Tag: reconciliation

444. NO FEAR OF HELL – Unconditional Love

Mike Parsons

If you do not see the correct video above, please click here.

Unconditional love has really been the focus of my life for quite a number of years. The experiences I have had of unconditional love have completely changed my whole belief system—especially concerning who God is, and therefore the reach of His love towards all of creation.

Those experiences of unconditional love have challenged my view of God. They have challenged many things I used to believe: doctrines, traditions and various other ideas. God’s love is unconditional. If it is not unconditional, then it is not love. That, I believe, is the key. If you put a condition on love, it becomes something you have to earn by fulfilling a requirement—and God’s love is not like that. It is unconditional, and that means it cannot be earned. It is love, freely given.

It is unconditional for everyone and for everything. That love knows no boundaries, no limitations, no barriers. I believe God wants everybody to know His love.

But unconditional love has so deeply challenged some of the belief systems I used to hold. I now realise that some of the things I believed were nothing more than religious tradition or myth. Some of the doctrines I held actually kept me in bondage and prevented me from experiencing unconditional love.

Now, it is that same unconditional love which has set me free—as I have experienced it in my relationship with Jesus and the Father through the Spirit. I believe only the experience of unconditional love will bring freedom from the religious deception that most of us have encountered in various forms throughout our lives.

If you have never been brought up in any kind of wrong religious setting, then praise God. But for most of us, there are things we have struggled with, things we have misunderstood, or things we once believed that we now know are not actually true. That is certainly the case for me.

There are so many beliefs I now realise were conditioned into me—programmed into me—by my upbringing, by my religious experiences in church and in other contexts.

The thing that probably challenged me most—and was the most difficult—was what happened when I began to reflect on the power of love and the power of the resurrection, that love overcame death. And that brought me face to face with a huge question: what happens to people after they die?

I began to realise I had been programmed with a religious belief—something I now refer to as the hell myth. I say myth, because the English word “hell” is not actually a biblical word at all. Yet that myth held a lot of sway in my life, even though it was not really something I felt deeply convicted about. It was not something I had arrived at through study or prayer. It was more a kind of unspoken assumption: I suppose that is just how it is. I never liked it. But it seemed unavoidable.

Now, I believe that unconditional love is the very essence of who God is—His character and His nature. It reflects who He is. He does not change depending on the situation. He is not one version of Himself in the Old Testament and another in the New. He is Father, Son and Spirit—and God is love.

God is light.
God is spirit.
God is a consuming fire.

And because of that, there are no situational ethics with God. He is consistent. He is reliable. He does not change. Therefore, we can depend on Him. We do not need to be afraid of Him. He is not going to be pleased with us one day and then grumpy the next—like He got out of bed the wrong side, as it were. Of course, God does not sleep in a bed! But the point is: He does not change. He is the same—and that gives us a deep sense of security. We do not need to worry that He might change His mind about us, or that we might not have done well enough. God is the same yesterday, today and always will be—because He is I Am That I Am.

That is a declaration that He will never be anything other than who He is—and He is love.

A Slur on the Character and Nature of God

For most Christians, hell and eternal conscious torment are sacred cows—fixed, immutable doctrines. Many people simply cannot imagine there might be another way of understanding them. But I believe the world, in general, has rejected what is, in fact, a slur on the character and nature of God. God is unconditional love. And yet, much of the Church has accepted that slur—the idea that God would torment His children in fire forever. That He would give them a body that never wears out, so that they can be burned for all eternity.

Is that a loving God?

Not from my experience.
That is not what He is like at all.

So then, what does happen to people after they die? It is an important question, because many people are afraid of death—afraid of what comes next. If we know the answers, we can help them make the right choices now, before they die. And even after death, I believe it is not too late.

Is death more powerful than unconditional love? Absolutely not, because unconditional love has overcome death. My own experiences—encounters in which Jesus and the Father have shown me what happens after death—have convinced me completely that people go into the consuming fire of God’s presence, into the fire of His love. And because of that, I am absolutely confident that death is not the end of choice for anyone.

Unconditional love wins in the end—because God is patient. God is kind.
God will never give up. Love will never fail. Therefore, that love will win everyone in the end, so that they too can experience it for themselves.

I did not always believe this. I was conditioned—just like most people—to think that you had to choose Jesus before you died, because after that it would be too late and you would go to hell. But that is not what I now know to be true.

Into the Fire

Jesus and the Father took me into the fire. They showed me that you can preach to people in the fire, and that people in the fire can respond to that preaching. They can be reconciled back into a relationship with God. They can come into His love. They can become part of the cloud of witnesses. They can enter into their eternal destiny.

Now, I understand that many people struggle with this idea. But I have experienced it—over and over and over again. I have been into the consuming fire of God—both with Him, and on my own—many times. I have seen God’s love in action. And I have seen that the fire of God’s love is purifying and refining.

I have seen the power of that love first hand—the power to bring transformation into someone’s life when they accept and realise that God loves them. Even after death. Even after all the things they might have done in life to reject Jesus.

Love wins. The fire of God’s love never fails.
It never gives up. Love wins in the end.

The restoration of all things is founded on this truth:
God’s love will never fail, and He will never stop loving. Not until every person, every created being, comes into the relationship with Him they were made for—because we were created for relationship. He created all of creation for relationship.

Unconditional Love – new book out now
Mike Parsons’ new book, Unconditional Love, is out on 20 June 2025. Order it from your favourite local or online bookseller today, or get the ebook instantly from our website. More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books.

References to Gehenna misunderstood

Where does our idea of “hell” come from? In the early Hebrew scriptures, it is not mentioned at all. In the Hebrew context, the concept of hell really only began to appear after the Babylonian exile and was then further shaped by Greek influences.

Jesus’ teaching has often been used to affirm the concept or theology of hell, but I believe that is an eschatological misunderstanding. The teaching Jesus gave about “the end” and what would happen was not referring to the end of time, with a future judgement and resurrection in which some would be punished. When Jesus spoke of the end, he was not referring to the end of the world. He was talking about the end of the old covenant age. There was fire and judgement associated with that, because the system itself was judged—and judged as having failed to produce righteousness.

Jesus used terms and language people would have understood, associated with fire and judgment. But these were generational issues. Jesus said all those things would take place within that generation. They have since been wrongly applied to the end of the world and have become associated with eternal conscious torment in the so-called fire of God’s judgment. In truth, it is not the fire of his judgment. It is the fire of his love.

These are not separate events—what happened at the end of the age and the references to people being thrown into Gehenna, the fiery rubbish dump outside Jerusalem. They refer to the same thing: the end-of-the-age judgment. Not the end of the world, as we have been led to believe. It is an eschatological issue.

If we understand that Jesus’ concept of “the end” was not the end of the world but the end of a particular age, then we can also see that Gehenna— often wrongly translated as “hell”—was not referring to some distant point in the future either. It was about that generation. Jesus’ teaching about the end of the old covenant age and the associated fiery judgment has been used to support an infernalist theology, but again, they refer to the same event. It is not about the end of the world, and it is not about eternal judgment.

In fact, the judgment has already taken place—and we have all been found innocent. That is absolutely essential for us to grasp. We have been judged innocent, not guilty—righteous, justified. There is no need for punishment.

All those Bible verses that have been used to affirm a belief in hell as penal retribution, or eternal conscious torment, are verses that have already been realised and fulfilled. They do not need to apply to anyone today—not to any of God’s children, not to anyone at all. That is really good news. It is not the fear-based, manipulative message that says people who do not know Jesus will go to hell. That is not good news. That is fear, used to control people into accepting Jesus. It is no different from the time of Christendom, when people were told to believe in Jesus or be put to the sword. This is the same idea, simply reworded: believe in Jesus, or go to hell.

When we are willing to look again, with fresh eyes and an open heart, I believe we will discover that death is not the end of choice. People can still accept what Jesus has done while in the refining fire of his loving presence, even after death. I would challenge anyone to produce a single Bible verse that actually states that death is the end of choice. There are none. The only one people sometimes use is the verse that says “after death, the judgment”. But that verse is not talking about physical death. It is not saying what we have been told it says—not in context, that is not what it means.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to you. Ask for the revelation of the Father’s heart towards what happens after death and for understanding of the concept of his fiery love.

I want everyone to know: you do not need to fear the future. You do not need to live in fear of torment or punishment. And we should never be using those kinds of ideas to scare people into accepting a God who is love. That is utterly inconsistent. God is love. He would not punish someone forever and ever just because they did not believe in him. He believes in you.

He believes in the world. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world. God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not counting anyone’s sins against them. Let us do the same. Let us have a ministry of reconciliation—a ministry of power—and let us be ambassadors of unconditional love to a world that so desperately needs it, that desperately needs to know God as love.

Only then can people be free from the destruction that comes from a lost or mistaken identity. God wants them to be whole. He wants all of us to come back into family, back into relationship, back into this amazing relationship with God, who is love.

I want to take us into a short activation. If there is any fear in your life—any doubt about your salvation, or about where you might end up, or even concerns for your loved ones—I invite you to let God, who is love, begin to remove that fear.

And if you have doubts about what I have taught today, you do not have to believe what I say. You have the right to believe whatever you choose. But I do ask you sincerely: ask God about it. Ask him to show you the reality of life, the power of unconditional love, the truth that nothing can separate anyone from it. Ask him to show you what that really means for people’s lives. Ask him to show you personally, so that you can have your own experience—something that affirms to you the truth of who he is: his unconditional love.

Activation: Safe and Secure

I encourage you now to close your eyes.

Begin to meditate.
Allow your breathing to slow down.
And begin to think about God as love.

Just be still.
Come to that place where you can be still and know.
Know that God is love.

Let his love surround you right now.
Let the power of his love flow over your physical body,
flow into your mind, into your heart and your emotions.
Let love, the power of love, overshadow you.

Father, I ask that you would reveal to everyone listening,
the power of your love.
Show anyone now if there is any fear in their lives—
fear of you, fear of punishment, fear of judgment, fear of the future…

Let your perfect love cast out fear.
Love on your children in such a way
that they are safe and secure in your arms of love.
You will never let them go.
You will never let them out of your hands of love.
You are keeping them safe and secure.

Just rest in that love.
Let his love touch you deep within your emotions.
Let it bring healing to anything in your past—
any fear or doubt you have
about where your loved ones are, if they have died physically.
Let the power of God’s love affirm to you
the truth of his consuming fire.

Father, I ask that you would show all who wish to see
what the refining, purifying fire of your love is.
Show them how death is not the end of choice.

Reveal yourself, reveal the truth.
Unveil the truth,
so that we may experience you.

Heaven is open.
Set the desires of your heart on engaging the Father.
Let the Father lead you.
Let him heal you, restore you,
fill you with the power of his love—
overwhelming love,
love that conquers death,
love that is stronger than the grave.

Rest in that love.
Rest in the power of that love.

Truly embrace it,
and for a few moments,
just wait there in the presence of God,
in his love.

339. Universal Inclusion in Christ

244. The Hell Delusion

245. What Jesus Did

443. Unconditional Love – NO RECORD OF WRONGS

Mike Parsons

If you do not see the video above, please click here

Jesus came to fully reveal the Father to us as His image, and the Father in Jesus forgave us unconditionally, reconciled us to Himself, and justified us — as if we had never sinned, never gone astray, never lost our identity. He kept no record of any perceived wrongs and made us the righteousness of God in Christ. Now that is pretty amazing. That is the power of unconditional love.

He did it all. The work on the cross was finished. Jesus did everything necessary for us to have a restored relationship with God. All we have to do is come to a realisation of that reality.

Love-conscious, not sin-conscious

The Father wants us to live in love-consciousness, not sin- or lost-identity-consciousness. That is why He kept speaking to me about living loved.

To live loved is to live in awareness of unconditional love — a love that enables us to love. Life takes on a completely different perspective when we are free from the bondage of trying to keep up with the Law, or earn God’s favour through duty or obligation. That just wears everyone out. But when we live loving, we are filled with joyous expectation. Every day becomes an opportunity. And in that we can live loving: the love we have received, we can freely give.

Religion makes love and acceptance conditional — but God’s love is totally unconditional. Therefore, we must be free from religious mindsets and obligations.

No record of wrongs

1 Corinthians 13:5 — the famous chapter about love — says that love does not keep score of the sins of others. It keeps no record of wrongs. So God keeps no record of wrongs. He keeps no score of the things we might do or not do.

Jesus came to take away the sins of the world, not to punish them. Love forgave unconditionally, on the basis of what Jesus did both in eternity and in time, on the cross.

Wherever you see the words “love” or “God”, they should be completely interchangeable. We should be able to substitute the word “love” for “God” in every instance — and if we cannot, in whatever we are reading (whether it be the Bible or anything else), then we should question the validity of what we are reading.

Because God is love. And therefore, God is pure love — and pure love is God. If we are reading something that does not make sense of God being love, then we must question it, because God is Love. The issue lies with our understanding, or with what we have been taught — because God is never anything other than love.

It goes on:
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love is not jealous.
Love does not brag.
It is not arrogant.
It does not act disgracefully.
It does not seek its own benefit.
It is not provoked.
It does not keep an account of a wrong suffered.
It does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth.
It keeps every confidence.
It believes all things.
It hopes all things.
It endures all things.

So if God, as love, keeps no record of wrongs — why is religion so sin-focused? Every church I was brought up in was always focused on sin and behaviour — and on how you had to maintain a standard of behaviour to be acceptable. But if we keep focusing on sin and lost behaviour, it only reaffirms our lost identity. That keeps people who think they are sinners coming back for more religious help to feel better. And of course, that never works — because religion is just an addiction. It always needs more to satisfy it. You will never truly feel righteous — never know you are righteous — if you are addicted to religion.

Unconditional Love – new book out now
Mike Parsons’ new book, Unconditional Love, is out on 20 June 2025. Order it from your favourite local or online bookseller today, or get the ebook instantly from our website. More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books.

Love-conscious, not sin-conscious

Colossians 1:13 says:
When you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh” — again, in our lost identity — “He made you alive together with Him… – it was not because we did anything – … He made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings. He cancelled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us — and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

That is a powerful statement. It is all about being love-conscious, not sin-conscious. Because it is all dealt with. It has all already been forgiven.

As we read earlier:
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them. (2 Corinthians 5:19).

God’s love cancels all debts, holds no record of wrongs — and therefore His forgiveness is as unconditional as His love. That is so important: you have been forgiven for everything. Now, that does not mean you go out with the attitude, “Oh great, I can just carry on doing terrible things to people — it does not matter.” That is not what love is. Love is wanting the best for other people. Love never wants anything bad to happen to anyone.

What we have received in love — having been loved — we can now love with in the same way. And if love is conditional, then what we demonstrate to others will also be conditional. That means, for most people, forgiveness becomes conditional — based on someone saying sorry or “repenting”. (We will look at what that really means in another session.)

But it is so important to realise: we have been forgiven. Every debt has been cancelled. Nothing is held against us. Therefore, there is no longer any need for guilt or shame. All the things we may have done in our lives — and we have all got history — none of that counts before God. He remembers none of it. So I would encourage you — do not remember it either. Ask Him to completely remove any memory of the past so that you are not trapped in what you have done, but realise that you are fully forgiven. And therefore, there is no more need for forgiveness — because it was all dealt with on the cross.

That is the limitless grace of God — and His triumphant mercy.

Love wins

But of course, religion creates guilt and shame. It uses guilt and shame. But God’s focus is always on reconciliation and restoration of relationship — not on self-improvement.

If there is no record of wrongs, then there is no further need for forgiveness. Sin — lost identity — has been placed as far as the east is from the west. It does not say “as far as the south from the north”, because if you are in the south and then walk north, you end up north. But if you go east and walk west, you still end up facing east. In other words — you can never find it again. God has completely removed it. Yet our religious upbringings often keep us focused on feelings of guilt and shame. That is something we really need to get sorted.

God wants us to know the reality of forgiveness. God has forgiven unconditionally, because God is love — and love is unconditional. Therefore, love wins, because love has always won. That is true justice — the outworking of the judgment of the cross, which was a verdict of “not guilty”… innocent.

So receive that right now:
You are innocent.
As innocent, you are able to have face-to-face encounters with God.
You are not guilty of anything.

And if you feel guilty about anything — that is not coming from God.
If you feel condemned — that is not from God either.
That is either coming from your own inner conscience — which has not yet been touched by the love of God — or from religious programming, which functions through guilt.

Love never fails

I just want to finish with something the Father said to me in conversation:

“Son, My overwhelming love will conquer all things, as it will not fail and will never give up. My overwhelming love is stronger than death. It is more jealous than the grave. Nothing can quench its fierce passion and burning desire for restored relationship of face-to-face innocence. My love for each of My children cannot fail — can never ever stop — any more than I can cease to be I AM.

“Love is the atmosphere of glory.
Love is the frequency of heaven.
Love is the timeless now within the circle of the dance.

“There can be no end to love.
It is eternal and infinite — expanding throughout creation with My kingdom, government and peace.

“My love has no beginning, no end.
It is the Alpha and the Omega
— the Aleph and the Tav.
The Living Word and Truth.

“Love is the fullest expression and intrinsic essence of I AM that I AM.”

So learn to just be loved — living in the rest of love, joy and peace.

Our minds need to be deconstructed from false religious concepts and doctrines — anything that puts a condition on being loved.
We need deconstruction.
We need the renewal of our minds.
We need to be renewed to the truth of unconditional love.

Unconditional love is not a theory. It is not just an intellectual idea. It is something we can know by personal experience. The experience of unconditional love will transform us. It will free us from the religious version of the angry God — if we will just allow God to love us. That might sound so simple — and yet it has been such a long journey for me to come from all the religious experience I had, and all the wrong understandings I held about God, to come to the truth…

The truth of being face to face.
Of being innocent.
Of being in that place where the motives of God’s heart motivate me.
Where His passion causes me to be passionate.
Where His burning desire creates in me a burning desire
— to only do what I see the Father doing.

That is what unconditional love can do for all of us.
But we do need to experience it.

Activation: Washed in Unconditional Love

So I want, just for a short few minutes, to give us the opportunity to embrace unconditional love — to come into that place where we experience something deeper of the unconditional love of God.

So I encourage you: just close your eyes.
And in closing your eyes…
Just begin to rest.

Everything I have said — and I know I have given you a lot of information there — I want to set a foundation for what we are going to be looking at in the future.

But right now, I want you to embrace that you are loved unconditionally.

So I want to encourage you:
Just begin to fix your eyes…
Your thinking…
Your desire…
On engaging face to face,
Heart to heart,
With unconditional love.

Just rest.
Just be still.

As the unconditional love of God surrounds you…
Where love is poured out…
Lavished upon you…

Where every bit of guilt, shame or condemnation that you have felt —
That people have made you feel —
That religion has made you feel —

Right now…
The unconditional love of God,
As it is flowing all over you,
Around you and in you,
Just washes you.
Washes you clean
So that you see yourself the way the Father sees you:

Forgiven.
Reconciled.
Justified.
Innocent.
Not guilty.

Pure and holy.

Just let the truth — as the Father begins to speak words into your heart —
Words of love…
Words of affirmation…
Words of approval…

He is affirming you as His child.
He is approving of you as His child.

He wants you to feel completely, unconditionally loved.

Just let that love wash over you.
Flow through you.
Rivers of living water ,
Rivers of love,
Unconditional love flowing through your spirit, soul and body.

You are cocooned in unconditional love.
Soaking in unconditional love.

Feel the unconditional love…
That you are forgiven from everything from your past.
Completely innocent.
Every stain completely removed.
Every black spot in your DNA restored and made whole.

Bathed in unconditional love.

Just rest in that place of love.

406. Recognise the Finished Work of Jesus

319. Face to Face with God

434. God’s Fiery Love

Mike Parsons

Not seeing the video above? Please click here.

 

The cross was a powerful point where God dealt with every accusation made against us, reconciled us to himself and didn’t count anything we may have previously done against us. So why do we—and why does religion—keep bringing it up? Because religion keeps reinforcing the need to maintain a certain standard of behaviour. You have to do this, and do that, and if you don’t, you feel guilty. Christianity has its own set of laws now—which is a mixture of covenants. Read your Bible, pray every day, witness, go to church—these become the Evangelical law. Catholics might have communion, confession, sacraments. It’s all performance-based.

But God’s fire is God’s love. People talk about God’s fire as punishment, especially in political rhetoric—like “they’re gonna pay the price now!”—but really, God is a consuming fire, and that fire is always for purification, never punishment. He has no punishment to give. We’ve made God out to be a judge who must punish sin, but that’s a misunderstanding. Fire, like a refiner’s fire, is about removing impurities—transforming, not destroying. He wants us to be pure gold, purely who he created us to be.

Mike’s latest book, Unconditional Love, is out now as an ebook on our website and will soon be available to order in paperback from your local or online bookseller.

More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books

We’ve been conditioned to think God punishes those who reject him. But what loving father does that? Instead, God makes every opportunity—even after death—for people to accept him. At the point of death, Jesus comes as light and invites people into that light. Some accept. Others, conditioned by other beliefs or guilt, reject it. They go into the fire of God’s love, which continues working until every hindrance is gone. The fire doesn’t destroy—it transforms. Even if someone knows God, they’ll still pass through that fire because he loves us too much to leave us incomplete.

Whether it’s the altar of sacrifice, or going through the river of fire, or the fiery furnace of Daniel’s friends, the fire never destroys. Even the Lake of Fire, when you examine the original Greek, is about testing, not torment. The word “brimstone” (theos) is connected to God’s presence. God’s wrath (orgē) means passion—passion against what harms us, not passion to punish.

For me, going through the fire has always meant transformation. Never punishment. Always love. Sometimes challenging, but always an invitation to change, not condemnation. When someone dies, if they’re a believer, their spirit and soul go into the realms and become part of the cloud of witnesses. If they’re not a believer, Jesus appears to them as light and invites them into relationship. Many accept. Angels take them, and train them. Others don’t—some feel unworthy due to guilt or religious conditioning. They feel they’re being punished, but it’s their own shame. God isn’t punishing them—they’re punishing themselves.

We can minister to those in that place—preaching good news even there. Some don’t believe they’re worthy of love because of their lives, but God never stops loving. Religion has turned the message of love into fear. “You’d better be sorry enough so God will forgive you.” But love is what transforms, not fear.

Religion has made “sin” a verb—wrong actions. But in the Greek, “sin” is a noun. It’s not about behaviour; it’s about lost identity. “The wages of sin is death” means the consequence of lost identity is a life less than what God intended. Jesus dealt with sin—our lost identity—on the cross. He reconciled all of us. God’s not holding anything against anyone. Christianity often says, “You’re saved by grace through faith,” but turns that into a requirement for your own faith to save you. Yet even that faith is a gift. There are no works involved. Repentance (metanoia) doesn’t mean “be sorry.” It means change your mind—agree with God’s perspective.

God has forgiven everyone already. Jesus took our death, gave us his life, and came to dwell in us. Many just don’t know it yet. Religion doesn’t lead people to freedom—it creates another set of rules, conditions and guilt. Every stream has its own standards, and if you don’t meet them, you’re condemned. But God has made us righteous. He sees us as we truly are. If we can see ourselves as he sees us, our lives will be transformed.

Even fallen angels lost their identity. I’ve heard of angels missing others—missing Lucifer and those who fell. I believe God will restore all things. Colossians 1 says all things were created by and for him and will be reconciled. Some fallen angels don’t believe restoration is possible because they’ve been told otherwise. But when we minister to them with love, it can stir their memory. Those who haven’t fallen probably know restoration is possible—thousands have already been restored.

Sometimes we hear only the reflection of our own voice when we ask God things. It’s easy to hear what we want to hear. That’s why we need to measure everything against love. If what you hear doesn’t align with love, it’s not God.

When I ask him about choices, like whether to go somewhere or do something, God often says, “Do what you want.” He wants us to mature into sons who can choose based on alignment with his heart, not just wait for orders.

Related posts

243. Not Counting Their Trespasses

406. Recognise the Finished Work of Jesus

316. The Purpose of the Fire

245. What Jesus Did

265. Love’s Good News

 

261. The Final Judgment

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

To reconcile all things

…and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.  And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col 1:20-22).

Jesus has reconciled only a certain, select group of people, according to what most of us have believed, in order to present us blameless and beyond reproach. We have limited the scope of this reconciliation, thinking it could not possibly include everyone and everything. Inevitably, different groups have had different opinions about who is in and who is out.

Everyone and everything is included. Jesus reconciled all things to Himself. If Jesus did it already, no one needs to do anything more. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves holy and blameless and beyond reproach because He already did it. He died our death, dealt with our separation and brought us back into a restored relationship.

…namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world (Greek: kosmos) to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19).

God is not counting anyone’s sins against them. That is forgiveness. Psalm 103 tells us that as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. No matter how far you travel trying to find them, you never will.

Vine’s dictionary will tell you that kosmos means ‘the sum-total of human life in the ordered universe, considered apart from, and alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God.’ Even if you believe that, the kosmos is what ‘God so loved’ in John 3:16 and what ‘God was in Christ reconciling’ in 2 Cor 5:19. It has all been reconciled.

We have this word, that Jesus has reconciled everyone, but what have we done with it? Have we shared with people the good news of what God has done for them, or bad news, that they are not reconciled with, and still separated from, a God who doesn’t even like them?

The final judgment

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is age-enduring life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).

Jesus died our death and now there is no longer any sin, and therefore no wages due. If no one’s sin is counted against them, based on the power of the cross, then all subsequent judgments must produce life and not death. As Francois Du Toit says in the Mirror Bible translation of 2 Cor 5:19, “the fallen state of mankind was deleted.” There is no double jeopardy in God’s kingdom: you cannot be tried for the same thing twice. No one can be judged again for what Jesus already died for. The cross is the final judgment. There is no future ‘judgment day’: it already happened at the cross and we have all been declared blamelessly innocent.

Sadly, we judge people all the time, based on their behaviour and what we consider to be right or wrong rather than looking at them in love through the eyes of Jesus. We do not necessarily condone everyone’s behaviour, but we need to be careful not to think that it excludes them from God’s love and reconciliation.

Pleased to reveal His Son in me

Paul recounts his encounter (as Saul) on the road to Damascus:

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles… (Gal 1:15-16).

He does not say that God revealed His Son in the bright light that blinded him, but that “God was pleased to reveal His Son in me”. God had been at work in him all along; Jesus had been in Him all along; now God revealed that to him. God is not separated from people, even from someone like Saul who was implacably opposed to Him. He is at work in all people to reveal Himself as love and light – and through them to others.

For too long the good news has been presented something like this: “There is a big gulf between you on one side and God on the other. The cross bridges the gap and you can walk across that bridge and engage God.” The real good news is that there is no gulf. God is already at work in everybody, and our job is to help them see that (not to tell them that they are dirty, rotten sinners who deserve to suffer eternal conscious torment as their punishment in hell). There is no separation.

The fullness of God was in Christ

Let us not imagine that the incarnation separated Father, Son and Spirit; nor even the crucifixion. Scripture tells us that all the fullness of God’s being dwells bodily in Christ (Col 2:9) and that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19). On the cross, Jesus felt the agony of fallen humanity when he quoted the opening line of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But every Jewish person who heard Him knew where the Psalm was going, with David crying triumphantly “He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him but has heard when he cried to him.” (Ps 22:24).

Resurrection

The restoration of all things is based on the victory of the cross over all things that would hinder our reconciliation and restoration to relationship.

All judgment and justice are based on the victory of the cross over sin, death and the grave; every hindrance or legal obstacle is overcome. Jesus holds the keys of death and of Hades (Rev 1:17) and He is using them to unlock the door, not lock it. That is totally contradictory to some of our belief systems. God has opened access to everyone. The gates of the New Jerusalem are never shut. Everyone is included, no one excluded.

…so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to age-enduring life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:21).

The power of the resurrection has defeated death (and it is what enables everything to be restored). The resurrection has overcome death and grace now reigns.

All will be made alive

For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22).

Take note of the ‘all’ in both parts of that last sentence. It seems that no one has much trouble with the first ‘all’ meaning ‘all’. The second ‘all’ is where the trouble begins, because if it is the same ‘all’ then much of our theology bites the dust. So we have made ‘in Christ’ conditional, in a way that we do not with ‘in Adam’: so that only those who are ‘in Christ’ will be made alive. And we have gone on to define what being ‘in Christ’ looks like, according to our various denominations and streams.

Both mentions of ‘all’ are the same ‘all’. Christ was the last Adam and the Adamic race ended with Him. From this side of the cross, no one is descended from Adam any more but from Christ. From that point on, all are ‘in Christ’ (though some do not know it and the ‘gospel’ we have preached has consistently told them that they aren’t). And Paul says that ‘in Christ’ all of us are going to be made alive.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:56).

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death (Rom 8:2).

Those are very familiar scriptures and we read them as if they apply exclusively to ‘us’ (those we consider as being ‘in Christ’). But who is under the law, since the cross? No one, not even the Jewish people who were the ONLY ones under the law in the first place!

Everyone has victory over death and sin through the power of the cross.

…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity [literally, from before the times of the ages] but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim 1:9-10).

Death is abolished. It no longer has power over anyone. This was already decided ‘from before the times of the ages’ but has been ‘brought to light’ by the gospel.

More to come

God is not holding anything related to sin against the world and is restoring all things, first to original condition and then to His original intention. God is looking for all things to grow and mature from their original condition to fulfil their potential, His original intention. Original condition is just the start: there is more to come!

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Background for header meme by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
The text, “Blamelessly innocent” is a reference to the Mirror Bible translation of Ephesians 1:3-4 by Francois Du Toit:
Let’s celebrate God! He lavished every blessing heaven has upon us in Christ! He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God’s mind made up about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face-to-face before him in blameless innocence. God found us in Christ before he lost us in Adam!

258. The Glory of the Children of God

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott – 

In considering the restoration of all things, we need first of all to focus on having our own relationship with God fully restored. Restoration is personal. It is about restoring our spirit, soul and body to God’s original intention, desired condition and full functionality.

It is about our spirit’s eternal identity being restored. It is about having everything within the soul – mind, emotions, will, conscience, imagination, reason and choice – restored to innocence; all brokenness, fragmentation, separation, isolation, and rejection done away with and healed. It is about having our body restored to health and wholeness, right down to DNA level. It is about recovering our ‘supernatural’ abilities (which we only regard as supernatural because we have mostly lost the ability to manifest them naturally). In all this we will see our eternal destiny restored, together with all its identity, purpose, position and authority.

The glory

“…that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).

God wants us to reconnect to what ‘the glory’ really means and to re-engage with it so that creation will be set free. If we do not come into that glory, then creation cannot be set free. The glory is really the weight of the essence or nature of something; in this case, the weight of the essence of our sonship. Adam was clothed with glory and we will be transfigured to that state again. Jesus was transfigured to show us what that would look like.

Jesus reveals that we pre-existed in God; he defines us. He justified us and also glorified us. He redeemed our innocence and restored the glory we lost in Adam. All these things point to one conclusion, God is for us! Who can prevail against us? (Rom 8:30-31 Mirror).

That is what Jesus has done, but are we living in that reality? Are we experiencing the fullness of the glory we should have as God’s children or is that glory veiled by the way we live our lives? If we have limiting beliefs which inform our vision and choices, if we see ourselves as less than God sees us, then we will not be radiating that glory. The more we engage with metanoia1 and see ourselves as God sees us, the more we will shine with that glory. Once we begin to experience that, we will also be able to function in the knowledge of our authority as overcomers.

You made him (man) a little lower than God and crowned him (or clothed him) with glory and honour (Psalm 8:5).

God made man to be that way.  The original Hebrew word translated crowned means to encircle, to surround. In other words, Adam and Eve were surrounded by glory and honour. They shone with the glory of who God created them to be and creation honoured them for their position as sons.

God gave them a wonderful environment to rule, in which He would truly be their provision and protection within that intimate relationship. Because they had been clothed with glory they did not need any further clothing, as we do today; because they were living in an atmosphere of perfect relationship they did not need to gain knowledge or figure things out for themselves. They did not need to rely on their own understanding because they could draw on God’s understanding. Everything came through their relationship with God.

Man’s fall was a fall from a position of glory. The gospel is the good news that the Father sent Jesus to restore our glory and so begin creation’s restoration.  Jesus proved God’s love for all His creation (‘God so loved the world’ is not restricted to just people!) by choosing to die – for us, as us and in our place – to reconcile our relationship and to restore it to what it was in the Garden of Eden and beyond that, to what it would have become. Just as we respond when we look at God’s glory, so creation will respond when it sees ours.

The ministry of reconciliation

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 (cosmos) to Himself, not counting their trespasses 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 (2 Cor 5:18-20).

God was in Christ when He reconciled the world (the Greek word is kosmos), not forsaking Him, separated from Him or turning His face away, as we have been taught. Paul says that God has already reconciled mankind, not counting their trespasses against them. That much is a done deal. God has reconciled Himself to us, but only we can choose to be reconciled to Him. If anything or anyone is still separated from Him, it is not of His doing.

We are to serve creation by exercising that ministry of reconciliation, so that everything gets restored. We will carry the ‘word of reconciliation’ in the very foundation of our being and it will transform our entire being from the inside out. That is how we can be ambassadors, representing God’s kingdom and authority among the whole created order.

From glory to glory

…but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor 3:16-18).

The original purpose and intention of God for each of us, what He created us to be and do, that is what we will see reflected. That is an image which will change and transform us as we submit to the process. It does not happen in an instant: we have to keep looking. If it happened in an instant, we would start looking somewhere else and become conformed to the image of that ‘somewhere else’ instead. The ongoing process is integral to our continuing relationship with and representation of God.

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness”, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6).

When anyone turns to God, a veil is lifted from their hearts; light comes and they are enabled to behold the glory of God in the very face of Jesus Christ.  In believers who continue to look into that glory a transformation takes place, by which we are continually changed into the same image (God’s original intent), from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.

Note:
1. Metanoia is the Greek word normally translated as repentance in our English Bibles. The original word has nothing to do with feeling regret or saying sorry, but is about turning around and thinking differently so that we are of the same mind as God about something.

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Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to contact us about making a one-time gift.
Thank you!
*Note Sadly, because of abuse by scammers we can no longer offer a ‘click to donate’ option. However, if you contact us, we will get back to you with a simple means of giving. 

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