7.3 Substance and Appearance
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The distinction between substance and appearance has been a topic much referred to at Christ Revealed Bible Institute. Once God’s distinction between the two comes into our knowledge, we see those words and that distinction more and more throughout the Bible. We walk by faith and not by sight becomes we walk by substance and not by appearance.
The Greek word for substance is hupostasis; the Greek word for appearance is schemati. Both have become English words. Hupo means under, stasis means the base or foundation. Hupostasis means that foundation which lies under all things.
Pro-Knowing
The substance of all things is the pro-knowing of God. The word “foreknowledge” allows people to think that God knows everything “before” it happens. God does not exist “before” anything; God is all here now. God’s pro-knowing is the substance inside of God out from which all things real proceed every moment.
Notice that I said “all things real.” God does not know sin, but God does know me and all the circumstances of my life. God does not intend evil against me, but God intends me THROUGH all that presses against my way.
Father Is Substance
There is one God, the Father. This one God, the Father, is all original substance.
We have seen that Jesus can be in Himself only what the Father is in Himself. And Jesus is that same thing in Father as He abides in Father and Father in Him. Thus it is always Jesus who carries the substance of Father out from Father to become the appearance of creation. Creation, all appearance, can be the expression of substance only through Christ Jesus.
Yet we find this progression happening. Substance becoming appearance operates through a series of levels.
Layers of Substance-Appearance
Jesus, the human, is the appearance of Father Substance. Yet Jesus, the human, is the substance of our appearance.
The Spirit of God is the substance of heaven’s appearance, but God has set the relationship of heaven/earth such that much that is earthly comes out of things heavenly. In very many things, the substance of things in the heavens shows itself in earthly appearance, both good to good and evil to evil. Humans who are not anointed by Christ are anointed by demons. Nothing of earth can function separately from heaven any more than our physical body can function separately from our Spirit.
Man Is the Master
Yet in all of this interplay of substance and appearance, man is the master, as we will see in the next session. Demons do not rule over humans; humans rule over demons. The demons are very good at persuading humans that it’s the other way around, but it never is. God gave the mastery to man, and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Let’s take this mastery of man a step further. God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17b). – The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (Romans 10:8).
We Speak Substance
God has put the Word of Christ, substance, into our mouths. By that word, we call that which does not appear (substance) as though it is the only thing real, calling substance (life) forth as appearance (life to the dead).
But this word of Christ in our mouths is matched fully in the opposite direction. God has chosen … the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:28-29). As we speak the substance of God (the things that are not), we bring to an end all false appearance that, right now in the earth, appears mighty and real.
Four Types of Appearance
As we learned in Symmorphy I: Purpose, there are four types of outward appearance. 1. Appearance as God intends, still subject to vanity. 2. Appearance as marred by sin and rebellion. 3. Appearance as reduced and muddled by the limitation of human seeing. 4. Appearance that is not, that is just made-up nonsense, but still, fervently believed by those who are blind.
In this session, however, we are concerning ourselves only with appearance as God intends, still subject to vanity. In later sessions, we will discuss the other types of appearance.
Hatred of God’s Appearance
Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves (Psalm 100:3).
All of creation, including all things in the heavens, are outward appearance. God’s pro-knowing alone is the substance of all things; Christ is substance, the Word of His power, only in and out from the Father.
As we learned in Symmorphy I: Purpose, the hatred humans hold for being the image, the appearance of God, is profound. That hatred of a God who has chosen weakness to be His outward appearance permeates everything humans, including most Christians, think they know.
The Desire to Excel
Let me correct a possible misconception here. Being human very much includes a desire to excel, to take on a creative task and to do and to be the very best at creating.
I often watch the TV show Chopped in which chefs compete against each other in cooking for a prize. It is easy to see which chef desires to excel in a good way versus the one who desires to dominate out of a hatred of weakness. The chef who desires to excel blesses his or her opponents; the chef who hates weakness curses his or her opponents.
Being weak as humans means being real, and being real very much includes the creative energies and desires of God.
Illusion and Evil
The hatred of human weakness has produced, however, a very false interpretation of substance versus appearance. That false, false interpretation goes in two directions. One direction says that appearance is an illusion; the other direction says that appearance is evil. Some elements of modern physics attempt to support the “appearance is illusion” idea.
Now, we understand that much appearance in this world is, in fact, illusion, both intended and unintended. But here we are referring only to appearance as God intends, the physical world and human flesh.
Gnosticism
Much stronger is the belief that outward appearance, the flesh, is evil. This belief was called Gnosticism in John’s day; John called it the “spirit of anti-Christ.” At the Council of Nicaea, Gnosticism defeated the gospel of Christ, and now most fundamentalist to deeper truth Christians are Gnostics. Just like the New Agers. Inherent all through both belief systems is the foundational lie that the earth and human flesh are the cause of all our problems and that we must escape this “low life” and arise into a “higher life” in order to become real.
The Desire of God
And all of it is a profound hatred of God and His image, of God as He has chosen to appear. Then God said, “Let Us (substance) make man in Our image (appearance), according to Our likeness; let them have dominion (Genesis 1:26).
Yes, there is a level of heaven substance acting on earth appearance, but earth came first and God created heaven for the sake of earth, that earth might live. Appearance as God intends comes only out of the DESIRE of God, pro-thesis becoming pro-determination.
Every effort of evil is to mar, to distort, to pervert, to mock, to denigrate, to abuse God’s appearance, man on this earth.
God Showing Up
God is Spirit – Substance – and Spirit desires a body – appearance. God is Love – Substance – and Love must love a beloved – appearance. God is Life – Substance – and Life must bring forth life – appearance. God is Light – Substance – and Light must be made known – appearance.
Appearance is the DESIRE of Substance; that’s what creation is all about. Appearance as God intends is God showing up in every place.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
We cannot really know God’s incredible pattern of creation, Substance becoming appearance, the bringing forth of life, by any definition of the words. Rather, we come to know this wondrous concept as we see it applied, over and over, in so many aspects of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We are the body of Christ. Christ is our substance, our life, we have no other life. We are His body, His appearance, a many-membered body; Christ has no other appearance. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with (syn-symmorphy) Him in glory (Colossians 3:4).