15.1 The Fulcrum
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Symmorphy means sharing the same form with the Lord Jesus Christ as the image of the Father. That form is the body, a form made of both flesh and spirit, earth and heaven, together.
The Essence or substance of the Covenant is found in the Holiest, in the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat upon it, in the Energeia of God flowing through this Ark into creation. The Expression or appearance of the Covenant is found in the Holy Place, in the Church of Jesus Christ, the New Jerusalem, believers together as all the expression of Christ. The Fulcrum or turning point of the Covenant, passing from Essence to Expression is Symmorphy, here called, “The Veil.”
We ARE Symmorphosed. God’s determination is that you and I share the same form with the Lord Jesus. God is determined to merge Jesus and us together in one. One in union, two in fellowship and one in expression. And this sharing of form goes both ways. Just as we share His form together with Him, so He shares our form together with us.
Let’s assume that God’s Pro-Thesis, His proposal to be known by all, God’s Pro-Knowing, the story He tells Himself about Himself, and God’s Pro-Determination, His action by which He accomplishes His proposal, let’s assume, with Paul, that these things are our only reality. Let’s assume that we ARE symmorphosed with Jesus in all ways.
Unless We Know. Now, God can propose, know, and determine our being symmorphosed with Jesus all He wants. But all that does us no good unless we also KNOW. And we will never know our full union with Jesus except by faith, by giving Jesus permission to be all that we are.
Now, I suspect that those who are contrary do not know what to make of me except to ignore me. Yet by posting on Facebook, I am subjecting the joy of Christ that I share to people’s comments. Negative or unbelieving comments are like grains of sand to me under my shell. I cannot ignore them, but they irritate me until I have coated them with all the goodness of Christ.
A Different “Being.” You can see why I must limit my exposure to such comments, and you also must know that most of them show up in some way in my writing. A simple brief comment meaning – “Christ, okay, BUT,” really got to me. The reason is that I could see the sharp contrast with what I mean when I say, “Christ” and “salvation,” and what most Christians mean by those same words.
This is a great consternation, for it seems almost as if we are living in a different universe than that imagined by our brethren. We are speaking of the same Person as our brethren speak, most certainly, yet we know this Person as a sharply different “being.”
What Jesus Is. When I say, “Christ,” I am speaking of Jesus, a Being who is fully capable in His essence of being symmorphosed with me AND symmorphosed with you on the other side of the planet AND symmorphosed with us together as His physical body. When they say, “Christ,” they are speaking of a tiny humanoid demigod, someone who did something for them once upon a time and who will do something for them someday in the future, but who is fairly irrelevant right now. And so you can see that our definition of what Jesus is shapes entirely our conception of God’s Salvation.
Now, we spent much time in Symmorphy II: Essence seeking to know what Jesus is, and our knowledge of what He is has only increased. In learning to know Him as He is, we no longer know Him the other way at all.
God’s Appearance. I have said all this to enable us to see the larger picture in these words. Those whom God pro-knows, He pro-determines to symmorphose them with the image of Jesus. – You in Me and I in you.
God is after appearance; that is, God intends to be seen and known, touched and handled by all. That’s what image means. And so because God is causing Jesus and us to share the same image or form, here is the reality that we share. He who has seen Me has seen the Father.
To show the House of God to the House of God is to be this same image of Father together with Jesus in us and as us. And yet Christian theology teaches our brethren that such union with Christ is the very expression of the devil.
Travail. And thus we see that a primary concept God uses to describe His entrance into His Church through us is TRAVAIL. God is birthing something that the universe has never known. And although God knows what He is birthing inside Himself, yet we also have to grapple with the reality that God Himself has never appeared with and through a family of people walking together as one in full consciousness of their symmorphy with the Lord Jesus.
In a certain manner, this is all new for God as well. Behold I make all things new (Revelation 22). What we are calling the fulcrum or turning point of the Covenant is the greatest BIRTHING.
How Do We Sign? The question we are asking, then, is this. How does “abide in Me and I in you” fit into the Covenant? How do we pass from the Father’s intentions, where we now live, to the Father’s expression, made visible through us? How do we show the Church to the Church as the Covenant? How do we sign our name upon God?
We will make that last question the topic of the next lesson; we must always know that symmorphy is ACTION on our part just as much as God’s. Our part is faith and faith is ACTION, faith is always energeoing through love. Let’s continue here establishing this action, symmorphosed, as the pivot point of the Covenant.
Is It Possible? When I was twenty years old, sitting in an Assembly of God church, never having heard of the revelation of Jesus Christ, I heard the pastor ask the congregation, “Do you believe that it is possible for Christians to walk without sin?” As an Asperger’s boy, I was crippled by honesty. The first word that flitted through my mind was, “With God all things are possible.” I immediately raised my hand, almost alone in a sea of Christians who were quickly positioning themselves into acceptable Christian theology regardless of anything God might say.
Here was my problem, even then. I had read 1 John 3:2 and, for some strange reason, I have never imagined that God is not telling me the truth.
God Is Able. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that if He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
It was only a few months later that I heard the revelation of Jesus Christ, that God intended to fulfill this Word in our lives now in this age and upon this earth. I did NOT know how such a word could be fulfilled in me, but I did know one thing. I knew that God Himself was fully capable of doing what He says in me. And so, ever since, whenever “You don’t really believe that?” has been thrown back at me, or, “humans can’t be like Jesus, idiot,” it always confused me. But what about God? – was my only thought.
The Great Barricade. I share this to say that this sticking point of the Covenant has always been front and center for me all the way through. God WILL make me to be exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great barricade and fortress of the Veil, the mighty ramparts erected by God in order to keep unbelievers out of the Holiest.
I WILL (or will not) be just exactly like Jesus right here on this earth, right now in this age.
It’s a simple barrier and fully effective. Those who will not believe by faith, that is, active and personal in them, that God is telling us the truth on this one point, cannot enter into the knowledge of God, for they will not regard His Word.
What God Means. Now, when I first embraced the knowledge of my complete union with Christ, Jesus living now as me, I ran into a group of “unionists” who declared that they had abandoned all thought of “being like Jesus” as a false way of thinking. These were the same ones that would not have “Jesus,” only “Christ.” Needless to say, I did not regard them, for the simple reason that 1 John 3:2 had not vanished from my Bible.
I gave my heart utterly to the revelation of Jesus Christ through me on this planet when I was 21 years old. I have never thought to take it back again. Certainly, my knowledge of what God means by what He says will increase, but I will HAVE what God means and I WILL have it in me.
My Contention. And so I fix and have always fixed my eyes and my heart on one word: God is determined to make me to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. – whatever God might mean by such a word. I call Romans 8:29 the ruling verse of the Bible because it is the only word that has ruled my knowledge of God since I was 21. This is the word that I place upon God, that I hold in His face, that I contend with Him day and night that He might do what He says and that He might do what He says in me.
There are many versions of Archimedes’ exact words, but here is a rendition that says what I am looking for. “Give me a place to stand, a lever long enough and a fulcrum, and I can move the Earth”
A Place to Stand. Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.
We see from this picture the question we are asking – Where do I stand?I am deeply moved by the picture of Archimedes on the left. Archimedes is me, Christ as me, the fulcrum upon which my faith rests is the Covenant, that I am just like Jesus, though I see it not. The earth is – “God, You WILL DO what You say.”
A Mighty Tension. Give me a place to stand and I will move God. Command Me concerning the work of My hands. – What do you want Me to do for you? – Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it. – Be it unto you according to your faith.
Give me a place to stand and I will move God.
But this picture of the lever and the fulcrum is not the whole picture of our contention. At the same time, we must consider the tension drawn tightly between three seemingly different things, all three of which MUST BE what it is in full. And not three in “balance,” for that is a false measurement, but rather each one 100%. I will not rest – as He IS – already glorified.
The Tension of the Womb. Picture the lines between the points of this triangle as great rubber bands drawn tight – even as the tension of the womb in contraction. This tension we could call – being Symmorphosed!
Tension – Travail – Birthing. Here is the difficulty of the tension – God will always cripple those who contend with Him – believing that we already are just like Jesus is considered blasphemy by our brethren – and most Christians do NOT want to be like Jesus any more than Adam did. (You may have noticed Romans 8:28-29-30 in the three points of this tension.)It is clear to me why Jesus did so many miracles, healing and setting free so many people. It’s the only way He could get them to listen to His words. Of course, once He had their attention, He said terrible things to them like – eat My flesh and drink My blood. But then He got their attention again by raising someone from the dead. Tension – travail – the birthing.
Knowing Jesus Sent. And her child was seized into God and into His throne (Revelation 12:5). – God is determined to symmorphose me with Jesus.
The truth is I have no idea what I am talking about, but I will not back off from God until I know what He means by what He says and until He does what He says in me. And so I place these pictures before myself as much as before you, for I would KNOW Jesus Sent into me.
In that day you shall know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you (John 14:20). This is the territory of our Salvation. Let us walk its breadth together and let us possess what belongs to us.