no condemnation – Sons of Issachar

521. God Is Love: Rethinking Judgment, Identity and the Reach of Grace

Mike Parsons

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God’s Desire Is Always Good

God is good, and God wants to bring good into people’s lives, even out of the things they do which are wrong. He does not condone what they do, because what they do will often be negative towards themselves and towards others, and that is not something God desires. But God still wants to bring good.

It is the love of Christ that compels us. It is not fear of God’s judgment or anger. It is God’s love, and that is what we are meant to carry.

I know some people say that is all wishy-washy, and that you need to see God as this or that. But honestly, I do not think those people really know who God is if they believe He is angry, looking to punish people, or wanting to take people out. That is not who He is.

Identity, Not Condemnation

God wants people to find their identity as sons in relationship with Him, and to discover their place in bringing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. That is His desire for everybody. That is true for every single person on earth right now. No matter what they have done, Jesus has already died to forgive them. God does not hold it against them at all, because they are already reconciled to Him. They just do not know that, so they are operating out of a lost identity. They are doing things out of a lack of knowledge and experience of who they are.

We have all been there.

God did not judge me in a negative way. He graciously, with mercy and love, led me into discovering the truth. He did not come down and condemn me because I was believing lies, even though He knew I was believing lies about Him and many other things. He led me into an experience of truth which renewed my mind. I came to realise, I do not believe that anymore. There was no condemnation involved.

So we should not condemn people for where they are in their journey. They may still be operating out of a wrong identity, a wrong way of thinking, or a religious mindset, but so were we. Let us have grace and mercy for people, and help them find where the truth is. Not by condemning them, but by encouraging them to pursue God so they can find the truth in Him.

God Is Love, Fully and Consistently

God is love. I do not just think that, I know it. Therefore, God operates in love all the time. He is never anything other than love. People say, “Well, He is just and He is holy.” Of course He is. But that means justice and holiness are love expressed and outworked. They are not different.

We often create two versions of God when we compare what people think they see in the Old Testament with what Jesus revealed in the New. People end up operating in a mixture of those two ideas. But God is not two-faced. He has always been love. He has never been anything different. He was not operating differently in the Old Testament than in the New. People simply viewed Him differently.

They did not know Him. So they described Him out of their lack of knowledge, through their own religious mindsets, creating an image of God shaped by distance rather than relationship. That does not define Him. We have never defined God through our theology, beliefs or doctrines. God is not definable by us. He is God.

Therefore just because someone says God is like this, or writes something down and it is recorded in the Bible, does not mean it is true. If it contradicts the reality that God is love, then we know it is not true, because Jesus came to reveal who God really is. You do not see Jesus condemning people. He challenged people, but He did not condemn them. He did not judge them. He did not kill them. Even when people were killing Him on the cross, His response was, “Father, forgive them.”

That is God. He forgives. He is a loving God.

Awakening to Love

God has been misrepresented by all sorts of religions, including Christianity, as someone He is not. That is why people need to awaken to love. Many are doing that by leaving the conditional picture of God they encountered in church and finding Him outside of it. There are also people who have never been in church who are discovering that God is love, not through religion, but they are still coming through Jesus, even if they do not name Him.

He is the door to the Father. You cannot find the Father any other way, but that door is open. It has always been open. Jesus is the door; He has opened the way, and He has kept it open. He is not as precious about how people come through that door as we often are. When people find the Father, they will have come through Jesus the Son. They may not describe it that way, but that is the reality.

So we need to help people come through that door, to find Him, to experience the love of God, and to discover their identity in Him. Not to try to conform them to a religious system. In reality, more people are finding God and His love outside of Christianity than within it.

Already Reconciled, Already Included

I am not against people coming to Jesus and accepting what He did on the cross. That is how I would present the gospel, helping people discover who God is in love and experience that love; that Jesus loves them and has made a way for them. But I would not be prescriptive and say there is no other way people can come and experience the love of God. It will be through Jesus, but it may not be through the religious Christian way that we have described how Jesus saved people.

People are already saved, already included. Already reconciled, already accepted. They are already forgiven. They do not know it, and sometimes the way we present the good news does not help them know it. So let us help people find God, and let God bring them into the relationship and reveal Himself to them. That is not our responsibility. That is His.

Let us remove the hindrances and obstacles that may have been placed in people’s way, especially the harsh, judgmental message that says they will be condemned to hell if they do not accept Jesus. That is not true. Love is powerful: love never fails, love never gives up.

And death is not the end of choice.

Love Beyond Death: A Personal Testimony

Even if someone chooses to reject God in this life, God does not reject them. There is still opportunity beyond this life to embrace Him.

I have a testimony of that recently, though I have never done this before.

Last week, I went to a celebration of someone’s life. It was a man I had met through a school reunion. He was the husband of one of Debbie’s school friends, and we had met several times over the past months. At those gatherings, the husbands are often spare parts, left figuring out what to talk about. But over time I got to know them. One of the men was a Christian, and we had some great conversations about grace, love and the mystic side of things. This other man was not interested at all. He was a nice man, funny, but not open to any of it.

We met in April, and in June we heard that he had been diagnosed with a disease, and then he died in July, suddenly, very quickly. It was sad for his wife, for his family, and for his children. We were invited to go to the celebration of his life, which was totally non-religious, because he was totally against organised religion, as I found out when people were telling stories about him.

I sat there listening to the stories and people’s recollections, and I started to feel sad. I felt sad for the people who did not seem to have any hope. In their view, he was dead and gone. Life after death did not exist as far as he was concerned, and probably that is what his family felt too. There was no expectation of seeing him again.

While they were playing some music he liked, some Beatles music and other songs, I thought, “Okay God, is there anything I can do about this? Is there anything that you want me to do?”

Then I felt God say, “Well, you know what to do about it.”

So I thought, “Can I?” And then I decided, okay, I am going to be bold. While everything was quiet and the music was playing, I went to the fire of God’s love and I called him out. I did not know whether he was going to be there, because sometimes people accept Jesus on their deathbed. But he was there.

He came, and I felt the emotion. I felt that he was feeling condemned, not by God, but by self-condemnation and self-anguish, because he realised that his belief systems were not right. He was still alive, not dead. His consciousness was still living. For people who do not believe there is life after death, when they die and discover they are still alive, it is a shock.

So I preached the gospel to him. I shared that God’s love never fails. That even though he had rejected God while he lived, and did not accept that there was a God, God still loved him. God had never rejected him. God still wanted a relationship with him.

I shared that good news, and I offered him that opportunity, to which he responded and accepted. He followed me, and I introduced him to the Father. The Father brought his spirit and soul back together, unified him, clothed him with glory, and placed a ring on his finger of sonship. It was wonderful to see.

I did not stand up and tell people what I had done. That would not have fitted the framework of the meeting. They would probably have thought I was very strange. But now he has a relationship with God.

And death is not the end. It is another opportunity, in a different way, to experience God’s love.

Death Is Not the End of Choice

I know people will say you cannot talk to dead people. But they are not dead. A person’s spirit and soul do not die. Their body may be dead, but they have moved into another realm. We still have an opportunity to share the good news with them, even if they have chosen to reject Jesus and God in this life.

Then I started to feel really happy. There was a sense of joy in what he was now experiencing. Of course, I would want his children and his friends to feel that same joy, and to be awakened to God’s love. But at least for him, he is now out of the consuming fire, out of that refining process, and he is now receiving and accepting God’s love.

Now he knows who he is. And now he is going to go on to fulfil his destiny in that realm. That is good news. These are tremendous opportunities of sharing God’s love. Death is not the end of choice, as I experienced in that testimony. I am not saying I will ever do that again: I do not know. I felt moved by compassion, and God gave me permission.

It shows what is possible.

Responsibility and Opportunity

All of us have the opportunity to preach the good news and help people embrace God’s love, even after they die. There may be family members. There may be situations where we can do this.

In this situation, I was surprised that I even thought about it. But I was feeling so moved, aware that something was missing, something that could have been there, so I chose to do something about it.

He still had the choice. He could have rejected what I shared. But his belief system had already been challenged, because he did not believe there was anything after death. Now he found himself in a place where he thought he was condemned to remain there forever, because he did not know anything different. Even though he had not believed in God, and had not believed in hell, he now assumed that must be where he was. He was full of self-anguish, believing that his decisions in life had placed him there.

But God still loves him. And the love of God can reach people even in that place. It is our responsibility to empty that place of people, to make sure no one is left there, and that they all find the love of God.

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285. God is Love… BUT

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442. Unconditional Love – NO GUILT, NO SHAME

Mike Parsons

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Nothing can change God. He is love. He will never, ever be anything other than love. That love is always unconditional—it is never-ending, and totally unconditional.

So, if what you read about God—whether in the Old Testament, New Testament or anyone’s writings—appears to contradict or fall short of love, then either what is written is wrong, or your understanding of it is flawed. Most likely, it is the result of. This goes beyond religion—it is rooted in how different cultures have understood and presented God. Religion has twisted concepts like holiness and righteousness—true characteristics of God—so that they seem to trump grace and mercy. But they do not. They are equal. God’s grace and mercy are expressions of unconditional love.

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No guilt, no shame.

God is a righteous judge, and therefore He is a God of true justice. The problem for many is that religion has conditioned them to believe that judgment and justice mean wrath and punishment. But judgment, made by God our Father, is not based on human ideas of justice. It is grounded in loving kindness and in the fact that He has already reconciled the world to Himself, not counting anything against anyone. Every accusation against us has been nailed to the cross.

Judgment is a verdict, a decision—not a punishment. And the Father’s verdict is always made in love. That verdict is: not guilty. Innocent. You have been declared not guilty—innocent of all charges and accusations made against you. So if you hear accusing thoughts, reject them. They either come from your own mind, or from another source that thrives on guilt and condemnation. If you believe you are guilty or condemned, and not innocent, you will live a lesser life than the one God intends.

God so loved the world that Jesus came to reveal love. But that love goes even deeper and further back than the cross. Jesus offered Himself before the foundation of the world, so that love would always win, so that love would overcome. The Father’s judgement—’not guilty’—was agreed before we were ever created. All accusations were nailed to the cross. Nothing is held against us.

Jesus, the Lion, fully identified with humanity as a lamb—because all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us follows our own way. He came to bring us back into relationship. We may be lost in our independence, but I believe the term “humanity” does not reflect the nature and character of God. It reflects a humanistic mindset that seeks to do everything in its own strength. But God, in Jesus, fully identified with us. Why? Because He loves us.

That “transaction”—figuratively compared to being slain—was a choice to identify with us so completely that He became one of us. In becoming us, He represented us entirely. He became not as Adam was, but as Adam became. He entered a fallen world and fully identified with our fallen nature. That is why He cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

But that cry was, in reality, a lie—because God never forsook Jesus. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. God never rejected or forgot us. It was only how we thought of Him, through our guilt and loss of identity, after we chose independence. He became us so we could be restored to who He always intended us to be. And now we live in a new age, under a new covenant. A covenant Jesus made with the Father—and all of mankind is included in it.

Jesus warned us of the religious and political spirit, likened to leaven, that would permeate the whole lump. In my own experience—through churches and movements I have been part of—my understanding of the new covenant was tainted by old covenant ideas.

Unconditional love does not require sacrifices or offerings. But an old covenant mindset always demands something: our obedience, our obligation, our duty. These are dead works. They carry no value before the Father. He does not require them—and, in truth, He never did. That may come as a shock to many. We must be careful not to operate under an old covenant, works-based, performance-oriented mindset towards God. It will exhaust us. We will never find rest if we think we must earn God’s love or favour.

There is no guilt, no shame, no condemnation in unconditional love. Those things are religious constructs designed to keep us coming back for more religion.

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No Law, no punishment

Hebrews 6:1-2 are often misunderstood—and I misunderstood them for most of my life. I even taught them as foundations of new covenant faith. But what Hebrews 6 actually says is: “Therefore, leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let us press on to maturity—not laying again a foundation of repentance…”

The old covenant was immature. The new covenant brings maturity—but only if we do not lay again the old covenant foundation: repentance from dead works, faith towards God, instructions about washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. All of these are old covenant ideas. They have no place in the new. And yet these very things are what most churches teach as foundational. They were in our church’s foundational course too. But now I realise: these are the things we should not be laying again. There is no life left in the old system. It is dead. We have to move on.

That whole system was based on sacrifices and offerings, connected to the Law given through Moses—a law that was never God’s idea. I am not talking about the Ten Commandments, which actually describe what a good relationship with God looks like. They are not really “Thou shalt not…” They are: “You do not need to…” You do not need any other gods. You do not need to steal. You do not need to kill. Why? Because in this amazing relationship of safety and security, God provides everything. That was His offer.

But the people were afraid and sent Moses instead. So they set up a mediatorial system—the Law. It had 613 requirements they were supposed to keep. Jesus made it clear that it was impossible. Fail in one, and you fail in all. We cannot keep the Law. From the very beginning of the Church, there were attempts to drag people back under it. The religious spirit, working through the Judaizers—even within Jerusalem and the early Church—tried to impose the law of Moses once again.

John 1:17 says, “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

God never wanted sacrifices and offerings. People will say, “Yes, but He accepted them.” Isaiah 1:11 says, “What are your many sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams… I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.”

Jeremiah 7:22 says, “I did not speak to your fathers or command them… concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” So He never told them to make offerings. Yet they made a golden calf and sacrificed to it. Where did that come from? Their own understanding.

Of course God accepted sacrifices and offerings—because He accepts us. He also accepted their demand for a king, even though He was already their King. That does not mean it was what He wanted. But He works with us, even in our brokenness and our flawed position.

Psalm 40:6 says, “You have not desired sacrifice and meal offering… You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.” Then it says—prophetically of Jesus—“Behold, I have come… I delight to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

And the law, when written in the heart, is not a ‘Thou shalt not’. It is a ‘You can’. Because when it is revealed from within, it gives permission to live as sons of God. Not ‘You shall not do this’, but ‘You can do all these amazing things’—as co-heirs and co-creators.

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413. Before the Foundation of the World

Mike Parsons

The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8 NKJV).

Before the foundation of the world, Jesus did not physically die; rather, he offered himself in identification with humanity, should we fall into a state of perceived separation from God. His self-offering was not about death itself but about fully embracing our condition so that we could ultimately live. The phrase “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” speaks to this identification. However, since God never desired sacrifices or offerings, he did not orchestrate Jesus’ death in a punitive sense. Instead, Jesus willingly gave himself so that we would always be restored.

Jesus came as a man to redefine our understanding of God. To accomplish this, he had to fully identify with us in the flesh, living as we do. By experiencing our humanity, he took on our death, not as a punishment from God but as an act of love. Humanity, not God, put Jesus to death. Yet, through his death, he overcame its power, bringing about the resurrection that includes us all. His coming was essential—not to appease divine wrath but to restore our lost identity and reunite us with the Father. While he did not die before the foundation of the world, he committed himself to our redemption from the very beginning, ensuring that no matter what, we would always be restored to relationship with God. Ephesians 1:4 (Mirror Bible) affirms this, stating that God’s plan has always been to restore us to face-to-face innocence.

So some are excluded?

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9).

The passage in Romans 8:9 must be understood in context. It speaks of the mind and spirit and our choice to identify with either life in Christ or the law of sin and death. If our mindset remains focused on sin and death, we live as if we do not belong to Christ. When Jesus said, “Depart from me, I never knew you,” it was not about literal ignorance but covenantal relationship. If people continued living under the old covenant, refusing the relationship Jesus offered in the new, they remained unknown to him in that sense. The passage does not imply that some are excluded from Christ, but rather that those who think and live according to the old ways act as if they are outside of him. In reality, the Spirit is in all, breathed into humanity just as he was into the disciples, making all people part of the new creation. The issue is not whether we belong to him, but whether we recognise and live in that truth.

The issue is not whether we belong to him, but whether we recognise and live in that truth.

As Proverbs states, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” If our thinking remains rooted in the law of sin and death, we experience separation—not because Christ is absent, but because our mindset does not align with the truth of who we are in him. We are not cut off from God; rather, we live as if we are. The passage emphasises the importance of shifting our perspective, rejecting the old covenant mindset, and embracing the truth of life in the Spirit. When we do, we experience the reality that Christ is in us, and we are fully his.

Lost?

Being lost does not mean being disowned. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son illustrate this truth. The lost sheep still belonged to the shepherd; the lost coin was still owned by the woman, though it was temporarily out of reach; and the prodigal son remained a son, even though he had distanced himself from his father. The problem was never one of ownership but of connection. Likewise, all people belong to Christ, but those who do not recognise their identity in him live as if they are lost. The solution is simply to awaken to the truth and return to that place of belonging.

The key is to remain in a place of rest—resting in the knowledge that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. We have been set free from the law of sin and death, and we are called to live in the fullness of that freedom. Rather than striving or struggling, we are invited to abide in this truth, resting in the life Christ has already secured for us.

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