07.04.2006
Introduction
There are encouraging signs of the working of the Holy Spirit across Perth, especially the mobilization of prayer. What seems to be lacking however is an emphasis on repentance (“a change of mind”) e.g. as in Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Life” (see http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-rick-warrens-the-purpose-driven-life for a review). One of the criticisms of this sort of literature is that it encourages us to seek the benefits of a relationship with Christ, more than Christ himself. The popular trend is that the main problem in human life is a lack of purpose or direction, whereas the scripture teaches the main problem is sin. Since, “repentance (is)towards God” (Acts 20:21) we should expect to see a diminishing in teaching of repentance in the modern church.
This is a worrying trend for several reasons. It means that the roots of Christian conversion are shallow or unreal, and that when persecution arises people will fall away (Mark 4:16-17).
We need to ask what it is that moves people to repent.
Authority Under Heaven
We sensed we needed to go back to the centrality of the name of Jesus expressed in a key text used in teaching a few weeks ago. Acts 4:12 12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Luke had already used a key phrase in introducing the events at Pentecost, Acts 2:5 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
Being “under heaven” is not a statement of geography, to be “under heaven” is to be under the authority of God,
Matthew 5:34-35 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
Human beings however love freethinking and autonomy, and today more than ever, we are exhorted to find our own destiny and prosperity. Humanity strives for authority in its own strength.
Living Under heaven in the Beginning
What was it like to live “under heaven” in Eden, with a will perfectly submitted under God’s will?
Psalm 115:16 says 16 The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man.
There was a distinction in the order of creation related to authority. The dwelling place of God and man was separated, God was in heaven but humanity had the earth. Nevertheless, God came down from his dwelling place to visit Adam.
Genesis 1:26 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 2:7 7 the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Adam was taken from the earth, but he had dominion over everything earthly. Being made in the image of God included being in the image of a Judge (God had already executed judgement on Satan), but humans were never meant to judge by their own authority. The crucial question that confronted Adam and Eve in being tempted was, were they going to judge under heaven, that is, by the authority of God, or were they going to judge by their own judgment of good and evil (conscience)?
The God- ordained appearance of the snake gave them the opportunity to make a judgment against the snake on the basis of the Word God had spoken to them (Gen 2:17). If they had done so, they would have become lords of all created things. The knowledge of good and evil can only exist in God, angelic and human beings (not animals). For humanity to achieve spiritual authority over evil, a temptation from the heavenly places was necessary. Until the snake spoke to them, they had not encountered the demonic realm, but if they had judged it, they would have had authority over evil created beings in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
God’s good purpose in allowing temptation was to increase the moral and spiritual authority of humanity.
Temptation and Fall
Satan had a different strategy; his was to separate God’s authority to judge from His Fatherhood. Paul relates to God’s fatherly authority over all things when he says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph 3:15). The evil one must have known the truth that all families, not only human but also angelic, were named, that is, created, given their nature and ruled over by the Father.
This association between the Father and judgement is consistent with Peter’s words,
1 Peter 1:17 17 “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear”. The snake could not deny that God was Creator – Father of the first humans, but his word to Adam and Eve “You will not surely die” (Gen 3:4) was a claim that through disobeying God’s warning of judgement they would be removed from the sphere of having God as a Judge. This temptation is immensely appealing. We want to receive the benefits of God’s Fatherhood without submission to his authority, it explains why people don’t want to have to repent i.e. they do not wish to submit to judgement.
Why would Adam and Eve listen to something that moved on the ground instead of to God their Creator? “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Gen 3:1). Adam and the snake came from the same place, the ground, but God came to visit the man from heaven. Why did Adam listen to someone who crept along the ground over which they had authority from God?
What was appealing about the snake was that it was not over them but spoke from their level. Today, the preaching is more popular if it is on our level. What we actually need is a bipolarity in authority, God over us and God on our level (incarnational authority). The church however tends to swing between extremes. At one time, it was God over us but today it is God on our level: motivational, entrepreneurial and identificational teaching. The authority of God’s greatness, holiness, purity and majesty is missing. P.T. Forsyth,“If within us we find nothing over us, we succumb to what is around us.” This seems to be what happened in Eden.
The most amazing thing was that this snake spoke, “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say?””
(Gen 3:1). There are only two possible explanations for a talking animal, either God created the snake with an ability to speak, or the snake somehow authored its own ability to speak. In this latter case, it must have seemed that the snake was the origin of its own words, because what it said contradicted the Word of God. It seemed to be contradicting God, going against God, without being judged by God. There is an important principle here; if you author something, you have authority over it e.g. a book, a child, a universe, a rebellion. It must have seemed that there was something on earth, a talking snake, the word of the snake, which heaven had no authority over. God let that happen, just as today we encounter words being spoken to us over which God does not seem to have authority.
There is a deep delusion in Adam’s line of reasoning; it is the principle of deception. Adam and Eve were persuaded by the snake that they could be one with it in being in a sphere outside of the authority of the Creator, i.e. they could have sovereignty over their own lives and escape the judgment of death (as apparently the snake had).
They thought that if they severed themselves from heaven they would not need an object of worship; but in the fallen state of pain, human beings will always look to a higher power to deliver them. Being cut off from the fellowship of heaven, such an object of worship must now come from the earth (under heaven) in the form of created things.
Romans 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
The wrath of God is to give people over to earthly things. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had pleasure without actuated (enacted) goodness as a moral reality. If they had judged the snake, it would have been their first act of moral goodness (moral initiative) to oppose evil. Instead, they refused to resist evil and substituted the pleasures of the tree of knowledge for goodness. This is the sin of our time – substituting pleasure for goodness. [This is an attempt to revert to Eden before the Fall rather than identify with Jesus in the judgement.]
The longing for an authority that does not need to submit to God never leaves the human heart. The attempt to reach it breaks out first at the tower of Babel.
Genesis 11:4 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” This is a mind –set that the prophets speak against
Isaiah 14:13-14 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Ezekiel 28:2 2 “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.
Making God a Liar
In listening to the snake, Adam certainly exercised the ability to judge, he judged God to be a liar. He inverted the true state of things. (The real liar is Satan, John 8:44.)
Numbers 23:19 19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind (repent). Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?
It is those who lie who need to repent. The judgment that Adam passed on God was that God is a liar and that he (God) needed to repent. This attitude is a common one; Paul says,
Romans 3:4 4 …Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge (NIV) (when you are judged (ESV).”
God is perpetually held to be at fault,
Genesis 3:12-13 12 The man said (to God), “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 …. The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
People often look at a sphere that seems to be outside of the exercise of God’s authority, such as disasters, or the weather, and judge Him for the state of affairs. This is a matter of high wickedness because our judgements on God are authored by the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). If we express dissatisfaction with our lot, like Adam, Eve, and the Israelites in the wilderness (Ex 15:24; 16:2; 17:3; Num 14:2, 29;16:41), we are judging God.
Neither did God ever intend us to rule over one another. Luke 12:14 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
Matthew 20:25-28 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
John 7:24 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgement.”
Nor were we ever meant to judge ourselves by our own authority. We can only judge ourselves under the judgement of the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 11:29-32 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves (various translations have the sense “discern”), we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
In the fallen state of humanity there are religions in which God is a Father without judgement e.g. protestant Liberalism, or religions, such as Islam, that have a God who is a judge but not a Father. Militant Islam is a terror that God has raised up in our times. However, our society wants the Father without a judge. Today we have “sugar daddy” preachers who disarm their congregations with jokes, because of the universal apprehensiveness about judgment, and people tolerate them. Such tolerance is a lack of conviction about good and evil and a denial that there are ultimate consequences of both for human life. What we need is a revelation of the righteous judgment of God within his Fatherhood.
The Judgment of Withholding Repentance
Frighteningly, most of the church fails to understand that a famine of repentance is itself a judgement. We are under judgment and the judgment is that we don’t recognise that we are under a judgment of blindness and deafness, so we are unable to turn and repent. These words of God to Isaiah were later repeated of the ministry of Jesus (John12:38-40).
Isaiah 6:9-10 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn (repent) and be healed.”
We need to see that repentance is a gift,
2 Timothy 2:25 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
“God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31). “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.””(Acts 11:18).
But it is a gift that God does not always grant.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 10 …They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
When we look at this nation, we must accept that God has sent a strong delusion on the people because they do not have a will to turn to him, so there is little repentance.
The Provocation of Repentance
What then decides whether God grants repentance, it cannot be the righteousness or faith of those who need repentance, for then they would not need repentance? The answer is that repentance is provoked by a revelation of the kindness and generosity of God that he sovereignly bestows.
Ezekiel 16:53-54 53 “‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them, 54 so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort.
Ezekiel 20:40-44 40 For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord, there in the land the entire house of Israel will serve me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices. 41 I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. 42 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the land I had sworn with uplifted hand to give to your fathers. 43 There you will remember your conduct and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil you have done. 44 You will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Ezekiel 36:24-32 24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, O house of Israel!
The pattern is that God’s kindness precedes repentance – restoration precedes repentance.
Romans 2:1-8 1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
Repentance is not a human initiative but a response to the goodness of God revealed in the gospel, the gospel draws out repentance.
Mark 1:15 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Moreover, the gospel is about the reconciliation of earth to heaven.
The Reconciliation of Heaven and Earth
The whole nature of all religious practices depends on the answer to this question, “Can earth be reconciled to heaven”? The answer is “No”, except that heaven come down to earth, i.e. unless God comes down from heaven and becomes human, unless the Word becomes flesh, the incarnation. Man cannot reconcile himself to God; the bridge must be built from God’s side. Jesus said,“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)
2 Corinthians 5:19 19 …God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Colossians 1:19,20 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Although it is not visible to us, heaven and earth have already been reconciled in Christ. Repentance does not bring about reconciliation, it is a trust response to the revelation of the reconciliation between God and humanity that is in Christ.
What happened on the day of Pentecost for instance was a revelation from heaven which led to the deep repentance of thousands (Acts 2:37- 38),
Acts 2:2 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. Cf. 1 Peter 1:12 …those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
If we think repentance brings about reconciliation, then we will believe God has to be ‘bought off’ by our repentance. How has the cross brought about the reconciliation of heaven and earth?
The Reconciling Work of the Cross
During his ministry Jesus is under a tremendous moral imperative that the judgment of His Father be enacted once and for all.
Luke 12:50 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!
He is constrained to remove the authority of the devil over human lives. The authority of heaven was present on earth through the Word that God spoke to Adam and Eve, if they had obeyed God they would have obeyed His authority and ruled all things with him, but when they obeyed Satan, he became God of this world.
2 Corinthians 4:4 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Jesus has a tremendous passion to dethrone Satan from his authority. This authority lies in accusing the human conscience of moral failure. Satan’s lies are a substitute for the authority of God and they rob humanity of the revelation of the Father, who never judges by an accusing voice that draws out guilt and shame.
John 12:31 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. The reign of evil is to be destroyed in Jesus on the cross for the glory of the Father. Hence Jesus’ passion for the cross!
The way God deals with sin is “holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12) [Deuteronomy 32:3-4 3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! 4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.]
God is a holy and righteous Father (John 17:11. 25) who will judge sin to the uttermost by destroying guilt.
Jesus propitiates the Father (Eph 5:2; bring him pleasure) because He destroys guilt – he expiates it (wipes it out). To please the Father, we must will the annihilation of guilt in ourselves. Jesus will is so conformed to the Father’s will that he wills that sin be destroyed in him, no matter what the cost. This is what the Father –Judge has always wanted and in the cross it is accomplished.
The fundamental human problem is self – righteousness, we are so assured that our own judgment is righteous, holy and good that we resist God’s judgment. Original sin was the attempted exaltation of the conscience to the throne of God, for whatever sits enthroned on the conscience of a person is the ultimate authority in their lives. Whatever people make the ruler of right or wrong in their lives is God to them. In the cross, guilt (real and subjective) has been totally taken away [– and the agony of the cross is that here Jesus has no sense of heaven, no sense of God ruling and judging in his conscience.]
What does it mean to be judged in the flesh as a man (Rom 8:3)? When Adam sinned, he was judged in his conscience. What does it mean for Jesus to be judged in our flesh in His conscience?
Mark 15:34 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
On the cross, Jesus does not experience God as his judge or his Father. There is no revelation to the conscience of Jesus that the Father is a holy, righteous and good judge, i.e. there is no satisfaction in the experience of Jesus in being judged by the Father in our place. This is because he is actually sharing the judgement of the wicked who have no satisfaction in the judgment of the Father. The cost to Jesus of our salvation is that he has no sense of the goodness of God’s judgment.
Yet despite all the advantages we have over Jesus (we are judged only for our own sin), unlike us, Jesus refuses to judge the Father, because in his moral rectitude he refuses to believe that it is the will of heaven to separate itself from earth. In other words, he refuses to believe that it is God’s good, pleasing and perfect will to separate himself from man. When human beings judge God they do not recognise they are alienating themselves from him, they choose to believe that God is the one who keeps the relationship at a distance. They will always find a way to put the blame on someone else. This is exemplified by the accusations against God in Christ at his trial.
Mark 15:14 14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Jesus never accuses the Father, He receives from the Father’s hand, even on the cross. The result,
2 Timothy 1:10 10 …our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
People outside of Christ live constantly with a sense of being under judgement. In their self- deception, they seek the experience of pleasure to persuade themselves that they are not under judgment. Pleasure – seekers try to pacify their conscience, but the moral pain, the sense of alienation and existential boredom, the emptiness of life, always comes back. Hence, all hedonists are addicts. The only thing that can truly pacify the conscience of man is the blood of the cross.
1 Peter 1:17-19 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
The Bible is very clear, a dead human being has gone into heaven. This is the meaning of the shedding of blood; it stands for violent death, or judgement (Gen 9:6; Lev 17:4; 2 Ki 21:16; Jer 7:6;etc.). Hebrews 9:11-14 11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.[ 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.] 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
[Hebrews 9:24 24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
(Cf. References to the heavenly sanctuary in Hebrews 6:19-20; 8:2)]
When we consider that the one who has died for us, who has been judged in our place, has gone into heaven and dwells in God’s innermost presence, our hearts and consciences are put at rest. 19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb 10.19-22).
Living for the Man in Heaven
There are only two sorts of human beings, those who live from below and those who live from above (John 8:23; Col 3:1- 2), those who bear the image of the earthly man and those who will bear the image of the heavenly man (1 Corinthians 15:49).
Like Jesus, those who are born from above (John 3:3, 7) receive from the Father’s hand without complaint. Those who are earth dwellers (Rev 3:10; 6:10; 8:13 etc.) neither complain to the Father nor willingly receive his judgement. They refer only to ‘God’. They complain that God (Jesus is depersonalised) doesn’t conform to their idolatrous experience.
When people become affluent they begin to live like kings and lords, they start to live like little gods, then when God doesn’t conform to what they think He should be, they think God should repent and conform to their standards and expectations! Speaking of what he saw in Puritan New England, Cotton Mather said: “Godliness has begotten prosperity and the daughter has devoured the mother”. In times of prosperity, the human conscience is seduced by the experience of worldly pleasures and deceived into thinking a person is back in the Garden of Eden before the Fall beyond judgement.
This is why God took the Israelites through the desert and warned them Deuteronomy 8:10-14,18 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
People forget they came from the earth and that dust they are and to dust they shall return (Gen 3:19). Unless we remember that this is the natural fate of all humanity under the judgment of God, we will never see ourselves in the image of the man from heaven (Jesus). Jesus takes us forward to a new creation not of this world.
There is an unholy alliance between mammon and spirituality today where people do not live the sacrifice of the cross. God is depriving the Church of the enjoyment of spiritual riches while at the same time trying to discipline it and bring it to maturity through the Word.
The Dwelling Place of God
The mature Christian knows that through Jesus Christ, the distance between heaven and earth is gone, the God of heaven now lives in us.
John 14:23 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. If God makes his home in us, heaven really is in our heart.
Isaiah 66:1-2 1 This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. 3
Isaiah 57:15 15 For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Ephesians 1:18 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Freed from guilt and deception our conscience can receive the judgment of God as something that comes from a Father who loves us. Christians willingly repent as sons of God sharing in the willingness of Jesus on the cross that guilt and its remnants be destroyed in us.