26.3 Symmorphic Communion
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Symmorphic Communion
In that day you shall know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you (John 14:20).Look again at the diagram of our reality created by these words of Jesus spoken into us as life and power. The Personhood of God is a fascinating concept. God remains entirely His own Person even while He lives as one Person together with Christ, always as One, yet never violating Christ’s Person.
Symmorphy MEANS communion.
Remain in Communion
Not only that, but Jesus, by His words that place you and me utterly into God inside of Himself, also places us entirely into the communion of the Godhead. Jesus is communion. We live as the communion of Father and Son.
Abide in Me and I in you (John 15:4a). Remain in the communion of Father and Son and I, the communion of Father and Son, remain in you. This is age-abiding life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3). Age-abiding life is symmorphic communion.
Two Persons Together
What happens when two souls, two persons, are fused together, walking together in perfect harmony, sharing the same form? The unending answer to that question IS knowing God; it is age-abiding life.
Here is our problem. Union with another Person, Christ, has not been really real to us. So we turn to story and literature in order to comprehend this union with the Person of Jesus in Whom we walk. I want to bring in the story of Eragon and Saphira in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. This story forces us to reckon with the reality of sharing the same form with another Person, mind inside of mind, heart inside of heart.
Eragon and Saphira
In the story, a full union of soul, of person inside of person, able to communicate with each other at all times, takes place between Eragon, a human, and Saphira, a dragon. Saphira is highly intelligent with full consciousness.
I quote from Brisingr, the third book in the series. Eragon and Saphira have been separated for a few weeks, something that happened rarely and not at all to their liking. Finally, Saphira is released to fly to where Eragon was sent. The following paragraph takes place as she approaches him, but just before she arrives physically; Eragon is running to meet her.
No Longer Alone
Redoubling his speed, Eragon opened his mind to Saphira, removing every barrier around who he was, so that they might join together without reservation. Like a flood of warm water, her consciousness rushed into him, even as his rushed into her. Eragon gasped and tripped and nearly fell. They enveloped each other within the folds of their thoughts, holding each other with an intimacy no physical embrace could replicate, allowing their identities to merge once again. The greatest comfort was a simple one: they were no longer alone. To know that you were with one who cared for you, and who understood every fiber of your being, and who would not abandon you in even the most desperate of circumstance, that was the most precious relationship a person could have, and both Eragon and Saphira cherished it.
Total Fusion
Here is the person of me. Here is the Person of Jesus. Take the picture of the mental, soul-to-soul connection between Eragon and Saphira, multiply that connection ten thousand times in every conceivable direction. Now we are closer to the words: I in you and you in Me.
I am literally bound person to Person with the Lord Jesus Christ through a direct connection, a total fusion between His Spirit and mine. As a result, His consciousness, His mind, is inside of me. And my consciousness, my mind – and every other part of me is literally and substantially inside of Him.
Sweet Communion
Does He not say that? — In that day you shall know that . . . you are in Me and I am in you. To what degree are these words not literally true?
The joining of Eragon and Saphira, multiplied a thousand times helps us comprehend the nature and reality of the merging of consciousness, the sweet communion, the walking together that takes place between the Lord Jesus Christ inside our center, and you and me.
Now, Christopher Paolini, the youthful author of Eragon, pointed out that when two intelligent beings are united together in their consciousness, then, over time, they become more and more like each other in their souls.
Intimate Union
Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” All of me, in all of my ups and downs, my ins and outs, my fears and distresses, I am always and totally fused together with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and He with me in an intimate union of the complete immersion of my spirit into His Spirit and His Spirit into my spirit. His consciousness is inside of me, my consciousness is inside of Him, and we walk together in an utter sharing of life.
Jesus shares my life in all that it is, and I share His life in all that it is. I am saved by His life. And when I say “I,” I’m saying it ONLY so that you are saying “I” of yourself. For you are the same as me.
No Separation
In all of my weakness and inability, I see no shadow of separation inside myself between me and Jesus. I look at my center and see Father inside of Jesus.
I know, with no thought otherwise, that Jesus is my life and that we are joined together in perfect communion, soul to Soul. I know that He shares all things with me that I am. I know that I share all things with Him that He is. I know that we are joined in perfect, symmorphic communion, His consciousness inside of mine, and my consciousness inside of His.
This knowing, this FELLOWSHIP IS age-abiding life.
Fellowship
The life was manifested (appeared, appearance), and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that age-abiding life which was with the Father and appeared to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:2-4).
Life – substance; flesh – appearance. Purpose – FELLOWSHIP, fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Three words that mean the same thing are koinonia (Greek), communion (Latin), and fellowship (Saxon).
The Communion Is the Thing
God Spirit is all now everywhere, yet entirely unknown; God Light is the desire and intention of God, yet not fulfilled. The center and essence of God is God Love. – And God Love is known by only one means.
God Love is known by fellowship, by communion with the Father and with Jesus Sent inside of our present human frame. And that fellowship is made full and complete inside of us by God and us together setting creation free. The communion is the thing. And our fellowship (together) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).
Our Task
Our task, abiding in Christ, is to live IN fellowship.
What is fellowship? If fellowship is the essence of God and of knowing God, then what is fellowship? Fellowship has three parts, the where, the what, and the how. Here is the first law of fellowship. Fellowship with Father and fellowship with one another cannot be separated. Yes, we can experience fellowship with Father when we are by ourselves, but Father Himself never wants to stay by Himself. Father is always filling Himself, His heart, with many persons, and is always revealing Himself through many persons.
Father Sings in Community
Father is always gathering people together; Father is always singing in community. Father is always throwing parties and inviting guests, and making sure His supper is filled with people. Fellowship/communion begins with the meal; eating together is always the first “where” of fellowship.
But fellowship has another where. Fellowship, real fellowship, is found in the trenches, in the labor of danger and the risk of life and limb – God and us together – FOR THE SAKE OF HIS BODY!!! Communion is the Mercy Seat, our hearts, the place Father and we meet together.
Koinonia
Let’s define these words of the same meaning, fellowship-communion-koinonia, by koinonia.
- Koinonia – fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, contact (from Strong’s Concordance). 1. The share which one has in anything, participation; with (possession) of the thing in which he shares. 2. Contact, fellowship, intimacy. 3. A benefaction jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, as exhibiting an embodiment and proof of fellowship. From koinonos; partnership, i.e. (literally) participation, or social intercourse, or pecuniary benefaction – to communicate, communion, distribution, fellowship (adapted from biblehub.com).
I engage with Father; Father engages with me. We do all things together; I am about my Father's business. Father's business is to glorify His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus-Sent's business is to restore all creation back to the Father. If I engage with Them in the travail of Their business then I rest in the utter peace and joy of Christ living as me, as I find myself to be.
But there is something else that I also find myself to be, Christ living now as me. I am NOT content to be alone.
Commitment
It is NOT good for me to be alone. Father called everything good except one thing, being alone. In the beginning, before sin and rebellion ever entered anyone's picture, God said that being alone is NOT good. My determination not to be alone is Christ living as me.
The essence of true fellowship is commitment to a shared purpose. Those who love God love one another also. Remember John’s words: that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship (together) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Fellowship Together
The essence of true fellowship is commitment to a shared purpose. Look again at the diagram; notice that the tucked-in circle is us.Yes, it is each one of us as individuals, members in particular, but the circle tucked in is all of us together – US. We are the Body of Christ, we are the appearance of this symmorphic union. Our fellowship together is found INSIDE the fellowship we have together with Father and Son.
Our fellowship together IS that Fellowship.
You - Plural
I in you and you in me.
The English language originally distinguished between you, plural, and thou, singular. There is a specific historical reason why “you” came to mean both plural and singular, creating a bit of confusion in meaning (as in “ya’ll” or “you’ns”), a reason we won’t expand on here. But the Greek had no such confusion.
When Jesus said, I in you and you in me, He said plural, meaning, all of you together. I am in you – together and you, together, are in Me. Communion together is the communion of Father and Son.
Both Always Together
It is both/and. We magnify the personal communion we live in as individuals, an ongoing fellowship with two wondrous and glorious Persons inside of us. And we embrace the shared communion we live in as one body together, the expression of Father’s Heart through many. To over-exalt one is to lose sight of the other.
We know the Father and Jesus Sent; we magnify and embrace both parts of fellowship. We walk, each of us, in unbroken fellowship with Father and Son inside of us, AND we expect God for fellowship together.
The Mercy Seat
A dear sister shared with me how the session on sharing heart with God, on being the Mercy Seat together with Jesus for Father’s sake, opened up inside of her a vast and unspeakable wound of hurt and anger. She shared how she and Jesus, for Father’s sake, took that hurt and the person who caused it, into that Mercy Seat of her heart and there released both hurt and person above the Blood.
Communion – Fellowship. Sharing Heart with God. This sister knows Father, now, as few ever have, Father and her together in sweet and unspeakable joy.
Father Made Known
Yet this communion, this knowing of Father, is the first part of God’s opportunity.
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:22-23).
The Father’s opportunity to make Himself known to creation, setting everyone free from the vanity of not knowing God is found in only one place and time. Father is made known through our fellowship, our sharing this same Mercy Seat, together as one.