4.1 Jesus Sent
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Bond, the Surety of the Covenant, the Mediator, the Connector, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
In order to know what something is, we must first see that thing in its place. To know a spark plug, you must first see its place in the function of the engine, then you look at its parts, what it’s made of, and finally, you study it in action, what it does in agreement with its placement and its nature.
In this session we want to know the Lord Jesus in three ways. In this first lesson we will look at the placement of Christ, that is Jesus Sent. Then, we will study Jesus as He is, His essence, using the High Priest as our model. And in the third lesson, we will know what Jesus does, our continuous energetic connection with the Father.
Focused on Covenant. Now, in each of these three approaches to knowing the Lord Jesus in us, we are focused only on Covenant, that is, how Jesus, and our union with Jesus, works as our Covenant Bond with God.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:1b-3).
Let’s paraphrase that. Covenant with Your Son, that your Son also may Covenant with You, as You have given Him authority over the human bodies You desire for Your Body, that He should give LIFE to those You have given Him.
Life. And this is the LIFE of the Covenant, that they may KNOW You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Taking possession of our bodies in this contractual arrangement is God’s business. Our part is only to offer our bodies to Him and that entirely by faith. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1).
Taking possession of the LIFE in this contractual arrangement is our business. God’s part is to offer the Life to us by faith. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on (seize hold of) eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12).
Proving the Will of God. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life… (1 John 5:11-12a).
God cannot make us live. He has given us life, but we must seize hold of that life, that is, call it forth. We cannot make our bodies to be God’s. We have given Him our bodies, but He must make them His.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). There is only one way God can make our bodies His, and that is by the union of His will with our will.
Bringing to Agreement. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (that is, as He wishes) (Philippians 2:12b-13).
You see, it is not our job to “make our bodies obey God,” that part of the Covenant is entirely God’s concern. Working out our own salvation is our seizing hold of life, that is, calling Christ as the only life we are.
But, as you can see, at the center of this entire equation that is the Covenant we have entered into with God, our bodies for His life, is the WILL, God’s will and our will. And it is here, at this very point, that we and God both MOST need the Mediator, the One who brings to agreement.
Through Me. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).
The word “come” is like the word “know.” It covers a range of meanings from the simplest external “coming close to” all the way to complete connection. Because we have turned around in the Holiest, we are no longer looking at God’s three’s in terms of entering into God. Now we see God’s three’s in terms of the present Covenant. I am the way, the truth, and the life. – Mediator.
The Way and the Life. I am the way is Jesus as our side of the Covenant given to God, the part of us God must seize hold of for Himself.
…Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God (Hebrews 10:19-21). The Way is the flesh of Christ. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones… and the two shall become one flesh (Ephesians 5:30-31).
I am the life is Jesus as God’s side of the Covenant given to us, the part of God that we must seize hold of for ourselves. And at the center is I am the truth, that is, Jesus as the High Priest, the Mediator.
Who Makes the Decisions? Now, God does not give us His life as something separate from Himself. God’s life is God. And we do not give God our bodies as something separate from ourselves. Our bodies are what we are. And when we say “body” we do not separate between our earthly bodies and our heavenly spirits. We have understood them as two things, but in actuality, they are one thing. And just as surely as we are one spirit with the Lord, so we are one flesh with Him as well.
The issue is the will. Who makes the decisions? A two-headed animal cannot work, for the heads will be taking the body in two different directions.
A Great Mystery. More than that, the idea that God’s will must prevail over our will is something that God has given us 6000 years of human misery to prove to us that such a scenario CANNOT work. The “human” part of Jesus did not meekly obey the “God” part of Jesus. Such a conception is completely not what Jesus is.
How could God make us like Himself, that is, bold and decisive, filled with faith and then expect us to be NOT like Himself. In fact the jeopardy of the gospel requires that we be like God – confident and bold.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32). – …Great is the mystery of godliness: God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 1:16a).
Walking as Jesus Walked. The “human” part of Jesus did not meekly obey the “God” part of Jesus. Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.” Jesus walked in CONFIDENCE that His every step was the Father directing His will by the Father’s will.
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 14:10b-11a). The translators added the word “authority” after “speak on My own,” but that word actually separates Jesus from Father. Being made just like Jesus is our walking as one with the Father in exactly the same way as Jesus did.
The In-Between Will. But the only way we can do so in this Covenant agreement is by the Mediator, the One standing always between, binding the Ttwo together by His own Person. Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42b). And thus Jesus placed His will as the in-between at the very beginning of the Covenant.
These three concepts: the will, truth, and the High Priest, that we now see that God has placed together as one, are three things that I have not spent much time with because I have not known what they are and thus they have seemed small to me. There is a definite reason for that, a way of thinking that God is slowly weaning us from.
The High Priest. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens (Hebrews 8:1).
I once heard a preacher extolling on the glories of our walking in the order of Melchizedek and the power of an endless life, but when he got to this verse – Now this is the MAIN POINT – he expressed profound disappointment. Jesus, faraway, standing next to the Big Dude on the throne, also faraway, is our “High Priest,” what on earth does that have to do with our being the manifested sons of God walking this earth in power and glory? And in this way God keeps far away from Himself those who want only to use God for their own self-glory.
The Geography of God. Slowly, bit by bit, God has weaned us away from that utterly childish and ridiculous view of God. And so, in understanding Jesus’ “place” in this Covenant agreement, we must turn from roles to geography.
God is all here now. God is omnipresent and eternal Spirit. That means that all of God is all in every specific point of space and that all of God is all in every present moment of time. And thus “the throne of the Majesty” is also all here now. “In the heavens” means that portion of creation that fills and permeates the physical with life and energy. When we speak of “roles” we are speaking of function or purpose, but when we speak of “geography,” we are speaking of actual location.
In and In. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. We understand this statement both as function and as location. Thus we understand these two statements in exactly the same way. That where I am, there you may be also. – Know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you (John 14:3b & 20). “I am” refers to both function and location.
Because of the geography of God, we can then understand Jesus’ statement – no one comes to the Father except through Me – at its deepest level. Every created being lives only inside of God, and God fills every particle of every created being with all of Himself. Yet ALL are utterly IGNORANT of this fact of reality.
The Becoming Known of Father. Thus, for us to “come to” God is for us to know that God is all. And KNOWING comes by a life-giving Spirit.
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. – The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45 & 47). Jesus, the Man, the Mediator, exists now in the form of a life-giving Spirit. This is a concept we will explore in the next lesson on the construction of our Covenant Bond.
Here we want to merge together function and geography. Jesus is the becoming known of Father in every heart where Father is becoming known.
Have Sent. The final part of placement is this term I have coined from Jesus’ definition of “eternal life,” and that is “Jesus-Sent.” This is the life of the Covenant – to know Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. “Have sent” is present perfect tense. “Have sent” is not past tense, that is, it happened a long time ago and then stopped. Present perfect tense means that the action began in the past (Gethsemane) and continues into and is made perfect in every present moment.
Let me define the difference between “constant” and “continuous.” A drip of water from a faucet is constant, that is, intermittent, but regular. The flow of a river is continuous.
Continuous Energia. I typically use the term “continuous” and not “constant.” Jesus-Sent is a continuous, all-here-now action. And thus we see that the center, the Bond of the Covenant is the joining of the will of the flesh and the will of God together as one in Gethsemane, Thy will be done, as the continuous, all-here-now ACTION, connecting us with God and God with us.
…symmorphosed with His glorious body, according to the energia by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Philippians 3:21). Energia is the continuous, all-here-now ACTION of Jesus Sent, causing the will of the Father and our wills to be joined together as one – the greatest of all mysteries.
I – Am the Truth. And to counter all remaining shadow of our disbelief, Jesus says always inside of us, in our hearts, “I am the truth.” I am faithful and true; I truly am bringing your will together with Father’s will and Father’s will together with yours in every moment.
Truth – Alethia – a true heart. Let us draw near (in our Covenant Bond with God in Person) with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
And thus it is by our CONFIDENCE that we truly are partakers of Christ, confident that God is, in truth, revealing Himself through our bodies entirely as He wishes in every step we take in every circumstance of our lives.