpenter from Nazareth worked His way across the country side in the land of Israel many years ago. 

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is not coming like men think.  It shall be within you.”  Jesus came to clear the way for God and mankind to be joined together by the gift of God’s Spirit.  The Lamb of God would truly take away the sin of the world and all who would believe on Him would receive the forgiveness of all their sins and the gift of the Spirit of God.  In union with God through Christ by the Spirit, Heaven would come within the believer and being joined to Jesus the believer is where He is always, seated with Him in Heaven. 

Great is this mystery but now the believer lives in two worlds at the same time.  On earth as it is in Heaven.  Yes, on earth as it is in Heaven.  As we walk this earth as a believer we can experience Heaven within us.  His gift of righteousness, His peace, His joy.  All within us even though in this world we experience trouble and difficult times.  Two worlds at the same time because He is the Door to another world.  If it were not so, He would have told us.

James Barron

Once And For All

September 6th, 2019 § 0

Scripture tells us that one of the names given to our enemy the devil is “the accuser of the brethren”. It also tells us in Revelation that “the saints overcame him by the blood of the Lamb …”. I don’t know about you, but my experience has been that the enemy never misses an opportunity to point out my past sins or failures (whether from 10 years or 10 minutes ago). But what I have also learned is that the “the enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may destroy” can be rendered powerless if I simply remember what the Lord Jesus has done for me. Specifically, how His work on the cross for me was totally complete and perfect. So, in this writing I will be emphasizing the “Once and for all” nature of the death of Christ in hopes that you may come to know in experience that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. As you will see, as it relates to both you personally and to mankind, the redemptive impact of Christ’s death was so far reaching that it took into account ALL THE SIN OF ALL PEOPLE FOR ALL TIME.

Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” This reminds me of another scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, which states “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 given us the ministry of reconciliation”. Then there is that popular verse displayed at sporting events around the world, John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. There are many more verses like these but the main point here is that CHRIST DIED ONCE … FOR ALL PEOPLE.

Furthermore, Hebrews 9:26 says, “Otherwise He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”. Likewise, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). In the same vein, the Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures”. Again, I could quote a multitude of other scriptures that show that CHRIST DIED ONCE … FOR ALL SIN.

Moving on to another eternal aspect of the gospel, the Spirit of God bears witness in Hebrews 10:12 that “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God”. This scripture captures the essence of the third aspect of Christ’s death being elaborated upon, that CHRIST DIED ONCE … FOR ALL TIME. Unfortunately, over many centuries starting literally in the year 1 AD, the enemy has planted a multitude of false doctrines in the churches and in many cases we have adopted church practices which can be traced back to a lack of faith in, and understanding of, the 3 aspects of the gospel mentioned herein. So, to once again reiterate my main point, Christ died once and for all … once for all people, for all sin, and for all time.

I believe that the main purpose of preaching & teaching is twofold, one is for evangelizing a lost world and the other is for the edification of the church. Although the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s brought a great deal of light to the church of Christ, it is my firm belief after 500 years that the teachings of the Protestant Reformation need to be replaced by a fresh revelation of Christ’s death and resurrection. We need to rid ourselves of the residual religious dogmas that have attached themselves to our belief systems like barnacles on a whale. In many cases the church has become like the religious crowd in Jesus day, to whom He said, “You are experts at setting aside and nullifying the word of God in order to keep your man-made tradition and regulations” (Mark 7:9). Let us not be like them but let us follow the instructions of the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian saints and “cast out the bondwoman and her son”.

In closing I want to offer up this simple prayer to my God and yours. “Dear Father, deliver us from the devil’s lies that would seek to rob us of our inheritance as your children. Open our spiritual eyes to see that the death of your Son was indeed once for all people, for all sin, for all time. As the classic hymn “It is Well with My Soul” says, “My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more”. May we see that Jesus’ death was in fact our death and that we have now been raised through His resurrection power to sit with Him in heavenly places. As we rest there through the mystery of union with your Son, let us gaze upon His face and glimpse His eyes of flaming fire, thereby being transformed into His likeness through Your Spirit. Equip us to love one another even as He loves us. Last but certainly not least, Magnify Your Son Jesus who was dead but is alive forevermore! In Jesus name. Amen.”

Chris Wiley

The Business of Church

September 6th, 2019 § 2

Even though there are great churches and great leaders of churches, too many believers have seen first hand behind the scenes the hypocrisy of the religious business of Christianity in some churches. They have been hurt by churches that are run primarily like a business and a source of income for a few leaders. When these believers needed encouragement they were perhaps neglected because of some moral stumbling or weakness. The business and its income must be protected at all costs. Even if it means the embattled saint must be discarded and shunned.

Churches that are operated primarily like a business usually teach a Gospel that is mixed with law and grace, human wisdom and heavenly wisdom, flesh and spirit. Many believers get burned out sitting under the messages delivered by these leaders. A mixed Gospel will make Christianity feel like just another religion. Believers want “genuine truth.” They are crying out for the “real.” But the real is not being proclaimed widely.

Only in a few places can you hear boldly and clearly how, because of God’s great love for the world, Jesus terminated the entire Adamic race by His death on the cross, took away the sin of the world, released believers from all law, given us the eternal life of God within by His resurrection, created believers new with a new heart, joined us to God Himself, brought us through a Door to another world called the Kingdom of Heaven which is now inside the believer by the Spirit that we might always be with Jesus! Is the church you are a part of teaching these awesome things?

This is the good news that will feed the spiritual hunger in all our hearts. He who goes to Jesus, the real Jesus, will never hunger again nor thirst again. But if he who is in search of the real attaches himself to a church that is primarily a business operation for profit then he will be profoundly disappointed.

James Barron