Greetings;
Today I am headed home to Bellingham. I had a great time in England with Impact Community Church as well as with the great people of Clay Cross. Thanks to everyone for your hunger for God and your kindness to me. I am returning home with joy in my heart.
The kingdom of God is not like the kingdoms of the world. The justice system of the kingdom of God can transform the kingdoms of the world, but until the kingdoms of the world choose to embrace the kingdom of God they are still stuck in the administration of the kingdoms of the world. The administration of the kingdoms of the world is one of the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. It is an Old Covenant administration and its base of justice is established upon what is right and what is wrong. That administration most commonly becomes expressed as what one thinks is right and what one thinks is wrong. It is a system that constantly battles to define what is good and what is evil. It is self-preserving in its character and therefore the definitions of good and evil within its sphere of influence become defined by its own self-preserving mentality. This is the way of the world. It is the way of the kingdoms of the world. It is the way of the kingdoms of self. Every war is fought over a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. Every relationship is disintegrated over a knowledge of good and a knowledge of evil. The only eternal judgment that can release someone bound to a worldly kingdom is one of triumphant mercy. Jesus made that judgment for all of mankind by being a man of love and not a man of law. His exit strategy for the kingdoms of the world is a death of the administration of the kingdoms of the world and a new birth with a new administration in the kingdom of God. Only in Christ can we find the true substance of life. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Secularism, Atheism, Sikhism, Judaism, Shamanism, Satanism, Paganism, Spiritism, Mysticism, Agnosticism, or any other religion of the world is not a way to life. No religion is a way to God; only truth within the human heart can lead to true life. Only Christ inside the heart of humanity is the way of life. The kingdom of God can only be discovered within the human heart and the testimony of life is only discovered through Christ in each of us. This is not the same as mere Christianity. It is Christ in the heart of humanity. Religion alone still leaves mankind bound to the system of the knowledge of good and evil, it does not transition them into the administration of true life. Only an administration of love can transition us from the kingdoms of the world to the kingdom of life in Christ.
Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (NAS)
John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Ephesians 1:7-10 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth…
What does it mean to be saved? Jesus was the Father’s gift of love to redeem humanity. We were looking for a way to get to God, but He wanted us to understand that He desired to make a way to get to us. Religion alone seeks to get to God, but the intimacy of Christ within us seeks to bring God and heaven into our world. We were the ones preventing Him from coming near to our hearts. The administration of love cannot live in the atmosphere of law or promiscuity.
John 3:18-21 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
God does not condemn the world. The administration of the knowledge of good and evil condemns the world. True light is love. It includes mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, and all the things of true life. We cannot hold on to a justice system that demands others pay their debts to us when the gift of God to us was one that paid the debts of us all! Outside of Christ there is still a need for all to acknowledge the condemnation that they are bound to because of the administration they embrace. Only in Christ is that condemnation lifted. The New Covenant does not exist for all simply because Jesus died for all. The New Covenant is available to all, but it can only be attained through an exchange of administrations. Let me conclude by stating what I did a couple of blogs ago:
Mercy is obtained by an acknowledgement of mercy given. God loves us, but we don’t deserve His love. To think we deserve His love is an injustice in the covenant of law and conscience. The justice system of grace is available for all, but one must first receive the end of the justice system of law and conscience. That requires God’s mercy and it can only be obtained through a revelation of the cross.
Love is a revelation and it includes God’s mercy and His grace. His mercy justifies us to live and His grace empowers us to live in life. It is a transition in the administration of our lives and it invokes the scandalous justice of God’s love.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
