3.4 A Symmorphic Covenant
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Covenant God entered into with us and we with God is a legal contract, with each point of the contract stated clearly. Both parties to the contract are bound by all of its details.
This Covenant is rooted in the cutting open of Christ from Gethsemane to the cross; it is a Blood Covenant. Yet at it’s center and in our experience, this Covenant is marriage union with the Lord Jesus and very much includes the sweet communion we enjoy continuously with Him.
This Covenant of God with us, however, is far more than anything found in the human experiences of blood covenant or marriage union. Our Covenant with God is a Symmorphic Covenant.
The Contract. Let’s reduce this first layout of our Covenant with God down into a simple contract through which two parties join resources in order to accomplish a stated goal.
The contract is between God the Father and Christ Jesus, along with all humans who have come alive inside of Jesus and are found ONLY in Him. The goal God desires, which He cannot obtain by Himself, is a Body (the purchased possession – Eph. 1:14), a visible form, through which He can be seen and known by His creation. The goal we desire, coming into this contract through Christ, is Life. We cannot obtain Life by ourselves.
As such, the contract is, in its simplest terms, a barter, our bodies for God’s life.
The Problem. The big problem for God and for us in this barter is that God cannot give us His life apart from Himself and we cannot give God our bodies apart from ourselves. If God no longer possessed His life, or if we no longer possessed our bodies, in this exchange, then both God and us would be dead.
The Person of God in all that God is comes into the Covenant right along with the Life that we enter the Covenant to obtain. And our persons in all that we are come into the Covenant right along with the Bodies that God enters the Covenant to obtain.
He that has the Son has the life – we are the Body of Christ.
Only Symmorphy. And so we see that the original contract of God with us, God seeking a body and we seeking life, cannot happen just as marriage union, nor can it happen just as a blood covenant. This original contract can happen through one means only – Symmorphy.
Our Covenant with God is a Symmorphic Covenant. And for that reason we see that the Covenant by which the Father enters into union with the Son and the Spirit, that through Christ Jesus, Father might connect with us, that same Covenant is the Symmorphic Covenant by which we exist as one Pperson together with Almighty God. Thus we see that John 17:21-23 is indeed “blasphemy.”
The Symmorphic Clause. Here, then, are the central words of the Symmorphic Covenant in their longer form. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 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 17:21-23).
Yes, the entirety of John 17 is Jesus speaking the New Creation into existence, out from which flows the Kingdom of God. But these words are Words, and thus, they are Covenant.
The Center of the Covenant. And here are the Words of the Symmorphic Covenant in their shorter form. Know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you.
But we understand these words in this manner. He who has seen Me has seen the Father – The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 14:9-11). – we shall be like Him if we see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
Or, again in shorter form. He who has seen Me has seen the Father – we are just like Him for we see Him as He is.
A Simple Contract. In another sense, this entire course is a journey of discovery for us to know what on earth John 17:21-23 actually means, or, even more, John 14:20. Yet we begin this journey with utmost simplicity – a simple contract between two parties, God and us.
We have bodies God wants. God has life we want. An exchange – a straight trade.
Bodies >< Life. Life >< Bodies.
HOWEVER – the Bodies remain ours and the Life remains God’s. Thus Person inside of Person inside of persons inside of Person inside of Person as in our model.
Creating a List of Questions. Out from this simple contract, then, we see quite a number of questions to be raised. The answer to each of these questions must also be part of the Covenant. Some answers will be inside the terms of the Covenant itself and other answers will exist as codicils or addendums to the Covenant.
Let’s list, then, some of these questions. Our list will not be in the order by which the answers come to us in this journey nor can it be complete. More questions with their answers contributing to our more complete rendition of this Covenant will appear as well as we walk with God out through the Tabernacle.
The Ark of the Covenant. And why the Tabernacle? Look back at those concentric circles representing John 14:20. That’s my representation limited to the tools at hand. But it is not God’s representation of this Symmorphic Union.
God’s representation is the Ark of the Covenant. As the Ark journeys, so also goes God. If we want to be with God, we must be the Ark. And the Ark, with the Mercy Seat upon it, always begins out from the Holiest of All. And here is the Ark in the New Testament. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. – He that has seen me has seen the Father. – We are just like Him.
First Questions. Why does God want a Body? What is His purpose for becoming visible? Why do we want Life? Why do we want to be inside of God?
What is the definition of “Body?” That is, what is the makeup and constitution of this “body” that God is willing to trade everything He is in order to win this “body” for Himself? What is the definition of “Life?” That is, what is the makeup and constitution of this “Life” that we are willing to trade everything we are in order to win this “Life” for ourselves?
Why is Jesus in the middle of this connection? More than that, what is Jesus that He is essential in making this simple contract happen.
More Questions. How do we share life with God? That is, how do we share God with God? How does God share a body with us? That is, how does God share us with us?
What about the most problematic part of this symmorphy – the will? How does the will and choosing of God merge together with the will and choosing of the human? What is the nature of sharing heart with God? What is the practice of sharing heart with God? How far does this sharing of Hheart really go?
If part of the definition of “body” is you and me as members of one another, how does our relationship together work?
Further Questions. If part of God’s motive for entering into this Covenant with us is to be seen and known by all creation, what is the relationship between us and all that God has created?
How do we (did we) enter into this Covenant with God? That is, how do we sign our name on the dotted line? How does God (did God) enter into this Covenant with us? That is, how does God sign His name on the dotted line?
What does it mean for us to have ALL of God inside of us, both as individuals AND as one body together? What does the name “God” showing up on our foreheads have to do with the Covenant? Is that, in fact, God’s signature? What does God’s name on my forehead mean?
The Places Our Questions Take Us. Are there, then, four levels of the signature of God? Are there, then, four levels of our signature? And, if God actually writes His signature upon us, where is our signature written? Oh, the places our questions take us!
Think about that. God’s order is us first into Jesus and Jesus second into us. Is Jesus’ being written upon us determined by the extent of our determination to write ourselves upon Jesus? Just asking. As we go with God through this journey, let’s set this exercise as our gathering of precious stones. Let’s keep asking the right questions that will take us to all the terms of the Covenant.
My Bottom Line. Here is the bottom line for me; my hard contention against that which calls itself Christianity in this world.
The Bible says that God Almighty in Person lives inside of me, ALL that God is, even as Oone with me. The Bible says that Jesus, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the risen Messiah, the King of the Universe, lives in Person inside of me, specifically IN my heart and lives now as me. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit lives in my physical body, and that my spirit is one spirit with the Holy Spirit.
What on earth are these three Persons doing inside of me? And why have NO so-called “leaders” in Christianity ever told me what these three Persons are up to by living inside my parts?
This Adventure. And so, about four years ago, the wonder began to arise inside of me, how do God and I live together inside of me – and how do I and God live together inside of Him? How does this work? I finally alighted on the writing of these Symmorphy textbooks – even before I knew anything about symmorphy, as the means by which I might discover the answers to that greatest of all mysteries – God manifest in my flesh.
And now, after laying all the necessary background, it is this text, Symmorphy IV: Covenant, in which I hope to find my full release into all the incorruptible reality of walking this earth in a full Symmorphic relationship with my Father – and together with you.
I know you are as excited in this adventure as I am.