11.3 To Be Like Jesus
Finally, I know what Salvation is. What I have shared up until now has been true, but I have known only the outward form of Salvation, and not really its beating heart. At the same time, the deepest questions I have held in my heart for years are fully answered, an answer found only inside of life, with no shadow of good vs evil.
The larger question was asked by an earnest reader – Why did Jesus have to die? A question I have had for years is – If Jesus’ sacrifice was all for all, why 2000 years of folly since? Why 6000 years of folly and hurt and ruin? Then there is the question – Did God need Adam’s sin in order to show forth His Salvation? – combined with the belief that Jesus’ sacrifice would not have been needed if we had not sinned.
The Right Questions. We labored over these questions only because we were eating from the wrong tree. They are entirely the wrong questions.
Here is the right question. – What is reciprocal love in the local church? The answer to this question contains all other answers. It is Salvation Revealed; it is God made visible. Forever, when people see God as Salvation, they will be looking at the gathering of believers in commitment to one another inside of love.
For this reason, we are not interested only in outward descriptions of the Church, the Body of Christ, the wife of the Lamb, but also of that inner dynamic that makes her what she is, the radiant glow of the Person of Jesus inside.
Three Internal Questions. Who has ever really considered reciprocal love in the Church? Yet it is the only question that could be asked by humans that has any real meaning. And the answer is the only Salvation of mankind. To know that answer, however, we have three other questions at its heart. Those three are: – What is surety in God? – What is travail in God? And – What is propitiation in God?
Yet this points us to another question of equal importance – What does it mean to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ? Clearly, our two big questions are the same and share the same answer. Think of it – What does it mean to be just like the Lord Jesus? – What is reciprocal love in the local church?
From Ideas to Life Together. Our answers must begin as ideas, but we will know them for real only inside of a local Community of Christ, walking together in daily life together, Salvation Revealed. The verse that allows us to be just like Jesus towards one another is – By this we have known Love, and we also. Redemption is not a one-time act; it is a continual expression through us of being just like Jesus, of carrying one another inside our hearts.
The visible Sacrifice of Jesus was an unlimited one-time act, but Redemption is not. Redemption is a continual expression through us of being just like Jesus, of carrying one another inside our hearts. You see, we are talking about the bond of Living Life shared among those at the heart of any local Church, this living fabric that causes them to be reciprocal Love, the Father revealed.
The Great Battle. Before considering how we love just like Jesus, however, we must place this contention as the GREAT BATTLE in which the second witness of Christ is engaged inside Christianity. I intend to be caustic, even to caricature, but my wording is EXACTLY what the Nicene argument really is. When a room is dark, you cannot see the infestation of rats and cockroaches; they seem to be just a normal part of everything. But when the lights turn on and the rats and cockroaches scurry away, you see just how disgusting they really are.
“Jesus is Superman God. The temptation of the devil in the garden was the lust to be like Superman God. Anyone who wants to be like Superman God will become arrogant and wicked like the devil.
A Horror. “Look at yourself; see how weak and fleshy you are, always falling for sin in the great struggle of good versus evil. God hates weakness; God hates your fleshy weakness.
“God must burn you in hellfire forever because you are weak and wicked. In order to redeem you, Jesus, that is, Superman God, had to appease God’s hatred of you by God killing God. Only the action of God killing Superman God could assuage the hatred of God for your fleshy weakness. You can “go to” heaven, the only place where you will be superior and no longer weak, only if you buy the atonement in the way we have prescribed.
“Right now, however, there is no more wicked heresy than the belief that a weak and fleshy Christian can duplicate Superman God’s action of appeasing God, which we call ‘redemption.’”
Bait and Switch. AND YES!!! This is the story of my life. Every step I have taken to know the Father through knowing Jesus as He is, from December of 2000 when I was finally free to say, “God loves me,” until now, has been climbing out of that “rat and cockroach infested” belief system, desperate to be saved. Here is the fundamental essence and purpose of the entire Nicene argument. It is classic bait and switch.
“There is no more wicked heresy among Christians than the idea that you are going to love one another in exactly the same way that Jesus loves you. This is why you must have correct theology pounded into your consciousness before you read the Bible, so you will not be caught by all the verses that might lead you into such a deception.”
Just Like Jesus. The desire to “go to” heaven where we will no longer be weak and fleshy, where we will be “superior,” IS the temptation of the devil, the same as in the garden. It effectively prevents all thought of being just like Jesus right now. The mind that thinks that God burns the lost in hellfire forever and that the goal of salvation is to “go to” heaven where we will no longer be weak, is a mind that cannot even think about being like the Lord Jesus Christ right now.
Just like Jesus, we can DO NOTHING of ourselves. Just like Jesus we possess all authority and no power. Just like Jesus, we acknowledge God with us, sharing all with us and being all through us. Just like Jesus, we Love one another. Just like Jesus, we give ourselves to the Father for one another.
One Thought Only. Here’s the deal. When Christians on this earth love one another just as Jesus loves us, then Satan’s time is finished. The man from Facebook, whom I quoted in Lesson 5.2, was a typical Nicene theologian reacting harshly against my words of Jesus through me. This is but a foretaste of the hostility that will be thrown against us by our fellow Christians when God makes Himself known through us.
But just like Jesus, zeal for God’s house consumes us. We have one thought only, that all those whom the Father has given to Jesus in this hour might SEE the Door wide-open for them that they might RUN into Jesus. For Father’s sake, we love them, just like Jesus does.
What Is Surety? By so much more, Jesus has become the surety, the security of a better and stronger covenant (Hebrews 7:22). The great testimony of Moses to us is NOT the old covenant, but as a personal forerunner of being like Jesus.
God could not save anyone until His authority in the earth ASKED HIM to save. But even then, God still needed a “surety” to be sure that He was safe, and so that those whom He was saving could be certain of their salvation. Moses said to God, “Send me to Sheol instead.” God’s reply was, in essence, “No, Moses, it’s not that easy. If you truly want Me to save these people, then you must walk with them through the wilderness for forty years, keeping them inside of a true awareness of Me, whatever it might cost you.”
Surety for God. Jesus’ surety to God was like Moses’ surety, only far greater. When Jesus rose to His feet in Gethsemane, He was declaring, “Father, I will drink Your cup; I receive all whom You have given to Me. I will become them, I will be their scapegoat, I will carry their sinfulness, until such time as they KNOW that You love them and they become safe for You.”
Jesus became our surety for God when He took us into Himself, to become all our foolish stumbling, all the way through our darkness, until we rush with all joy into all the knowledge of God through us into our world. This is the first way in which we KNOW Love, and then we turn and love one another in exactly the same way.
Seeing with Clarity. Inside of preparing me to write this lesson, God brought another person into interaction with my daily work. This was mostly good, but, as usual, there were things said and done that I did NOT like. I was faced with this realization. Do I insist on my way and savage their heart by my ignorant forehead? Or do I set aside myself and give them place as Jesus does for me?
Loving one another is always costly, immediately. Do I carry this person inside my heart all the way through? This was the first time I saw with such clarity. I did not necessarily like what I saw. Yet I liked even less the thought of hurting this one whom I love.
Surety for Me. How on earth could I love as Jesus loves me? Well, I can’t, just as Jesus could not. And this is the other side of surety. Jesus became God’s surety for me, that I would have the guarantee that, if I drink my Father’s cup, HE, God HIMSELF in Person, would be certain to be Love through me, the very Love that is God.
In the midst of daily life together as the Community of Christ, in the midst of all the many things you say and do that I DO NOT LIKE, in the midst of all my inability to love you, I place myself into God, in the certainty that He DOES (power) Love you through me right now. And when you do the same for me, Salvation is revealed.
What Is Travail? A woman giving birth experiences pain because her hour has come. But when she brings forth a child, she no longer remembers the pressures of travail because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. In the same way, then, you… – Having a child in her womb, she screamed in travail, being tortured to bring her child to birth (John 16:21-22 & Revelation 12:2).
What is the purpose of my pain? What is the purpose of every circumstance and interaction with others that I do not like? The purpose is whatever I want it to be, either life unto life with Jesus, or death unto death with Adam. Pain is the immediate result of love; it becomes travail inside of God when I make it to be for other’s, for their sake.
How Much Pain. I always just assumed that Jesus loved me because that’s who He is and what He does. I never realized just how much pain I caused Him, directly and personally, every time I held accusation and curse against God and others, in my heart and by my words and actions.
I am silenced inside by the realization of just how much pain I have caused Jesus to bear. Yet in every moment, He turned that pain into His travail for me that I might be birthed into the knowledge of God. When you and I do the same thing for one another inside all the daily interactions of Christ Community, what LOVE will be revealed, Love as has never been known, the Father.
What Is Propitiation? He is the propitiation for our sins; but not ours only, but also for the entire world-cosmos (1 John 2:2 – short form). If you will stay with me, I will now take you into the greatest “heresy” of all.
The Greek word John used here is hilasmos. This word has three other derivatives, each of which is used twice in the New Testament. I cannot be brief; I must give you all. First, the eight passages in which these four words are found contain the deepest meaning of our redemption, including the one negative use. Redemption literally means “the price paid to release us from bondage to sin and to restore us to sharing life with God.”
An Evil Definition. Second, neither Strong’s Concordance nor Little Kittle provide any strongly negative connotations to any of these words. They do include the word “appease,” but in a more neutral sense, a sense that could easily mean “to satisfy.” Then, we have the Calvinist definition, which is the most evil idea thrust into Christianity by the mind that knows only the eating of the knowledge of good and evil.
hilasmós – properly, propitiation; an offering to appease (satisfy) an angry, offended party. 2434 (hilasmós) is only used twice (1 Jn 2:2, 4:10) – both times of Christ's atoning blood that appeases God's wrath, on all confessed sin.
This definition does NOT come from these verses or from anywhere else in the entire Bible. It comes from paganism.
The Only Issue There Is. The Calvinist claims that 1 John 4:9-11 is Jesus paying off a wrath-filled God. What do you think? This is from the NKJV.
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
There is one issue only with God, and that issue is NOT how sin is to be punished. The issue is always how relationship is to be restored. Relationship is the ONLY issue. This difference is the only cause of success for any community.
The Definition of Jesus Christ. Propitiation is a Latin word; we can use it IF we define it in the context of what God actually says. It does NOT mean a one-time action of Jesus that somehow assuaged the wrath of a God determined to punish all sin, but only for a small number of people. It does mean the definition of the Lord Jesus Christ, what He is in His being and essence, His BLOOD, and what He does in His continuous action.
Jesus connects us with God and God with us in a living relationship of a shared life together. Satisfaction MUST come to us as much as it must come to God. Satisfaction means TRUST. God and we trust Jesus.
Restoring Relationship. I want to go through the primary points of each passage where our four propitiation words are found. You should spend time studying these verses on your own.
Luke 18:13-14 – We must humble ourselves to know that we need life with God to be restored. Hebrews 2:17-18 – Jesus is just like us, and when we are most confused by our disconnection from God, He shows us that He is always our connection.
1 John 2:1-2 – Jesus solves the break in relationship, not only between God and us, but between God and the entire cosmos. 1 John 4:9-11 – The pressure of God’s Love for us is what causes the restoration of relationship to take place.
Restored by His Life. Romans 3:21-26 – God really wanted to reconnect with us in a shared life together, but He could not do that until Jesus became our faith, our willingness to be restored. Hebrews 9:2-4 – The Mercy Seat sprinkled with Blood upon which we sit is God’s picture to us of our restored relationship.
Matthew 16:21-23 – When Satan spoke through Peter, he actually said, “Be kind to Yourself, Jesus, think about Yourself, put Yourself first.” Nothing could be more opposite to the nature and being and purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 8:10-12 – This Mercy that Jesus is, actually for us towards God as much as for God towards us, is the Life of the Covenant. – We are saved by His Life.
For Us, for Our Sakes. Even though it’s not the right question, we now have a full answer to – Why did Jesus have to die?
Jesus, by His very nature, suffers long, that is, places Himself in-between, to be the TRUST, the Surety, so that the relationship between two, God and us, can continue through every step of life together. If Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life, John 14:20, this is the Jesus he would have known. Because we were lost in the confusion of a false way of thinking, psychotic and deluded, Jesus showed us His own Being and His continual present Action through the one picture, the only picture that we could grasp, in one moment only of time and space – His Blood shed and His death for us, for our sakes, that we might know the Love of God, as John said.
Our Connection with God. What, then, is Christ Jesus, by definition, that we are to be just like Him? Jesus is the Connection (Bond), the Communication (Word), the In-between (Priest), the Mediator, the Life, that allows two other individuals to walk together in a shared life of trust and joy, able to navigate together through every difficulty coming through the unfolding of every next step forever.
He is this Connection by three things. First, He is willing to be Surety, for God and for us, so that we might have a point of Trust between two very different beings. Second, He takes upon Himself all the pain of the resolving of difficulties, so that the relationship remains unhindered. And third, He is the living vibrancy of that connection between God and us.
As He Is, So Are We. Propitiation, then, is the Blood, the living Life flowing always between the Father and us and between us and the Father. This living Life flow is Christ Jesus, and it is forever. – And we are just like Him. As He is, so are we in this world.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (with the same Love that is God). What MATTERS to God is our relationship together as the local Church. – Be just like Jesus towards one another. How, then, are we to be TRUST and Surety for one another? How can we bear with the pain that is a normal part of sharing life together, as Jesus does. But mostly, how can we be the Life connection inside of sharing Life together?
Propitiation Is Life. We must redefine propitiation, that LIFE flow that brings satisfaction to everyone involved. We are talking about the nature and being of the Lord Jesus, the Substance of Himself which He transfers to us. Our need to SEE was a one-time action in space and time, Jesus upon the cross. God is severe in His clarity that the visible Sacrifice is ONCE for ALL. But the nature and being of Jesus, the LIFE trust between, that brings satisfaction to all, is continuous and is given to us, as part of our own beings.
The Life is in the Blood. – When I see the Blood, death is no more. – He who has the Son has the Life. – Ask God for Life to give to your brother. Moses – and then 1 John 5.
Life Together Is Satisfaction. Satisfaction IS the end result. How is God satisfied? God is satisfied when He is at Home, acknowledged as God in all inside the local Church. How are we satisfied? We are satisfied when we are at home inside of God and with one another.
I receive you as Jesus Himself; I am willing to be Trust between us. – I offer myself inside all the pain of ongoing relationships to be for Father’s sake, that He might be known as Love among us. – I carry you inside my heart even as you carry me inside your heart. We together are SATISFIED.
This earnest love for one another, with pure hearts fervently, this ZEAL we share to give Father a place to be known, this LIFE we live together IS the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the Salvation of God revealed.
Reading for Next Time. The final lesson of this section of our text is titled “Through the Church.” – Salvation is revealed only through the Church on this earth, a woman clothed with Jesus, bringing forth the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all. Since we’ve added another lesson, the next might be a bit shorter. For that lesson, read Lesson 3.3 “A Way for God.”
You see, it’s God we want, being Himself inside our world. But this God we want comes only through the Church, every little one belonging to Jesus, joined together in one Spirit. Desiring God coming through, we give our all to Him for this Church. Just like Jesus, we give every single step we take with God to Him for her sake. She is our travail.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You sent the Lord Jesus into us to be our Trust, our Travail, and our Life shared together. It is Jesus in us now, Father, who causes us to know that He is the only life we are. We do not ‘duplicate’ Jesus, oh God, but we are His form, shared with us, and He shows Himself through our every moment.
“Father, come home. Father, be at Home inside our love for one another. We acknowledge You alone as our every interaction together. We see one another only through You. Father, You have not yet brought us into the Satisfaction of life together as a local church. Yet we now turn the agony of our longing towards all who belong to Jesus now, in this hour.
“Lord Jesus, You live inside of our hearts for real. You share all form with us, both as individuals and as Your body together. Your Passion for Your entire Church fills our beings. Lord Jesus, make us to be, with You, Surety and Trust, that God our Father might safely dwell inside of His people. Make us to be, with You, Surety and Trust, that all who belong to You might know that they safely dwell inside of God.
“Lord Jesus, let every moment of our lives, whatever the cost, be travail for Your Bride, that she might come into the knowledge of God now flowing out from her. Lord Jesus, let us be, with You, that inner core of Life flowing among us, causing all Your own ones to be, right here on this earth, the very dwelling place of God All-Carrying. Let it be so; it is so.”