The Bible tells us to love out of a pure heart and a good conscience. A good conscience is one freed from a sin conscience. It is one who enjoys the forgiveness of sins. It is one who enjoys justification from all things. It is no longer feeling guilty for sins (Hebrews 10:2). It is the realization that God is your friend and never will impute sin again (2nd Cor. 5:19). It comes from a heart not divided.
One thing I discovered among many professing believers is their gaze is upon God and then upon what they believe is wrong with them. Such a heart will only experience feelings of alienation, cold and callousness, and frustration. Such a heart will not know love because their minds are veiled through the darkness of religion.
Why is it that we refuse to accept our forgiveness? God’s grace was revealed to all and yet we do not see forgiveness as part of that grace given. We still think we have to earn it by believing. Instead of receiving what was already given is when people try to receive it as a reward (the reward for believing). This is where religion gets it backwards. Instead of believing they have is them believing to get. Instead of believing what is already true is then trying to believe to get God to make it true. They have to jump a hurdle in order to enjoy something that was already theirs. Once they decide a hurdle (believing/repenting/performance) is what God requires then they will wonder if they jumped the hurdle high enough.
I see so many religious people refuse to accept forgiveness already granted until they are convinced that they have done that “believing,” and have seen the evidence for that believing in works. Only then will such a person believe he/she was forgiven as a reward for their believing. However, they are back in the mire the moment they sin. They do not have a good conscience but one focused in darkness. It is a conscience that seeks to draw comfort from performance. It is a conscience that sees sin as alive and well in their lives. Such a conscience is what Hebrews calls and “evil conscience.” The reason they struggle with feelings (guilt, shame, alienation) is because their conscience is evil. They seek to self-soothe through doubling their efforts to be more obedient and they listen to music they hope will comfort their hearts. They are like Saul who calls upon David to play his harp so that the evil spirit will depart. This “spirit” lives among those fearful that the Spirit of God has left them. It is emotionally and psychologically draining to such religious people.
***The evil spirit was not a literal demon torturing Saul. It refers to the spirit that came over him. It refers to a disposition or attitude. Paul spoke about the “spirit” among the Corinthians that was not a literal spirit being. I doubt playing harps will cause a demon to go running for the hills but the spirit that Saul had was soothed by the playing of the harp as that was what that passage was about where such a disposition would leave him. This is what religious people do today.
An evil heart of unbelief is one that draws a person away from Christ back to the sacrificial system in Hebrews. An evil heart of unbelief is not a return to a wanton lifestyle of sinful pleasures. An evil heart of unbelief refuses what Christ had accomplished and will seek to remedy the situation the old way (old covenant). It was men and women trodden underfoot the Son of God. It was them figuratively stomping on the new covenant to cross over Him to get back to the old system. It was them believing that Christ was not the once for all sacrifice. It was them returning to the repentance of dead things (Levitical sacrificial system) that was impossible to renew again. It was them failing to realize that there remains no more sacrifice for sins as Jesus was the once for all sacrifice.
I see the evil heart of unbelief demonstrated by so many religious people. They refuse to accept the immediate comfort and joys of the gospel. They refuse to drink until everything they imagine a true believer to be like (behavior, feelings, etc.,) has been fulfilled. They claim that they have died to the Law but their religious endeavors to find peace and assurance betrays them.
The mind that is trying to find relief is a mind refusing the way God gives it. It is already given, so the person who attempts to try is one who refuses to accept what to them is too easy and too good to be true. They are blind. It is them floating in the middle of the ocean wondering what ocean water feels like. Their eyes are closed. The sunlight is shining all around them but they stand there wondering, “Will the sun ever shine its rays upon me?”
The religious person will ask, “Have I believed?” Those who ask such questions never draw any assurance from it because the question they ask shows they seek to draw comfort and assurance from within. However, to discover an already reality is when the good conscience will ask, “What is there for me to believe?” The reply back is, “You are loved. You are accepted. You are the praise of my glory. You are forgiven. You are reconciled.” It is immediately received because that person knows it is impossible for God to lie. An evil heart of unbelief will reject such things until they are convinced that they adequately done certain things first in order to receive such things from God.
A heart that refuses to believe they are forgiven remains in darkness. Darkness is the realm of lies. Darkness is what prevents the heart from beholding love. It robs a person of confidence in God. This is what we read about in Hebrews as some were casting off their confidence and returning to the sacrificial system soon to be destroyed.
Condemnation is a person who lacks confidence in Christ. Condemnation is a hiding from the light. It is the belief of a lie. It is not life and peace in the Spirit. It is a miserable religious life where you seek to wash the outward cup but inwardly remain full of dead men bones. It is the trying to clean that cup further with the hope that the inward cup will be filled with refreshing water of peace, joy, love, and acceptance.
We are to enjoy what is already ours. Condemnation is a refusal of accepting what is ours. Condemnation is why people feel distant and alienated from God. The alienation only exists within their mindset as it is not real. These people long to feel the embrace of God’s love but do not even know that God is embracing them now with His love that never fails.
What is condemnation? It is the voice that says, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” It comes from those who cry, “Lord, Lord, have I not done MANY wonderful works?” It is the cleaning of that cup that causes condemnation. Experiencing ‘no condemnation’ is never found in your performance. The very reason you feel condemned hearing the voice saying, “depart you worker of iniquity” is because your mindset is upon your performance.
An evil conscience is a sin conscience. A sin conscience is a seared conscience. A seared conscience is one who sees everything as impure. Have your minds sprinkled with water from an evil conscience.
Freedom from condemnation is to hear the voice of Grace saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” The Lamb of God HAS had taken away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. To try and do anything to get forgiven is to hear the voice, “Depart from me, you who work iniquity.” How much longer will you keep allowing the voice of condemnation to torment you? Will you keep playing the role of Saul and simply do things to bring temporary results? How long will you keep listening to the religious harp that has no lasting effects? Playing that harp continuously is exhausting. God's radio station is singing your praise continually commercial free!
A person who does not believe they are forgiven abides in darkness. They live in the realm of lies. They are hurting emotionally right now. Many of them refuse to let go of the very things causing their pain. Love casts out fear but they hold on to their insecurities. They fear that letting go of their insecurities could result in being deceived or ruined in the end. Religion has instilled this fear into them. They hold onto the view that God is not pleased with them. They hold on to their religious hell beliefs that scare them. They hold on to this belief that God cannot forgive them until they stop sinning. They refuse to believe that God would accept them as they are. They refuse to believe they are the sons or daughters God always wanted. They refuse to stop sowing on religious fig leaves to hopefully cover what they believe is shame in the eyes of God.
These poor souls are those that despise the riches of the goodness of God where they know not that it is the goodness of God that leads them to a new mindset. They can finally put off the old man mindset and be robed in light. Light is truth. Light shouts everything that is right and true about you. It is beholding your true image that is created after the image of Him in righteousness and true holiness.
The religious mind fears judgment believing God will unleash a fury upon them for their sad performance. Judgment in the bible is making things right. David loved the judgment of God. The religious mind sees everything from an evil conscience point of view, so they tremble whenever they hear the word "judgment." They seek to hide in the bushes at the very thought of hearing the voice of God as did Adam and Eve. What a sad way to live. What is sadder is the fact that they bid people to come and believe and join their mire clan. Their mire is fear and fear controls them.
Romans 1:18 brings joy to my heart:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness
The verse reveals His love of us. The Father and His wrath is much like the mother defending her infant from an attacker. Her wrath (love in action) is demonstrated by attacking the very thing that seeks to hurt her baby. God’s wrath already revealed demonstrated that He attacked the very thing that sought to hurt us. He took care of sin with finality, “It is finished!” Behold the Lamb of God that has taken away the sin of the world. God is reconciled to the WORLD. God is not imputing sin to the WORLD.
The gospel reveals the love of God but religion obscures it with conditions and threats. The religious person does not behold the love of God because they are still trying to cross bridges, climb mountains, and jump hurdles to get it. Again, they are floating in the middle of an ocean wondering what an ocean feels and looks like.
Instead of a person drawing comfort from the love of God is them trying to draw comfort from their believing the love of God. It is as though they are saying, “OK God, here is my believing, so why are you hiding your love from me when I am doing what you ask?” They are the ones who say, “OK God, here is my believing, so why do I not feel accepted by you?” Some eventually give up saying, “This believing thing does not work.” Instead of them believing a reality is them trying to believe to be a part of a reality. It is not, "Believe and God will love you" but "You are loved already" and we believe. Believing is simply how we enjoy what is already ours. If a person does not believe then clearly they do not enjoy what is already theirs.
God does not withhold forgiveness. You are as forgiven today as you were the day you were born into this world. If God withholds forgiveness until you believe then how is that forgiveness? I think we are all capable of such conditional forgiveness as that religious “god” but the true God and His forgiveness goes far beyond that.
Do you believe God is saying to you, “Withhold forgiveness from your enemies until they accept it”? No, you forgive your enemies but the fact that they do not believe you or accept your forgiveness does not make them any less forgiven. If your enemies come to believe and accept your forgiveness does not make them any more forgiven. Forgiveness is when enemies turn friends. God is reconciled to you and it is believing that is how we are reconciled back. As long as we think God is our enemy then we will be trying to do whatever possible to offer peace offerings (works, confessions, religious duties) to get Him to somehow like us.
If God tells you to forgive your enemies then is God telling us to do something He does not do Himself? Forgive those that spitefully use you is not something God does Himself?
When God tells us to forgive our enemies then does that forgiveness have a time limit on it? Is death the time limit when God’s forgiveness runs out? Does that mean that when we go to be with the Lord that our forgiveness for our enemies runs out too? In the presence of the Lord, can I hold a wrong against a man again because they have died without accepting my forgiveness as the religious god does? I have forgiven someone who wronged me on this planet but that man died refusing to accept my forgiveness so does that mean I can hold to bitterness and unforgiveness again? If you say no then I am better than your god who can’t.
If a person can die and be "unforgiven" by God then God is not a forgiving being. He tells us to forgive in the physical realm but He cannot do it Himself in the spiritual realm??? How can it be forgiveness if it has a time limit? What do you think about the person who says they forgive you and will seem fine for a while but later brings up in anger the very thing they claimed to have forgiven you? Would you call that forgiveness? Do not claim your "god" is a forgiving god when his forgiveness runs out.
How you perceive God and His forgiveness is often how you forgive others. Do you hold grudges? Do you find it hard to forgive? Do you find that giving the silent treatment to people who hurt or wronged you as a way to punish them? Have you withheld forgiveness as a way of manipulating a person to feel guilty and finally doing what you hope they would do to gain your forgiveness? Now ask yourself, "Do I see myself in God? Does God treat me similarly to the way I treat others? Do I struggle to believe He forgives me? Do I feel He withholds love from me and gives me the silent treatment when I sin? Do I find myself doing things to hopefully motivate God into blessing me again?"
If you are not enjoying forgiveness of sins today then it is because you are trying to earn it. If you feel condemned today then you are trying to perform your way out of condemnation. If you are not aware of God’s love today then you are trying to be loved. If you do not believe you are accepted today then your mindset is upon performing to be accepted.
The hardest thing for us to accept is that we are accepted. When Adam sinned is when God imputed sin. It was God who “chose” to impute sin. People fail to see that after the death of Jesus Christ, God “chose” to impute sin no longer. People are too busy judging their lives. People are too busy trying to change things about themselves. People are too busy listening to religious harps to soothe their hearts after messing up. People are so busy with religious duties that they no longer see that God is not beholding them in sin at all. He is well-pleased but the religious mindset says, "No, He is very angry and displeased."
Think about the problem sins you have right now. Have they gone away after all the efforts you made? No, because that is what you do. You can either accept that about yourself or simply get your eyes off the tree of knowledge of good and evil or you can continue to think that you need to be more like God as Adam did and live in shame. The evil heart of unbelief is a sin conscience (guilty conscience). A sin conscience is what is causing you to do things to “feel” loved, accepted, and forgiven. A good conscience and a pure heart is one who ceases from efforts and realizes that God loves them and has accepted them right where they are at and with no conditions of, “Improve the performance.” You are trying to stop what you see is wrong with you when repeated years of failure has yet to get it into your head that you cannot stop. It is OK to say, "What I view as chaos in my life is OK." God is not upset about your chaos. God is not imputing your chaos. God has accepted you in your chaos.
Imagine everything you do every day is approved by God. If you say that is not true or impossible then you live in the realm of condemnation/darkness. You just proved to yourself that your approval is based on performance. The evil conscience will reply, “Are you saying that I can commit murder and adultery and God’s approval is upon me?” Your good behavior does not make His righteousness that robes you any better, and your evil deeds cannot make His robe of righteousness any worse. Your good deeds cannot make you more forgiven and your evil deeds cannot make you less forgiven.
It is the freedom from condemnation that opens the eyes to see the rays of love shining upon the person. Law drives a person to fear but love drives out fear. Love needs no boundaries set. Love forgives because it springs from already forgiveness. Love is the fulfilling of the Law. Love tells us not to steal, kill, or commit adultery. Condemnation is what leads to such evil things. Yes, a believer can do such things that should not be named among us once but such actions are committed and often repeatedly by those who live feeling rejected or shorted.
We are to walk in love. Love replaces all insecurities we have. The gospel is the message of security. The religious gospel preaches insecurities. Insecurity will blind a person. It will cause a person to feel as though they never measure up. They will always feel unworthy. They will never see their value. They never will see that everything they do every day is approved by God because condemnation rules their hearts. Their sin conscience keeps them in the realm of lies. They refuse to accept love, acceptance, and forgiveness until they see signs in their performance or feelings. They are refusing to believe they are breathing air until they can see air. Air surrounds them and fills their lungs. Love surrounds us and fills our being but people refuse to believe that until they can see it somehow.
The rays of love will be visible the moment the lies of condemnation are removed. The moment you realize that you are the praise of His glory and that you are the son or daughter He always wanted is when darkness will flee from your life. Religious harps are no longer needed because the evil spirit that once plagued you is gone.
You might say, “I smoke cigarettes.” You are approved and accepted by God. You might say, “I view porn.” You are approved and accepted by God. You might say, “I lie a lot.” You are approved by God. You might say, “I had an abortion.” You are approved and accepted by God. You might say, “I turned from God and called Him horrible names.” You are approved and accepted by God.
Condemnation is what makes you say, “I do this and that” as it is a focus upon self. A focus upon this and that you do is a mindset upon Law/flesh. This is why you are trying not to do things in order for God to approve and accept you.
If your toddler draws a picture that is a bunch of scribbles then do you rip it up and ask them to start again? Stop viewing your life as a picture that God views as scribbles where He would like to rip it up and have you start again. Your toddlers picture of scribbles is precious to you and that mess you perceive yourself to be is precious to God. You simply do not realize that you were never a scribble He made but a masterpiece as He has designed you flawlessly after the image of Him in righteousness and true holiness. That is who you are no matter what you do or not do.
Everything you do every moment of the day is to know that you are approved and accepted by God. You are not scribbling but rather are a perfect reflection of Him. Why do I say that? Because the moment you stop the condemnation is when your life will begin reflecting the true person you are in His sight. Fear departs. Anxieties go away. Those feelings of distance/alienation between you and the Father turns into a tight embrace of love, kisses upon the neck, and tears of joy.
Who is he that condemns when Christ died? Who can separate you from His love? God is not imputing your sins so why are you? Enjoy life knowing that you are not a spiritual birth defect. Enjoy life with the full realization that you are loved, cherished, and perfected forever.
You can throw out your religious harp of performance that offers no lasting relief.