3.2 Applying the Most Important
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
There are a number of assumptions underlying the approach to God and His Word found here at Christ Revealed Bible Institute that are considerably different than the assumptions concerning “the Bible” found in much of Christianity. This course is not intended to explain those assumptions; the second course of this Bible Institute, Essential Underlying Definitions, will be designed for that purpose.
However, as you consider some of the extraordinary ideas concerning Christ inside of us that you have read thus far in this course, one underlying assumption that changes for us how we hear and see everything God speaks is – Union versus Separation
Union versus Separation
This distinction between our present union with Christ versus essential separation is expressed in many different ways. We will see that one primary way is the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is also expressed as grace versus law, that is, Word as Christ Himself on the inside of us versus word as ideas on the outside of us dependent entirely on our own human achievement.
I have placed abiding in Christ and Christ in us as the “tenth most important verse,” not because it is the last, but because it is the pillar upholding all the others. Union with Christ comes first; everything else follows after. Every Word God speaks is defined quite differently whether seen out from union or seen from separation.
Defining the Words
One final note on word definitions. I find it much easier to apply Christ personal in us out from Webster’s 1926 than out from the stated “definitions” found in most Bible dictionaries, including those at biblehub.com. The writers of the English dictionary had no other purpose than to render the definitions as the authors meant them. The writers of Bible dictionaries, however, do not do that. Rather, they force every word to fit a pre-established and accepted “theology.” Time and again, as I have written out every verse in which a word appears, I find the context speaking something quite different from the accepted “definitions.”
Shattering
I reject all imposition of human ideas on the Word God speaks. I require the Word God speaks to inform me of the Christ who lives in my heart. To do that is to experience the shattering of many things we once thought to be “Christian,” things God never actually says.
In the last lesson I said that the fulfillment of Romans 8:29 in our lives in all fullness IS the Salvation and the Eternal Life of the New Testament. Not one word in the Bible equates salvation with “going to” heaven. Not one word in the Bible equates eternal life with “escaping hell.” Let all those ideas be shattered out of your heart.
Pro
Three Greek words in Romans 8:28-30 begin with the Greek prefix “pro,” meaning “beforehand”: prothesis, proegno, and proorizon. (Proto is related, meaning “first.”)
- Set forth, written out beforehand –
- Known beforehand –
- Seized by determination beforehand.
Eternality
The word “eternal” is not a Biblical word, although the Latin translation forced eternal upon the Greek word “aeon,” which means a period of time. Eternality does not mean “forever.” Forever is a continual series of future ages of time. Time is part of God’s brilliant creation, a concept so foreign to God Himself that it certainly confuses us.
Eternal means that God is All NOW. When we were babes in Christ we thought of this Greek prefix “pro,” as meaning a long, long time ago. Because Jesus now shows us the Father, we know these realities come out of God NOW – and true of us through all time.
Pro-Determined
Predestination is one of the ugliest theological terms invented by separated Christianity and encrusted with endless argument and debate. Let it wash fully away from your mind. In fact, I have to go to a secular dictionary (Collins English Dictionary) to discover that the Greek prefix “pro” is not just a time word, as the English prefix “pre” is. Pro also means before in position and rank, in other words, source.
Pro-determined is a determination coming out from God’s core, the source of Purpose, and directed straight towards you and me. Pro-determined MEANS that whatever it is that follows is as certain as God IS, as coming out of I AM – Now.
Pro-Determined What?
I have never encountered an argument regarding predestination, for or against, that considered what God actually said after the word. Everyone seems to read these words as a declaration of sorts that God decided a long time ago, before anyone was born, who would go to hell forever and who would go to heaven forever.
The greatest barrier in your mind against the knowledge of Salvation is this idea that equates Salvation and God’s purposes with “where you go” after you die. Such an idea is not found in the New Testament. Are we brave enough to allow what God actually says to be the only thing we know?
Conformed to the Image of His Son
These are the words that follow the Heart Determination that rules the I Am, the Almighty, our Father, right now. God has His heart set on you and He will stop at nothing until you are made just like Jesus in all ways, in your construction, in your relationship with the Father, and in your expression.
It is these words, you and me conformed to the image of His Son, words coming out from the absolute determination ruling the core and Heart of Almighty God, that RULE over everything else God says in the entire Bible. Every word in the Bible is about you and me being conformed to the image of Jesus. Those who read anything else are reading God wrong.
Never Limit the Word God Speaks
You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalm 138:2
In order to know what God means by conformed to the image of His Son, we must first silence the accuser. The original accusation was not against God, but against the Word God speaks, Whom God values more highly than anything else in His nature and being. Did God really say that? There is a voice in the Christian mind that says, “But God doesn’t mean that,” or “You don’t really believe that, do you?” Cast that voice down; never ever limit God or what He speaks.
Increase Forever
Here is the truth. We will never find an end, not after 10 trillion years of being conformed to the image of His Son, of what God means inside those words. Every day we arise anew to find realities inside of being made just like Jesus that we have never known or considered before.
- Of the increase of His government and peace (knowing God and Jesus Sent) there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7).
- We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2a).
Application
The next session explores the meaning of two words: image and conformed (symmorphos). Yet we will hardly scratch the surface of the unending truth coming out of the most important verse in the Bible, Romans 8:28-30. I have written a dozen books so far, many hundreds of pages, for one purpose, because I would like to discover what God really means when He says to me, “I am determined to conform you, Daniel, to the image of My Son.” But if I were to present you with ideas only, I would do great harm to your soul.
God is real. – God is in you. You must contend with God concerning His Word to you.