In keeping with our mission we are using evidentiary law and its tenants as a metaphor concerning the proof needed to reveal the activity of the Kingdom of God (KoG). So let’s take a look at another very powerful type of evidence. Exculpatory evidence removes guilt from a defendant and if the trial is just, innocence will be again restored for the defendant. If there is a presumption of innocence, in our American system of justice (our part of the material world), why is the concept of exculpatory evidence a part of evidentiary law? That leads to the next question, at what point is guilt applied? If the answer is that guilt is only applied after a just conviction by trial, then why did not the exculpatory evidence protect the innocent during first trial? If you are following my logic, why, if innocence is presumed and when person is truly innocent, would we ever need the legal tenant called exculpatory evidence?
These are not trick questions but ones that I am using to highlight the difference between the KoG and the kingdom if this world. In God’s invisible and spiritual Kingdom there is a transparency and knowledge that is not available to the senses of people who only live by the revelation of the material realm. Our heavenly Father makes available three qualities by His Spirit to all of us who know the truth and live in the KoG. God is Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent. These all-qualities mean that everything is already in the Kingdom because what else is there besides all? So the judicial system of the KoG is far superior to that of mankind’s judicial systems, be they religious or secular. So now I hope you are catching on to the fact that God alone is the Justice of the eternal Supreme Court and He will determine innocence.
Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Genesis 1:1
[ The History of Creation ] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
All members of the KoG have been given the ultimate evidence which is the blood of Christ for our sin. Sin separates and forgiveness establishes a relationship to a position of innocence. The bible tells us that “Love covers a multitude of sin” and that “perfect love cast out all fear”. So without a consciousness of our heavenly Father’s love we cannot believe He has forgiven us. Therefore if there is any reasonable doubt concerning Gods forgiveness we will hide in fear from God who in truth loves us. Not having an understanding of this truth is a condition that bible calls the “carnal mind”. It believes that things are separate from God, some things are good and some things are evil (the original sin).
Even those who believe they are doing kingdom work and have assumed the responsibility to deliver the good news of innocence, in my experience sometimes view personal relationships from this carnal mind point of view. For example, how many times have we had the salvation message preached to us as if it did not work the first, or the last time that we made the commitment? If you are like me we help our children make the commitment, but every time they, in our judgment, fail to measure up we ask them or guilt them into providing more compelling evidence that their eternal salvation is still intact. In reality when most of us look in the mirror, judging ourselves again and again, we try to balance our good actions against the justifications of our bad actions. In other words if a jury of our peers was convened, even if we ourselves were on said jury, most of us would still need a preponderance exculpatory evidence to win a favorable verdict.
If there is one common benefit every human looks for as a reason to become a member of God’s Kingdom it is the freedom from guilt. We know this on the inside to be true, but from the carnal conscience the KoG is for a distant time in the future. The objective of most religions is to gain enough right standing prior to our final breath to enter into the kingdom. Jesus the Master said “that the Kingdom is at hand”, meaning it is already present in time. But today one of the tag lines in a popular song at the top of the charts is “I do not want to go to heaven if I can’t get in.”
For those who have experienced a Protestant Christian conversion, you know that the entire focus of the “born again” experience is all about the forgiveness of sin. The process is traditionally revealed something like this. As a member of the world God, has this other organization call the church and if you confess all your sins you are free to enter. The promise that “the old has passed away and all things are made new” is very compelling. Even more compelling is the threat that eternal separation from God is inescapable if you fail to join or maintain church membership. But once you have joined, the keepers of the membership gate continue to require fresh and compelling evidence of your ability to repent and produce faith evidence in order to be considered a member in good standing with your eternal salvation intact.
Catholics offer a baptism at birth which grants free entrance into the church and for people like my earthly father they make provisions that allow the traditions and values of membership to pass to the newly converted. As a child there was something mystical and liberating about being “ok with God” from birth. But as we get older the carnal mind no longer believes the innocence of salvation and as we try to keep up with the weekly requirements for repentance there develops a burden sometimes creates a need to justify membership for eternal salvation.
Those were my simplified explanations of how the majority of western Christians use religion to solve the relation problems with God. However, Jesus the master operating as the Christ died for all men and became the only true exculpatory evidence any of us children of Adam will ever need. If membership in the KoG represents freedom from sin and its associated guilt, then proof of membership is everything. So the truth of Kingdom is, that God, through Christ, has made us innocent and provided “once for all”; that is for all of mankind and for all time both, temporal and eternal, an irrevocable membership. For those who have awakened to the truth concerning this spiritual Kingdom the burden of proof has forever been removed and the presumption of innocence provides freedom of relationship with God that will never be surpassed.
In old Jewish tradition when a man and a woman want to change their relationship status to married, representatives from each family, usually the fathers of the bride and groom negotiate the terms of this marriage. Traditionally at a family dinner the father of the groom would offer a contract with a dowry and then push his wine goblet across the table to signify an offer. The father of the bride would either accept or continue the negotiation by sliding the cup back and forth until an agreement was reached. Once accepted you had a marriage and the cup was accepted. The groom and his father return to his father’s home and the groom would build a room on the house and the bride would use the dowry to prepare for the marriage.
Hebrews 6:13
[ God’s Infallible Purpose in Christ ] For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
In the Garden of Gethsemane, through scripture we witness this negation taking place. Jesus makes the statement in Matthew 26:39 “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me”. God has given us, the bride of Christ, Holy Spirit as a dowry payment until Jesus Christ returns from adding rooms onto His Father’s mansion. If we are awake to this truth, we can become the evidence, that the possibility has become reality today. Therefore our sales pitch if you will, should simply be, He did it for me, and now by His grace innocence has been restored for all.
2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
As we consciously make the Kingdom available to all that we meet, we are doing our Father’s will. We are providing powerful evidence and we become witnesses to the expansion of God’s Kingdom. When an ambassador leaves his kingdom as a representative he has immunity from the laws that govern the land that he is visiting and he cannot be found guilty. Some ambassadors are authorized to grant asylum to the kingdom they represent. We can be ambassadors to the KoG, if we walk in the liberty of innocence and help reconcile others to the Kingdom.
We live in a time where the keepers of the existing state of affairs in the material world, sometimes unknowingly, erect obstacles to the entrance of the KoG to prevent people from leaving their carnal kingdoms. There is a worldly mindset that is universal in its delusion of God’s love. However Jesus has overcome the world for us and we have been made innocent and can live in the liberty of that truth. Members of God’s Kingdom who understand this have been given the power and authority to reveal the truth about our innocence so people can live free. As this truth of innocence, which is counter to the present culture, is revealed it will cause more and more people to do whatever it takes to enter the true and spiritual Kingdom of God.
Matthew 11:12
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
Please chime in on the topics below.
- Are you living and expressing Kingdom evidence such that it is making all the people around feel free enough to openly or secretly leave the material world and join in the KoG?
- How often does someone impose a burden of proof on you, and what exculpatory evidence do you provide, or do you just run and hide? Be specific.
EVidence LOCKER 