The Throne Room

In heaven, right now, there is a throne room. In that place there are two large thrones and several smaller ones. On the two large thrones sit the Father and the Son, Jesus:


Mark 16:19-20 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.


The temple in Israel was a copy, a model, of this real place in the heavenly city called the New Jerusalem. This throne room in heaven is the Holy of Holies...the holiest place in all of creation. The Holy of Holies in Jerusalem was a representation on earth of the real place in the heavenly city. This is the "living room" of God's household, where we were created to live with Him.


In a similar way, the Mosiac law on earth was a representation, a model, of the law of God, the "law of His house", written on the hearts of God's people in the New Jerusalem, where His family will live forever. The law was given to reveal the real heart of God for His family.


Hebrews 10:16 “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,”


Jesus came to show the world that God doesn't just call Himself a Father, He really is a Father. A Father establishes a house for His children, a place where they are nurtured and brought up to fullness. The vision a good Father has for His kids is one of growth, increasing partnership in the business of the Father, success, and a sense of belonging. A good Father doesn't trade power for loyalty, He freely gives of His strength, as His children grow in His likeness, to see His kids mature into a life modeled after His own definition of right and good.


Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”


This is who Jesus demonstrated God to be, a good Fathering desiring partnership with His children, a royal family, as they developed and nurtured earth into a garden for God. This is what God called "very good" in the Garden of Eden.


The relationship the Good Father chose is love. In the Garden, love made free will necessary. Love requires a choice to not love, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the one choice to say no to love. When mankind said "no," the good Father let them. But God made man to be with Him in partnership. Although this act of rebellion required death, God was not willing to be a harsh Father. Instead, He sent His own Son, who is God and was always with God...who has always sat next to Him on a throne...to become a man, forever, so that He might pay the price of rebellion and provide a way for any child who desired to say "yes" again to love....to restore the partnership that was lost, and go on living in the household established for them from the beginning.


When Jesus gave up His life on the cross, He opened up the door to the house to everyone who wanted back into God's household. The curtain in the temple blocked the Holy of Holies from the people:


Matthew 27:50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,


Jesus fulfilled the law of the household of God. That is why He came the first time. To make a way for everyone to be right with God again, not to judge those too weak to keep the law.


John 12:47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.


When Jesus began His public ministry, He set out, for three and a half years, to demonstrate to the world who God really is. The leaders of Israel thought of God as a harsh and unbending judge...therefore the leaders appeared harsh and unbending. They judged anyone too weak to keep the law. They even judged Jesus, who was the real thing the earthly model was made to reveal:


Matthew 12:1-2, 7-8 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”


But the Pharisees did not know God. They were nothing like the Father they were paid to represent. These "false parents" hurt the way the children saw the real Father. Instead of love, which the real Father is committed to, they were harsh and unbending. The pagan gods worshiped around Israel were similarly harsh and unbending. Trading power for loyalty. This is because every god other than the true Father is a lie...simply an idol, reflecting the nature of satan, the father of every lie. Every lie about God conforms to satan's ideal role as God: harsh and unbending, trading power for loyalty. Demanding obedience and worship.


John 8:42-44 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.


God is so committed to us not living in the house of anyone who loves us less than our Father, that He was willing to send His own Son to restore us. When Jesus died on a cross, and was buried, He died an unjust death. The cost of rebellion from love was always to live in the absence of God's love. This is death. Man gets what they want. God, in His mercy, knew man would not really want rebellion once they knew the full cost: eternal separation from the love of the good Father. Like any good Father, He made a way back. But, He forces no one back. We still have to choose to say yes to love.


I say yes to love by trusting and confessing with my mouth that Jesus paid the price for my sin and restored me to the household of my Father, where ' can live under the leadership of God. Then I do my best to stay under His leadership (agree with God about what is right). This is called repentance. This is returning to God's household.


If we will return to Him we will begin to live in the reality that God is not a harsh and unbending task master, just waiting for us to make a mistake. He is a good Father wanting to restore us to the household we belong in. He desires to lead us into the future we were made for. There are no heavy burdens for us to carry, as we might suppose, but instead a yoke that is easy and a burden that is much lighter than we have already carried outside of His house:

Matthew 11:25-30 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”