No Respecter of Persons

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.

Regardless of any religious doctrines, or poor translations from the original texts, it is the Lord’s TRUTH that all the world and every human being to ever exist (and will ever exist) is Agape Loved by God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. He didn’t choose only some, or leave some out; He made it clear that every person mattered to Him. So much so, that He gave His all through His Son’s sacrifice; and poured out to every person His Holy Spirit. So, whether you believe on Him or not, it does not change what He has already done, nor what He continues to do for you. And when you, as any human being, do choose to believe in Jesus Christ as your and our Saviour, you inherit all His Kingdom as His fully and completely adopted child.

And what makes Jesus Christ our Saviour is that, in one moment, through the Cross, He died as an eternal sacrifice to you, me, and all of humanity. That sacrifice being that He took every sin of the flesh, all at one time, for all eternity.

Hebrews 10:9-10,12,16-23

“Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Through what Christ accomplished, He reconciled every human being (the world) with Himself, for anyone to be able to accept Him freely and without judgment, worry, or condemnation.

This is God making sure He is no respecter of persons—never treating or isolating anybody from anyone else. All are made equal, all are seen as equal, and no sin of the flesh EVER making a difference to how the Lord sees you or anyone else—giving a "level playing field" for anyone to believe in Him. Remember that He took away ALL sins of the flesh for ALL people for ALL time through one person’s one sacrifice; that there is no longer a need for any further sacrifices. How can He then treat anyone any differently than anyone else if all flesh sins of all humans have been dealt with and “never remembered again”.

Oh how I wished I understood this from the beginning!

I grew up in a church (a Christian Religion) where some sins were deemed more horrible or severe than other sins. Most of those sins they listed or hammered-on about were sexual sins: sex out of wedlock, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, masturbation, etc. And the “though shalt not…” teaching against these created a horrible fear of sex as a whole for me. This on top of the sexual abuse in and around my childhood.

I was taught by the church and others that committing any of those aforementioned sins would keep you out of Heaven. This they would say misquoting this verse:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. 

However, what I came to understand was that this does not talk about Heaven—it talks about the inheriting of the Kingdom of God. I realized this “Kingdom of God” is not a place or a ritual, but “Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost (in a person)” as per Luke 17:20-21 and Romans 14:17. This is about one’s identity in a stronghold that keeps one from experiencing a peace in that area of one’s soul. It becomes unrestful because that stronghold is always putting up a fight against the Holy Ghost and His Truth towards you. And until that stronghold is dealt with at the root and eliminated, we won’t experience the freedom in Christ that He came to set us free for.

And knowing what the Kingdom of God really was, set me free from self-condemnation, and an extreme judgmental attitude—which I wrote about in my Kingdom Rest blog post.

So then I eventually questioned to myself, “if all sins were taken at the Cross once-and-for-all-time, does any sin of the flesh count against us in the eyes of the Lord?” Never!

This is how the Lord can never have a differing respect for one over another (treat anyone different from anyone else). No sin of the flesh will keep you out of Heaven (salvation), nor will any sin of the flesh send you to Hell (separation from God). So then, what does send a person to Hell? A person’s choice in not believing in Christ Jesus. This is the ONLY thing.

And where I have seen the Lord treat all people the same personally is in the everyday people I meet with or get to minister with. Many of these personal testimonies obliterate the religious mindset that believes some sins are more horrid or “damnable” than others. I have seen:

•  A drunk lady feel the presence of the Holy Spirit on them.
•  A person addicted to drugs get saved.
•  A homosexual filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in Tongues.
• A homeless person get healed of diabetes.
• A porn addict get set free.

If the Lord is never able to meet us where we are, none of us would ever be saved. And the only way to make us all able to meet Him where He meets us, is to have already made us reconciled with Him every time and all the time. We never have to try and become something for Him, for Him to see us or accept us.

This is how we get healed, set free, and Born-Again. For we are never without personal iniquities in our life (‘sin’ as viewed in a religious guise). There is always something (some stronghold) in our life that we have learned and picked up by living in this world. The world, and ways of this world, do not train us and shape us in the ways of the Lord growing up. We get hurt, trusts broken, abused, abandoned, and deceived—many times under someone saying they “love” us or are doing it out of “love”. But what this world deceptively calls love, is no where near what God calls His Love, “Agape Love”. His kind of Love never does any of what the world does to us. His Agape Love only does this:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Agape Love suffers long and is kind. Agape Love does not envy. Agape Love does not parade itself. Agape Love is not puffed up. Agape Love does not behave rudely. Agape Love does not seek its own. Agape Love is not provoked. Agape Love thinks no evil. Agape Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Agape Love rejoices in the truth. Agape Love bears all things. Agape Love believes all things. Agape Love hopes all things. Agape Love endures all things. Agape Love never fails.

This is God’s Love for us and to us. And is His Existence—He cannot be anything other than this kind of Love; for God IS Love (1 John 4:16).

But because we grow up in this world full of hurt, we unintentionally develop iniquities in our lives. Ones that can and do root in us as strongholds—often unknowingly. Yet I then go back to how wonderful the Lord is that no matter what we have picked up in this world, He never holds it against us. He will use us, in-dwell us, wherever we are in our life-walk. And always there to help set us free from every bondage we have that keeps us from experiencing our Born-Again Christ nature He made us be.

Yet He is so Loving, that He will never force us to change. He will only guide us to the Truth (never in a condemning way) and lead us to just Be as Jesus Christ. And if we never want to change, He will ALWAYS remain faithful and Loving to us—no matter what we do in the flesh!

This is how He can use a person who may have one of those listed “sins”. Or even ones that have other iniquities.

When we are Born-Again, our old nature (the nature of the flesh) died. It DIED.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

And since we ARE new creations, we now have been made in the full likeness of Christ Jesus (as He is so are we in this world—1 John 4:17). And if we are dead to our former self, anything that does exist from that former self, our body, we can keep it dead—mortifying the deeds of the body which are those iniquities we had been trained in.

Romans 8:9-17

You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

And this mortifying of the deeds of the body can and are done through the baptism of Christ that is the Holy Spirit and Fire. The Fire burns up our iniquities, and the Holy Spirit gives us our overcoming ability. We have the exact same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11)—how awesomely powerful is that!

So, if this world, whether you or I were born with it, or it developed over time, we can overcome it! And if you are not sure if there is a stronghold or iniquity in your life, just compare your life to Jesus, because that is who you are. Don’t try to become Jesus out of some ability (this is self-works of the old flesh); just BE Jesus, because that is really who you are.

You do flow with all the Fruit of the Spirit, have all the armour of God, demonstrate every Gift of the Holy Spirit, can participate in any of the Lord’s Ministry Gifts, and are effective in God.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

Ephesians 4:11-15

And He Himself indeed gave Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to-and-fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.

Jesus demonstrated ALL of these in His earthly ministry. As such, we can do the same. We should never limit ourself to one gift, or one ministry in our walk with Him. We can be any of them at any given time, just as Jesus was and demonstrated. He distributed all the Holy Spirit Gifts to all who needed. He was called an Apostle, but was also a Prophet (Matthew 24 prophesy), an Evangelist (John 4 Samaritan woman at the well), and a Pastor and Teacher (many sermons and parable teachings). And even in the current terminologies in this world, Jesus was never just one “Personality Type”, but encompassed them all as a Servant-Leader; and didn’t demonstrate just one or a few “Love Languages”, but all of them.

Don’t limit God in your life by the limitations set by this world!

If the Lord needs us to be any of these at any given moment, we can. And if the Holy Spirit needs to give someone a Gift of Healing, Word of Knowledge, or other through you to the person in need, you are that conduit and vessel of the Holy Spirit to be able to give that Gift to them (even more than one at any given time to any given person).

And the Lord does all this, and gives you all this, without any strings attached. You receive it at the immediate moment of being Born-Again. We don’t have to be without sin or iniquity to demonstrate Him. You have Him, and He has you: a team! A match made in heaven, but demonstrated on earth.

This is why too, it becomes difficult for us religiously to see “sinners” operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. That religious mindset thinks that person couldn’t be walking in relation with the Lord. Or worse yet, that what they see as Holy Spirit Gift, they twist in their imaginations as being “of the devil” (false signs and wonders). But the devil can NEVER duplicate God’s Signs and Wonders, because if he did, the devil would be “a kingdom divided against itself”.

Matthew 12:25-28

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

God’s Signs and Wonders are always demonstrations of Himself; often directly against what the devil himself has put into being. Satan cannot heal or cast out himself. Those can ONLY be signs of the Holy Ghost.

If we judge someone else for operating in the Lord while we judge that they are in some kind of “sin”, then we are denying the full benefit and accomplishment of the Cross. We in a sense say that Jesus did not do enough—bringing Him back down from Heaven to finish the job (Romans 10:6). But He did say, “It is Finished” (John 19:30).

And because it IS finished, all sins of the flesh are and will never be an issue to God and His move in a person’s life—whether yours, mine, or anyone elses. And nothing we do or don’t do can keep God from Loving us or working in our lives! For Christ dealt with our flesh for us; how amazing and Loving is that. We reaped the benefit of what he sowed; He gifted us His reward. So fear NOT, if you do have iniquity in your life, He is there to set you free and never hold it against you. And since He is not holding it against us, let us not hold it against anyone else (even ourselves)—He is no respecter of persons and tells us to be the same!

Acts 10:34

Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.

Romans 2:11

For there is no respect of persons with God.

James 2:1

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

So what does it look like in this world where "God is no respecter of persons"?

It actually shows us how "scary" the truth of the Gospel is, and the "obscene" accomplishment Christ did through the Cross: that all the sins of the flesh were and are forever taken away from us. So abundantly taken-away from us that Paul write that we are actually free to do anything we want (ANYTHING--whether of sin or of faith); all without fear of God's judgment or wrath!

1 Corinthians 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

How could Paul write such a "controversial" statement if he was not absolutely sure that all sins are done away with and Christ bore the punishment for all those sins for us.

Paul even goes so far that he cannot and will not see (perceive or judge) a person in the flesh--that is, in the deeds of their flesh or their sins or actions. And he is not talking about believers only, but all people: believers and non-believers whom God has reconciled to Himself through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21
For the love of Christ constrains us; because we have made this absolute declaration: that if One (Jesus Christ) died for all, then were all dead. And that since He died for all, that they which are alive should now not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them; and rose again. Insomuch, that henceforth, know we no person (no one) after the flesh. Yes, though we perceived Christ according to the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Wherefore, whoever is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are (every single thing is) of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the entire world (all people) unto himself, not imputing (not taking into consideration) their trespasses (sins and misdeeds) unto them; and hath committed unto us this word: that all are reconciled. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did encourage you by us. So pray in Christ’s behalf, as one reconciled to God! Because He made Jesus Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.

Romans 5:10,18
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

This is how God is not a respecter of persons--for if God has reconciled the entire world to Himself through the one-time accomplishment of Christ, not holding any kind of sin or misdeed against any human; then how can we hold sins against others or ourself?

If sin cannot be an issue with God, why do people and churches and doctrines focus so much on sin and "repentance"? Fear!

They fear sin--of their own or others. Yet fear is not of God..."I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of peace and of a sound mind". To have that peace is to have a clear conscience out from sin (having a righteous conscience).

Does this freedom give us a license to sin then? Absolutely! Paul even says we can abuse that Grace, yet we should not:

Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

When you understand how free you've been set free by; and Loved without fear of reprisal or punishment, then you naturally end up not sinning. Christ made us dead to sin and the Law! The strength of sin is the Law (a sin conscience). The strength of the Gospel sets one free from wanting to sin.

To understand how forgiven we all are all, and how free from the punishment of God we are now, just look at how people like Hitler or events like the Crusades or the Cambodian killing fields exist. If God still punished people for their sins, then He would have had ample reason to punish or kill Hitler and others before the violence became what it was.

God didn't "allow" those things to happen, He had no ability to interfere because of Jesus Christ's complete accomplishment of eternal sin-sacrifice for all peoples’ sins. To have punished Hitler (or even been the one to kill Ananias and Sapphira) would have been to reject His own Son's accomplishment of full forgiveness of all mankind's sins of the flesh.

When we learn to let go of sin, we learn to Love others as Jesus demonstrated that Love (not judge others or ourself). The more we focus on sin, the more we get caught up in sin. The more we sin, the more we fear God. The more we fear God, the less we have relationship with Him. And the less we have relationship, the less we have His Life!

This is the freedom Christ came to set us free from: sin. Once and for all time, forever and forever (Hebrews 10).

And after all this; if you are still looking for a sin, then there is only one: the Sin of not believing on Christ. This is the only one the Holy Ghost convicts of, and the only one Christ could not forgive for us--this one is and will always be our choice to make. And the only Sin to "repent" of to turn to a belief in the Gospel that is Jesus Christ (Mark 1:15).