Legal Tender for the Debt of Sin

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This morning as I was laying in bed and meditating with God, I felt some strong impressions about heaven's viewpoint regarding a proper understanding of the debt created by sin and God's provision for dealing with that debt. I called this, the currency of heaven and the paperwork of the law.

Sin created a debt against God. All of humanity was plunged into this debt and since Adam no one has been able to live outside of that situation. That means that even if a person were somehow to be able to be born as a human and live their whole life without ever sinning even once, they would still have to die. Sin brought death upon all the human race and nothing we can do will change that fact for us personally.

In the logic of Paul in his explanation of this problem, when the law was introduced on Mount Sinai, it only accomplished producing a certified copy itemizing the promissory note of debt obligation or what might also be termed a certificate of debt/death.

Jesus' death on the cross produced a sworn affidavit of forgiveness that stated that all charges were dropped. This actually meant that not only were there no charges being pressed on the part of the creditor who was owed the debt, but that the bank of heaven contained accounts full of currency solidly backed by the valuable assets of heaven that were available to every sinner who might ever have lived or would live. These accounts were assigned in the name of each person and that person could draw on those accounts at any time for any and all needs that sin may have generated in their life. The funds in their account were far more than anything they could ever spend so there was no need to worry about running out of currency. In addition, each person's name is found to have been entered into the Book of Life which entitles them to an eternity of life in the presence of God along with all the holy angels.

The law's demands can only be satisfied when all paperwork is in order.

Legally, entrance into paradise requires completed proper documentation regarding our standing in relationship to the requirements of the law before entrance can be granted. Otherwise, people still infected with seeds of death might reinfect the whole universe and the infected thinking from debt mentality could continue to reinfect God's creation indefinitely.

What is yet needed for us to enter heaven and spend eternity in the presence and love of God?

What is required for this debt to be actually paid off permanently?

Currency used to satisfy any debt must be issued by a recognized, legally legitimate bank before it can be used to pay off any debts. In our system these are called Legal Tender Notes.

What is claimed on the so-called Legal Tender that we commonly use in the United States? Take a look right now at any denomination bill that you might have in your pocket and observe the words and claims printed on it.

Federal Reserve Note

The United States of America

This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.

In God We Trust.

What do you commonly receive in return after spending this kind of currency?

Receipts.

What is the purpose of a receipt?

To provide proof of payment for any public or private debt by your use of this legal currency.

It is common knowledge that our own sins have only served to increase the massive debt that we already found ourselves in just by being born into a race of sinners. Yet God has been unveiling a plan whereby which we may become free of this debt, but sadly there is much more confusion about this plan than there is clarity as to how this effectively is to be accomplished.

If all sins both past, present and future have already been forgiven as demonstrated by the death of the Son of God on the cross (that is a separate but extremely vital concept to understand), then why is any further paperwork required for the whole problem of sin to be wrapped up for good? Why aren't we all just escorted into heaven right now if charges against us have been dropped on the part of God?

It seems quite apparent that it is not enough for just God to do His part in this plan of salvation. What is also required is for each sinner/debtor to make a free and un-coerced decision regarding how they are going to relate to this provided forgiveness. For it is not enough simply to acknowledge that forgiveness was demonstrated by God on the cross; it is vital that forgiveness must also be received and internalized for it to accomplish the necessary change needed in the hearts of those forgiven.

At this point there is also another issue that must be clarified in order to avoid further confusion about the word 'forgiveness.' In the original languages of the Bible there are actually a number of different words that mean different things but that were all translated into the one English word 'forgiveness.' This has resulted in creating a great deal of confusion about what forgiveness actually means and has caused many to come to wrong conclusions about the meaning of salvation and our relationship with God. I do not have time here to fully unpack these issues, but I will simply say that there is a distinct difference between the forgiveness that has ever been in the heart of God toward sinners and the kind of forgiveness experienced in the heart of sinners that radically affects their opinions about God.

What is vital to understand is that the safety of all heaven is at risk, for this is not just a technical legal problem we are dealing with here, it is rather an attitude problem rooted in the disposition of our hearts. God cannot risk filling heaven with sinners that are simply forgiven from His side but who still do not believe in their deepest hearts that they are forgiven. To have those kind of people in heaven would mean that He still would be prevented from unveiling His face, His character, His glory in its fullest measure as is the case right now. This is because the intensity of God's passionate love is so overwhelmingly powerful and pure that any trace of unbelief, any failure of synchronization in a heart that is out of harmony with the heartthrobs of heaven would result in excruciating agony and torment to an extreme magnitude reacting in the mind and heart of anyone thus disposed.

God desires and plans for there to be no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sin. But this can only come through a completely free choice of every individual involved. It also involves the completion of the healing of each heart from all unbelief about the real truth about God. These choices must be made living in our time of probation on this earth, for that is the only time available for us to determine our eternal destiny. After this life there will be no more opportunities to make yet another decision about which side we are going to serve. We will choose now who will receive our loyalty and then we move on to firm up that decision from this point forward. This is what is called character formation where our choices determine the kind of person we become permanently.

So what are the required “documents” needed to wrap up our case before the court of the universe? And how can we properly utilize the currency provided us to verify our qualification to enter in through the gates into the city of God? (Rev. 22:14)

The Bible says that the certificate of death, the debt that sin created against each of our names, was nailed to the cross. (Col. 2:13, 14) But what was actually nailed to the cross literally? It was Jesus who was nailed to the cross, not some paper detailing our debt to God. Jesus Himself became a demonstration of the effect of sin, but also as a revelation of God's attitude of forgiveness toward us.

In essence, Jesus, on the cross, swore out the affidavit of the pre-existing forgiveness that has been in the heart of God the creditor all along. This means that our accounts in the bank of heaven have been linked to the account of Jesus our Savior who also happens to own all of heaven. This means that we have been given full access to all the currency issued by this super bank. And what is the greatest asset of infinite value that backs up this currency? It is the attitude of willingness on the part of God to lay down His own life and embrace the death that we were destined to experience so as to prove publicly the reality of His disposition of forgiveness towards everyone that defines His heart.

Yet just because our names currently exist in the Book of Life right now does not mean they can never be removed. Our choices as to what we do related to our bank account in heaven determines whether our account will remain open for eternity or whether through illegal actions and the treason of unbelief we might cause our account to be closed and our name removed. (Rev. 20:12, 15; 21:27)

What kinds of actions or choices could result in our accounts being canceled and the loss of all the credit so freely yet expensively provided for us through that account?

Open treason against the Owner of the bank and the authority of His jurisdiction.

Prolonged attempts to illegally embezzle the funds provided us. This kind of attitude produces hardening of the heart which blocks us from even being able to return the receipts needed to verify possession of all the goods and services that have been provided to us by heaven.

The use of counterfeit currency that attempts to mimic the currency of heaven.

What is the real problem with counterfeit currency?

Legal currency is supposed to be based on something of inherent value to back up that currency (unlike the currency we use in the U.S.). Legitimate currency that maintains its true value must have reserve assets equivalent to the value claimed on the face of the currency being circulated. Inflation occurs when more currency is printed without assets to back it up, meaning that the face value claims of the currency in reality are actually false.

Counterfeit currency is both unauthorized and even more importantly, is not based on anything of real value or worth. But even beyond that, what is the inherent nature of a counterfeit currency note?

To be effective a counterfeit must look convincingly like real currency. It must appear to have the face value that appears on the true in order to deceive others into accepting it as legal tender.

Are there going to be people who conduct their business now relying on counterfeit principles and will even attempt to present counterfeit currency at the judgment in order to enter into the joys of paradise? Absolutely! Jesus talks about this clearly in Matt. 7:21-23, but He also spells out the results of that attempt. Heaven will never be fooled by counterfeit currency, but unfortunately most of us can easily be duped into accepting it and trying to spend it.

Counterfeit currency of heaven's money would be any kind of righteousness or assertion of inherent value that has any trace of human attempts to satisfy the demands of the law or to assist in payment of the debt created by sin. Any trace of human righteousness/worthiness produced by our own efforts to keep the requirements of the law is tantamount to tampering with the currency of heaven, and all such attempts invalidate it's authenticity. Any tampering with that currency will result in instant disqualification of any such note and cannot be accepted as payment toward our debt.

“But,” some may say, “why is there any discussion of a debt at all if Jesus had all the charges dropped at the cross?”

That is a good question and deserves a very carefully considered examination.

It is important to be aware of just where and how this debt exists so we understand more clearly how it actually impacts our life. Let me explain.

As I noted before, whenever legal currency is spent, a receipt is produced to verify that something of value has been received in exchange for that currency. Our sins continually produce evidence of a debt on our account that needs to be satisfied. The problem is that even though God may not be pressing charges of condemnation (John 3:17), that does not mean that sin does not produce debt in our own hearts that produce debilitating and destructive effects in our own soul.

Just because Jesus has notified the court on the cross that God is not pressing charges against us does not mean no one else is accusing us in court. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and is insistent that our continued sins deserve payment and that we deserve to suffer and die. (Rom. 6:23)

Just because our accounts in heaven have been credited with sufficient amounts of currency to cover all our sin and debt does not mean that the debt or its effects are fully resolved yet. In all ages another step has always been required for people to experience the full freedom from the bondage that the debt of sin produces in the heart. While Jesus has provided all the legal tender necessary to resolve all of our debts and to mitigate their effects in our lives, it is still required for each individual to access those funds purposefully and spend those funds in exchange for true healing of their soul and to also generate the necessary receipts/proof that they believe their sins have been canceled. When the judgment arrives there will still be the accuser demanding proof of payment for every debt that our sins have created. He will go over every detail in the records of every being who has ever lived looking for any mistakes or errors or unforgiven sins that he may use against us in judgment.

In actuality though, this is the natural process of how reality operates as God designed it. Exposure to the presence of God itself results in a potentially lethal atmosphere for any unbelief or cherished sin remaining in the heart. Satan need not even be present to expose residual remnants of sin lurking in our souls. Simply increasing our awareness of God's passionate love will accomplish the very same result naturally. Any trace of sin or rebellion left unresolved in a heart when exposed to the presence of God's power of passionate love as it becomes unveiled will always result in intense agony and torment of soul that quickly becomes very obvious and internally unbearable.

It is the exposure of these pockets of unbelief related to the forgiveness of God, these seeds of unreleased attitudes of rebellion, these bonds of sympathy with any of Satan's lies about God that prove our disqualification to live successfully in the perfect, rarefied atmosphere of pure passionate love that defines all of heaven. We must avail ourselves now of the infinite credit of Christ's righteousness deposited in our account and rely only the authorized currency of heaven that has the real power to eliminate every sinful tendency or sympathy in our hearts that could prove our ruin.

This is actually the healing process called salvation. The word salvation itself originally comes from the word also translated as salve. We may use the currency of heaven to buy the balm of healing for the wounds in our hearts that are revealed to us by the convictions of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We may use the currency in our heavenly account to buy all the goods and services of heaven provided for our healing and to restore us to wholeness in preparation for fitness to enter into heaven's society.

What are the receipts needed as proof of purchase for us to gain entry into the family of heaven?

Praise, worship and spontaneous celebration from hearts full of gladness and overflowing with gratitude for all of God's provisions and riches provided to us freely. These are receipts we can display as proof that we have indeed received in our hearts what God has provided for all of our needs. Genuine praise and worship to the God of heaven, our Creator, our Savior, our Redeemer, our God, our Lover and most intimate Friend – these are the proofs of purchase that must be evident in our lives as we spend freely the riches profligately provided for us from our bank account in heaven.

Heaven has been so extravagant in its dispensing of its riches that there is no excuse for anyone to attempt to turn to any other source from which to procure healing or attempt self-vindication or produce righteousness. The stories and parables of Jesus are full of references to heaven's extravagant dispersion of funds, so much so that few are willing to believe it is true. We continually find ourselves trying to tame down extreme statements of grace, mercy and love that are found all throughout the Scriptures because of our insistent disposition toward unbelief.

But those who refuse to believe that they have an account overflowing with riches in heaven's bank, who fail to access that currency to eliminate their debts and all its effects in their hearts, these will discover too late that any other attempts to cover their debt and remove their sin will prove fatally flawed in the day of judgment and full revelation. For the word 'judgment' literally means to expose, to make open and evident and plain all the secret things that have been previously hidden from sight. This means that everything that is going on in our hearts that have been hidden from others will in that day be made completely public and exposed fully to everyone.

So, in the presence of God, the angels and every other human who has ever lived, our hearts, our choices, our thoughts, our decisions and motives will all be fully exposed like an X-rated movie that lays out the truth of what we really believed at the gut level about God as well as about ourselves. It will become painfully obvious whether we have chosen to access our heavenly credit and applied it to cover all of our debts or we have attempted to use counterfeit currency to cover our debts but which failed to effectively resolve the damage it caused in our hearts.

The location where debt actually resides is in our own hearts. That is the depository of all debt generated by sin. It is not so much in the books of heaven where the problem of sin exists as many have so long supposed, for the real problem of sin is in our own attitudes towards God, our feelings about what His feelings are towards us and our notions about how to get right with Him. It is the picture of God we have in our heart severely distorted by the lies about Him that is the core issue of sin. It is in our heart where the damage of sin has taken place, so it is necessarily in our own heart where all of the healing and re-creation must also take place in order to restore us to a condition where we may survive and thrive living in the presence of pure power and love without any trace of resistance. (Isa. 33:13-17)

Because counterfeit currency is based on fraudulent claims of worth and relies on assets that are not really of value, for these reasons it is inherently incapable to heal the damage that sin has created in our hearts. Counterfeit currency does claim to backed by substances of value just as true currency is backed by the gold and assets of heaven. But unlike the gold of heaven which is both secure, real and in abundance, our counterfeit currency of righteousness based on human performance assumes that we have something – anything – of intrinsic value that can compete or compare to the value of heaven's assets and the righteousness of Christ. His value is what is behind His currency, and this value is noted clearly in the praises found in the book of Revelation where the songs of the redeemed praise the Lamb as the only one who is really worthy of true praise and adoration. (Rev. 5:12)

In the pure atmosphere of praise to the Lamb that constantly fills all of heaven, a single note of praise for anything we might have produced by our own effort would serve as a jarring discordant note that would interfere and spoil the harmonious praises of God. Heaven cannot afford to allow any selfish songs played anywhere in heaven, for this would only serve to perpetuate the problem of sin even longer. Sin at its core is selfishness and selfishness always results in disharmony, pain, separation and finally death. Self-praise is so jarringly out of harmony with the adoring praises of heaven to the Source of all life, joy and blessings that it would only humiliate, embarrass and even torture the souls of any who might attempt such an absurd exercise.

This is why it is so crucial that we abandon all notions of dependence on any value of our own making in our choice of currencies to address the problem of our debts and to find the needed healing for our hearts. We must stop using counterfeit money to attempt our healing and must rely only on the currency provided for us through our account in heaven. That is the only currency of legitimate value that can procure for us the effective medicine and care that bring about the true healing for all the pain and disease that sin has produced in our lives.

So when we are asked to produce the necessary papers for entrance into heaven, we can be prepared to only offer the receipts of praise for the Lamb who's blood provided the evidence for all the forgiveness and riches that have been credited to our heavenly account. Authentic and spontaneous praise can then be released freely from our heart, not just our head, and becomes the proof that we have renounced all attempts to justify ourselves or to utilize any other monetary system for our benefit. Our attitude to celebrate God's goodness will produce expressions of freedom and joy for the healing that has restored within us the ability to unresistingly enjoy being ravished in the love of our Savior and God. This in turn becomes the 'paperwork', the receipts that permit us then to add our own songs of loyal praise to the millions of beings that already sing with joyful praise in adoration of God throughout the rest of the universe.

What of those who have chosen to continue to rely on other faulty sources for healing and hope and eternal life? What will happen to those who continues to try to use counterfeit currency? What will become of those who fail to produce authentic receipts verifying they have accepted and embraced the forgiveness and wealth so freely deposited in their heavenly account?

It will be revealed that their failure to dip into the accounts provided for them and their involvement in the spreading and use of counterfeit methods for healing will result in their account being closed permanently and their names removed from the Book of Life because they have rejected it themselves. It is never God's desire for this to occur, but it would never be safe to allow such ones to be retained in the Book of Life who have chosen instead to commit high treason against all the generosity that heaven has provided for their restoration into the perfect vulnerable society of heaven.

Those who reject the offer of God's free grace in favor of any other method that relies in any way on their own performance or intrinsic worth commit treason. Apart from simple trust in God's view of their value and total dependence on His indwelling Spirit, they are found wanting and remain in debt. Even though God has provided more than enough funds necessary for our debt to be paid, and though even the certificate of death/debt was nailed to the cross in the person of God's own Son and all charges were dropped so far as God was concerned, if we do not avail ourselves of that forgiveness by faith and accept the funds provided by trusting in them, the debt still exists in our own heart.

Be very clear here – this debt does not exist in the heart of God or in His attitude towards us. God never harbors ill feelings, grudges or condemnation towards sinners that result in punishments against them. Debt is totally resident in the hearts of those who refuse to believe in God's disposition of love, forgiveness and grace towards them. This is all about the issue of belief – real heart belief. That is why the apostle John referred so much to this word in relation to the testimony of Jesus. Resistance against belief in what Jesus revealed about God in the heart of anyone refusing to receive and embrace the grace and forgiveness flowing from the heart of God becomes the source of torment and death when they are finally exposed to the full revelation of that same love in the presence of God.

It is ineffective to work on trying to produce in ourselves symptoms of salvation. It is of no use to try to force ourselves to offer superficial praises of gratitude to God in attempts to appear like we have experienced salvation when we have not. Counterfeit receipts will also be obvious and exposed as frauds in time of judgment. Only authentic currency and authentic receipts will stand up under the brilliant light of truth in the scrutiny of judgment. And remember, it is not God that is examining our record of choices but it is everyone else who will see clearly every thought and motive of our heart. The judgment will be open to all and in the end all will be unanimous in their final verdict that will vindicate God absolving Him of every accusation that has ever been leveled against Him.

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. (Revelation 22:17 NRSV)

Judicial Systems Compared

I want to take a little time to unpack the corresponding elements between human judicial process and true redemptive restoration as used by heaven's agencies.

Though there may be elements of truth in earthly judicial systems, it is a very serious mistake to attempt to understand or illustrate heaven's system of justice and law by using the earthly procedures as examples to explain them. It is just backwards to attempt to illustrate something true by utilizing examples from its counterfeit alternative system to explain it. Using a counterfeit as the basis by which to judge the truth will always result in confusion and deception. If we want to understand, or even more importantly participate in, heaven's redemptive kind of justice, then we must receive enlightenment from the Author of that system and more carefully study the writings given to us concerning this system.

Arrest

In earthly models, the process of justice generally begins with suspicion and the arrest of a person who is thought to be guilty of some crime. The way this is carried out is reflective of the attitudes of the whole concept of justice that is so familiar to us here on earth. There is confrontation, force, weapons involved, intimidation and even violence when deemed necessary. The attitude of the arresting parties, whether police, federal agents or military personnel, is one of assumed guilt until someone else can determine if there is any reason to change that assumption. The publicity surrounding such events deeply impresses upon observers the impression that this person must be guilty of the assumed charges simply because of the nature of the arrest. Guilt is imposed artificially on everyone involved and is firmly in place until the accused parties can figure out some way of convincing various parties that they are innocent. The proverbial saying that our justice system assumes innocence until guilt is proven is nothing more than a myth in our world, a nice platitude to obscure the obvious.

During the arrest, sometimes associated with violence, there is generally an attitude of accusation, of implied guilt and a great amount of shame surrounding the accused. Shame is actually another word for devaluing someone, causing them to feel worthless as a human being. It pushes them to believe that they are a bad person at their deepest level of identity, not just bad because of something they have done but bad as a person without any worth or respect. This shame is reinforced by the disrespect often shown by the arresting officers, especially upon return to the more isolated confinement of the detention center where the public eye cannot hold them as accountable for their actions. Unspeakable acts of shame and violation of dignity often take place behind the closed doors of jails and prisons committed by people who often get themselves into those jobs just so they can exploit others for their own selfish gratification.

In stark contrast to this evil system of so-called justice, heaven's means of beginning the process of justice is a very secret, gentle voice of conviction deep inside the soul that is impossible for the public to perceive from the outside. It is a conviction inside of both the state of sin that we are found in and the purity and goodness of God. This later conviction often goes unnoticed by many people for much longer, but the conviction that one is out of harmony with the principles of truth and what is right is much more evident. The response that is invited from this conviction is to confess what we are being convicted of. Confession, unlike that commonly observed in human methods, is not extracted by force and intimidation but is an offer to simply agree with the inner promptings of the Spirit and to believe the real truth about reality as shown to us by God.

The Collection and Purpose of Evidence

The next step in the process which goes on both before and after the arrest, is the collection of all the evidence that can be obtained to procure a guilty verdict. In worldly justice evidence is primarily filtered through the intent to only present that which will incriminate the person, to sway the opinions of the deciding persons about what kind of person this is, to paint them with extreme descriptions to make them look as bad as possible. The purpose of the prosecutors is to secure the harshest sentence possible so that the winning party can benefit the most at the accused expense. The pride and bigotry of many prosecuting attorneys is so deeply entrenched that is it not unusual for them to fiercely defend their convictions even years later after overwhelming evidence is presented as to the innocence of the party convicted in court. The opinion of the accusers is more important to them than the truthfulness or accuracy of the evidence. And the welfare of the accused is not even given any thought by those employed to destroy their reputation.

In heaven's system of justice, evidence is presented first to the heart in order for the offender to become aware of what true reality is and that their disharmony with the principles of heaven will lead to pain and death if not forsaken. Again, the most important evidence is not just about the problems that one is experiencing in their own life but is evidence about the character of the Judge that they will ultimately have to face. The myriads of lies about this Judge has caused them to rebel against their loving Creator and was the root cause of their disharmony to begin with. So the work of the Holy Spirit and all who cooperate with Him is to present overwhelming evidence of the goodness of God, the fairness of God, the compassion and forgiveness and mercy of the supreme Ruler of the whole universe to which we are all personally accountable. The most important evidence in heaven's justice system is about how God feels toward us, not just about our faults and mistakes and evil practices. What God wants us to see is that the real reasons that we based our rebellion on in the first place are all false and He wants to cause us to see the real truth about Him so that we no longer need to live in independence and fear from His presence.

Arraignment

In our judicial system, the next step is usually an arraignment in which the charges against a person are formally presented in a court and the accused is asked to enter a plea. This is yet another step in publicizing the shame of the person being charged and their reputation being maligned. It is also full of assumptions and implications and legal traps in which the accused can easily be led into ruining his chances of vindication if they are not intimately familiar with the intricate rules of procedure in that court. In earthly justice systems, procedures is given far more weight than truth or motives. While it is often carried out in such a way as to appear to the outside observer that the facts are given due consideration, what is actually transpiring is a duel between opposing attorneys who all give their allegiance to the same authority and are just sparring with the rules of procedure to see who can win the current round in a game of skill. This may come as a shock to many, but the more one learns about what really goes on in court the more this becomes evident. Court decisions are based far more on who can manipulate the procedures and the system than on the truthfulness or innocence of the accused parties.

The process of justice from heaven's perspective is laid out in Matthew 18. If the promptings of the gentle, quiet voice of the Spirit is ignored and resisted, then the proper venue is to slowly move the convicting pressure more and more into the open. But the whole context and purpose of heaven's promptings of conviction are radically different than the process that usually takes place in the counterfeit systems that we see played out in our judicial systems. Heaven's justice is always with the sole purpose of redemption, restoration and re-creation in the image of God. Heaven does not pursue condemnation but restoration. Human justice is looking for revenge and uses condemnation as the means by which to force people into confessing whether they are guilty or not. Threats of pain, deprivation and imprisonment are used to intimidate people into cooperation with the methods and desires of the prosecutors. God's Spirit uses increasing exposure of the contrast between our sinful heart and the love and purity of God's heart to draw us into returning to be healed and restored into fellowship with Him and those around us.

Detention

While awaiting trial the accused is locked up in prison or threatened with financial loss of bail if allowed to stay out of jail. Obviously there is very little trust displayed toward the accused no matter what their condition is. The priority used to determine whether they might remain free or kept in prison has much more to do with their financial prowess and their political connections more than anything else. Fear is the most prominent element of this process and is the foundation of all of the counterfeit system of justice practiced in this world.

While under conviction of the Holy Spirit one is allowed freedom to continue to choose how to live and what direction to take their life. But there are natural consequences that will be experienced as we force away the protecting hand of grace from our lives. When one refuses to accept the offers of love, fear is the natural result of living outside the atmosphere of love and grace. Those who choose to continue to resist both the truth about themselves and the real truth about God's attitudes towards them will find themselves digging deeper and deeper into the hole of self-justification, denial and deception. The only alternative to agreeing with God and the convictions of His Spirit is non-truthful living which is deception. This is the arena that Satan specializes in so to resist the convictions of God is to invite the presence of demons and their abusive control over the soul.

Trial

Trial in our systems of justice are conducted before corrupt human judges and sometimes a jury. Some judges are obviously more corrupt than others, but since all humans are sinners and selfish by nature, there can be no really good example of real justice like that found in heaven's system of law. Here, lawyers from both sides attempt to skew the evidence through deception, misrepresentation when convenient and selective presentation of facts to play on the emotions of the jury and judge to secure their desired outcome. Often claims of what is true are at least partially obscured intentionally in the pressure to get the predetermined conclusion of the lawyer's client. Everything presented in court is claimed to be objective, but through careful suppression of any facts that might harm their case both sides create subjective impressions to sway the decision in their favor. What's more, the battle revolves around technicalities in process more than in truthfulness of facts and motives. In fact, motives and context are the most subjective and unusable part of the presentation and subject to extreme manipulation by the evidence or rejection by the court.

Trials in heaven's process are designed to bring about early judgment. Judgment means revelation and exposure of the thoughts and motives that are in the heart, not a condemnation. Judgment that occurs through trials allowed into our lives involve increasing inner pressure to agree with what is really true, both about our own sinful condition and more importantly the real truth about God. In effect a double trial is being conducted each time a person comes under conviction by the Holy Spirit or faces a trial. A person is invited to change their mind about what they believe about themselves and their true identity and they are also encouraged to change their mind about the greatest Judge in the universe who is emphatically on their side, who is not unbiased but who's bias in always in their favor.

Vindication or Conviction and Sentencing

When an earthly trial results in a conviction, the effect is immense condemnation, scorn, shame, humiliation, derision and even sometimes hatred heaped on the reputation and heart of the accused. Meanwhile the accusers and prosecutors gloat in their win and celebrate their victory in crushing yet another victim into the meat-grinder of the penal system designed to destroy even further any sense of worth, value and identity in the heart of the convicted person.

If the accused wins the case it is often through the expertise of attorneys who find some technical flaw in how the prosecution failed to obey some rule of court procedure rather than the truthfulness of their clients case. This is not always the case but is prominently the tactic and method of all practice of law. There is great confusion about truth in our judicial system because the rules and procedures are designed very carefully to obscure and suppress allowing all the facts and motives to come to light. Much more emphasis is placed on procedure than on honestly evaluating the real situation and examining the real motives and seeking to expose all evidence. Earthly judges have no access to knowing the real motives of the heart and often don't even want to know anyway.

No one can get free on a technicality in heaven's judgment process. But neither is the judge corruptible nor is the jury allowed to pass a decision until everything is fully exposed including the jury's own faults and failings. Complete exposure of every secret desire, motive and action is required before any sentence can become valid.

Basis of Judgment

Earthly courts operate based on the enforcement of human laws that are designed primarily to impose controls over the weaker for the advantages of the richer and stronger in society. This is not always the case but infects much of the body of legislation. The courts are required to consider law itself more important than truth or even human dignity and life. Law is deified as the great object of civil worship, but which can be manipulated at will by self-serving politicians or even back-room deals. There is such a mass of confusing and conflicting law that is constantly increasing that there is always opportunity to play some laws against others. So the outcome of a trial is dependent far more on the skill of the lawyers more than the truthfulness or real integrity of one's case. Law is valued more than life, more than truth and more than integrity. There are exceptions to this but they are becoming less and less as the body of people involved in this system sink deeper into corruption through dishonesty, greed and hunger for power. Human laws are arbitrary and artificial by design. They may or may not reflect natural principles of morality and reality. They are designed primarily to prop up and reinforce the false trinity which underlies all of what we call civilization: Economics, Kingship and Law.

Heavenly judgment is founded totally on restoring family relationships, family being the relationship that God designed all intelligent beings to enjoy with each other everywhere. Heaven's laws are not arbitrary or artificial but are simply descriptions of natural principles of how things operate, principles of reality that function with immense power and precision and are designed to synchronize with all the other principles to produce and enhance life. When these principles are violated one loses the protection of grace and is liable to be exposed to the natural consequences of the absence of life – pain and death that results from being exposed to these natural immutable forces. One of the plainest examples of this principle is what happens when one chooses to ignore the law of gravity.

Punishment or Consequences

Earthly courts impose artificial punishments which almost always consist of economic deprivation and social isolation through imprisonment. Prisons are designed to strip every person under their control of all identity, value and self-worth that can be accomplished through abuse, shame and humiliation. It is claimed that imprisonment is supposed to be rehabilitation, but like most things in our earthly governments it is just the opposite of what it is called. Prisons are by design places where the worst emotions and motives of the heart are amplified, encouraged and intensified through close and prolonged contact with other experienced criminals. It is a training ground where people with little experience in crime can be tutored both intellectually and emotionally by others who have far worse characters and much more experience in how to deceive and exploit and harm other people.

In God's instructions in the Old Testament there is no mention of prisons or jails for offenders who were convicted of crimes. Prisons simply had no part whatsoever in heaven's plan for justice. Isolating people away from society and mistreating them while forcing them to live in close contact with other hardened sinners is a plan directly from hell and was conceived by Satan himself. All of heaven's methods are totally designed to promote healing, restoration, redemption, wholeness and family ties. Heaven's goals for repairing brokenness is to reform, reshape the mind and heart back into the image of God so that people can live in harmony again and be filled with the selfless love of God and help others be attracted and drawn to similar healing. When punishments are required due to unrepentance and resistance to truth and redemption, the punishments are always reflective of the natural consequences of violating natural laws. All of God's laws are natural and it is protective grace that is actually the exception to the natural laws of the universe and that keeps all of us alive right now. We are all given probation through the grace and mercy of God to allow us time to have opportunity to respond to the offer of salvation. Salvation is the healing power of God to transform us back into wholeness and proper family relationships with those around us.

Objectives

Human judicial systems are designed to enforce the stratification of social status by pushing down the accused to a much lower level on the social ladder, thereby elevating everyone else by comparison. This is how human so-called justice is used to reinforce the counterfeit system of Kingship or hierarchy and the counterfeit system of economics that permeates every aspect of our society and our thinking.

Heaven's judicial process operates totally on the family model and assumes everyone is an integral part of a close-knit family of heaven and earth. Everyone is considered of equal value based on their relationship to the family of heaven. All judicial proceedings are by intention and design aimed at restoring broken and damaged relationships, at increasing maturity and toward the releasing of all debts.

The winners in earthly judicial cases think that they will feel elevated and exuberant and more valuable when their opponent is fined, crushed emotionally and forced into the meat-grinder of the prison system. But many times they later realize that their cravings for satisfaction and revenge, what they term justice, cannot ever really fill that longing, even when the offender may be executed. Without experiencing true forgiveness the accusers carry with them all of their life a sense of anger, bitterness and hostility toward their attackers that eats away at their soul and destroys their happiness and peace for years to come. They can find little comfort in suppression and revenge against those who offended them. What they end up experiencing is what the Bible describes as a debtor's prison where both the offender and the offended find themselves until the debt is fully satisfied. This is the curse of the counterfeit system of justice that the world worships so fervently.

Methods

In heaven's system of justice, judgment is simply the exposure of the real intents, thoughts and motives of the heart which is where true character and our relationship to reality exist. It is seen that the outward actions are often mere attempts at image management at best. Our behavior sooner or later reflects the outworkings of the true feelings of the soul. Deception is rampant in the external world of appearances that makes up the world's version of reality, but heaven always weighs the heart, the real motives and the decisions made deep inside that determine the real direction of the life. Many times what we judge as faulty or even sinful by others are only acts of desperation or expressions of pain in vain attempts to find comfort and healing for deep wounds still festering inside.

In earthly systems punishments are meted out by force, imposed arbitrarily and seldom do little if anything to counteract the original cause of the problem. Fear is the primary motive used to provide incentive for conformed living. But fear is a very unstable, though very powerful motive.

In heaven's justice, love is the foundation of every action and motive. Service and self-sacrifice for the good of others is the atmosphere that causes family relationships to flourish and bond in this environment. Love is far more powerful than fear, but from our sinful perspective it initially appears much weaker because it refuses to employ force. Love and force are simply incompatible elements of the human heart. Where there is force, love cannot grow and flourish.

Another very important difference between worldly systems of justice and heaven's judgment day is that in the final day of judgment everyone involved is going to be judged – including the Judge Himself. Every member of the jury is going to be fully exposed, every observer, every accused person and every accuser. And most importantly, the great Judge Himself is going to be on trial. For the real case that we have all been caught up in is the great accusations of the Judge Himself, His character, His methods, His motives and His intents. He has chosen to not attempt to impose His defense on the minds of the watching universe but to allow the false charges against Him to be fully exposed to be the frauds that they really are. And when the final day of judgment, of full exposure, is accomplished it will be seen that God indeed is totally fair, is always consistent, is, in fact, everything that Satan has accused Him of not being in faithfulness, goodness, mercy, love and justice. What will be exposed is that Satan's version of justice is what is really the perversion of the truth, not the Word of God.

Bias

As I have been told and believe is very probably true, the ancient system used to administer justice in early Old Testament times was radically different than the systems we are familiar with today. Those ancient methods were likely much closer to exemplifying the principles of God's form of government though they were still only shadows of what God is really like. We tend to believe that judges are supposed to be totally unbiased while listening to the cases presented before them and that the same is to be applied to a jury if present. We also realize that this is often not the case and a great deal of debate and resentment goes on depending on our opinion about how much influence was injected into the courtroom from improper sources.

But in ancient times, the judge was actually expected to be openly on the side of the accused in every situation presented before them. The job of the accusers was to present enough evidence to overwhelmingly convince the judge that this person was indeed guilty, and only then would the judge with great reluctance pass a verdict and a sentence on the accused. It was also emphatic with that system that only if there were at least two or three credible witnesses was anyone to be found guilty. This open bias on the part of the one making a decision is actually much more reflective of the way that God deals with His erring children. When we begin to realize the true bias of God in our favor instead of thinking of God as an impartial, unaffected third party who cannot relate to us, then our attitude toward Him will radically be altered and we will begin to let go of our unreasonable fear of Him based on the lies promoted by the accuser of us all.

Application

If we think we have truth all figured out because we believe a list of facts that we are sure are correct doctrines, and if on this basis we smugly think that we have all the truth and our only job is to convince the rest of the world that we are right and they are wrong, then we are trapped in one of the most dangerous sinkholes of hypocrisy that has ever existed. We can be accurately described by the words found in Revelation 3:17 you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Everything is heaven's process of judgment and justice is designed to draw us back into the harmony of heaven and into close fellowship with the family of God. It is always designed to increase our maturity and encourage bonding in perfect love, free of all fear, shame or any taint of sin. We will never understand heaven's plan of restoration for us while trying to use Satan's counterfeit system to explain it. Heaven's system is perfectly in harmony with the character of God. Satan's system is reflective of the confusion and deception of his character and exemplifies his spirit of selfishness, oppression, fear and abuse. Satan's system of so-called justice always tends toward pain and death. God's plan of salvation, which is the revelation of His real justice, always leads into abundant life.

There are many baffling and seeming contradictions in heaven's order of living, but they are only confusing because of the many deceptions that cloud our thinking from years of immersion in counterfeit systems of thought. Almost everything we assume about justice must be challenged and rewired in our thinking. Nearly everything about the family of heaven seems upside down and backwards to our perception. And yet when we begin to wake up into a new life in Christ we discover that it is actually the whole world's system of logic that is upside down and inverted as compared to the rest of the universe that has been waiting patiently for thousands of years for us to come to a true sense of reality and accept heaven's principles for ourselves.

God's justice does not impose death and pain on those who refuse to cooperate with Him. The Bible does not teach that God will kill sinners, despite what many people claiming to represent Him say. It declares that the wages of death come from sin itself, not from God. (Rom. 6:23) Sin is simply the choice to remain out of harmony with the natural and powerful forces of natural law put in place by God's design in all of creation. It is God's grace alone that has kept everyone alive while this counterfeit experiment is worked out to its ultimate demise through its own self-destruction. When sinners finally and fully reject the protecting grace of God that has kept them in existence for so long – and this includes Satan and all his angels as well – then the loss of that protecting grace will permit their exposure to the most surprising and terrifying natural power in the universe: the very presence of infinite love itself. The intensity of pure love in all its passion is so dangerous that when anything with any taint of sin (resistance) remaining in it is exposed to that kind of intensity and purity, the resulting conflict between the irresistible force of love and the immovable object of sin will result in the destructive and consuming flames of hell itself. It is not the lashings of an offended deity that is getting his revenge; it is the unavoidable results that always happens when resistance meets power, a principle demonstrated in many aspects of nature and physics all around us. That is simply another natural consequence of violation of natural law. When resistance meets power the result is heat that produces a consuming fire.

Romans 6:23 is not a threat of an offended god but is a statement of an unchangeable fact of reality. But the best news is that embedded in this same verse is the glorious alternative that God is eager for us to accept. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)