9.3 A Symmorphic Spirit
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
What is the Holy Spirit? In some ways, I think, this is the most difficult question in this course. Let me give you my full and definitive answer right at the start. I do not know.
And our problem is this. If we were to write out every verse in the Bible that refers to the Holy Spirit, we would know even less than we do now. Paul referred to the Holy Spirit much more often and in many more ways than John. And although John did mention the Holy Spirit often, yet he left the Spirit out of many critical statements concerning Father and Son.
Wind and Rivers
Paul said that Jesus is now a life-giving Spirit and that we don’t know Him according to the flesh. Yet John said that any spirit that does not put Jesus in flesh is the spirit of anti-Christ. Paul says “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ.” Jesus must have had His own spirit when He walked the earth, was Jesus’ own spirit the Holy Spirit? But John claims that He saw seven Spirits of God! – Okay.
We can and must talk about Jesus in many definitive ways because Jesus is Word, but the Holy Spirit can be known only as a wind that blows us we know not where, only as rivers in which we must swim.
Where Does the Spirit Fit?
The greatest split in church history, between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, came over the question of the Holy Spirit. The Greeks said that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son and the Romans said the Spirit proceeds from Father and Son – an important distinction, I’m sure! Do you see what theology does? It creates arguments based on phrases that God does not say.
Some want to insert the Holy Spirit into John’s pairing of Father and Son; yet to speak those verses as John wrote them does leave the Spirit in the background. Yet Paul constantly refers to the active work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ Work Was Not Physical
In the Purpose of God course we learned that Jesus and Spirit are always together. In the upcoming Symmorphy V: Life course, we will learn that the Bride (the Body of Christ) and the Spirit are always together.
Even though Jesus is the expression of the Father in the earth, yet He did nothing. The only work Jesus did was to break bread and to fabricate a whip of cords which He used to hit a number of men, while flipping some tables over. Otherwise all Jesus DID physically by the record of the gospels was to talk, to walk, to climb into boats, and to touch people, none of which is “work.”
The Doing of God
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). The Holy Spirit is the doing of God in both heaven and earth. The evil of religiosity is using force of any kind to compel people to alter their outward appearance and conduct to comply with an outward standard, that is, to pretend.
Chayil (might): strength, efficiency, wealth, army.
Koach (power): ability.
Interesting – “power,” then, is the inner ability to make things happen, that is intellect and force of will, and “might” is the outer means by which to make things happen.
The Work of the Spirit
Nothing not accomplished by the Holy Spirit or not coming through the Holy Spirit can be of God.
The Spirit of truth … will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears He will speak… He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you (John 16:13-14 condensed). The work of the Spirit is to cause us to know Jesus, to form Christ in us, and to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ through us.
Please understand that I am looking at verse after verse on the Holy Spirit, seeking to find the precise layout that will open to us the role of the Holy Spirit in the symmorphy of God and man, and not quite discovering that layout.
We Don’t “Define” the Spirit
The problem is this – mostly Paul – Paul (as well as the other writers of the New Testament) just throw the terms, Christ, Christ Jesus, the anointing, the Spirit of God, of the Lord, of Christ, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, all around, using one in one place and then another in that same place. And again, there is no problem at all distinguishing between and teaching on Father and Son; the problem is entirely regarding the Holy Spirit.
Let’s draw a conclusion from this “problem.” God does not want His Spirit pinned down. Thus Jesus said that God will forgive any and every sin – except one – calling the work of the Holy Spirit a demon.
What Is a Symmorphic Spirit?
In an upcoming session we will respond to the question: What is a comforting Spirit? In this lesson we want to know – What is a symmorphic Spirit? Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.
What is a Holy Spirit who proceeds forth from me? Let’s use our description of God in the last lesson to create a similar chart.
| The Physical | One God, the Father |
The Heavens |
| Jesus | Holy Spirit | |
| The Physical | The Heavens |
We see that our construction and how we are known is identical in form to God in His construction and revelation. Yet this is not sufficient, for Jesus did nothing to the earth, only the Holy Spirit.
The Human Cell
The other picture that shows us the role of the Holy Spirit in symmorphy is the human cell.
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/301images/Cell_structure.jpg (EKU is Eastern Kentucky University and is publicly owned, thus this image is regarded as being in the public domain.)
The cell membrane we equate with the physical body through which we communicate with the world. The nucleus contains the genetic code of Christ, a map of all the structure of God.
The Pattern
The main part of the cell, however, is filled with a fluid called cytoplasm, representing to us the Holy Spirit. All work done in the cell is done in the fluid of the Holy Spirit and everything floating around in that fluid is the various means by which the Holy Spirit does that work.
Christ is the pattern by which the Holy Spirit does everything that is accomplished in us, yet the Holy Spirit can do nothing apart from our faith. That is why we speak Christ personal as us, our only life. Only as we speak Christ alone does the Holy Spirit have the freedom to align our inward parts according to the pattern of Christ. Christ is the DNA; our speaking Christ is the RNA.
The Junction of Spirit and Son
Something incredible happens when we bring specific verses into these two pictures designed for us by God Himself.
If our spirit is separated from our body, we are dead. If we separate Jesus from Spirit or Spirit from Jesus in any way, then we cannot know Father. Father is known only at the continuous junction of Spirit and Son. Thus two statements that RULE our symmorphy with Christ are these. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him – for we are of His flesh and of His bones, one flesh with Christ.
You and I can know the Father only at the junction of these two realities regarding ourselves.
Body and Spirit
We are the Body of Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit who is IN our bodies. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you (1 Corinthians 6:19). – We are joined to the Lord Jesus, but it is the Holy Spirit with whom we are one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). – Therefore glorify the God who is in your body and in your spirit, which are now God’s Body and God’s Spirit (1 Cor. 6:20 – modified, but in agreement with the Greek).
Yet Jesus Himself in Person lives in our hearts, and in Jesus is the Father. Jesus lives in our hearts at the continuous junction of the Holy Spirit in our bodies and the Holy Spirit in our spirits.
Gives Life
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:10-11).
It is the Spirit of God into which our own human spirits are fully immersed that gives life to our physical bodies right now. Yes, they are still dying because of sin, sin that is outside of the body, as Paul says, also in 1 Corinthians 6. But walking by faith and not by sight MEANS that we walk knowing that our mortal flesh is already alive by substance.
We Know Father
The soul of man, our human persons, our self-awareness, our human consciousness, exists by the continuous juncture of our bodies and our spirits. BECAUSE our physical bodies are filled with the Holy Spirit and BECAUSE our human spirits are merged together with the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, lives in our hearts and in our minds.
Jesus is our only Self, yet not the same self, for He calls us by name, yet the same Life, yet it’s us, yet it’s Him. And inside of Jesus IS the Father; thus we know Father AS we are His Body and His Spirit by the Holy Spirit. We know the Father through Jesus in our hearts.
Allow the Holy Spirit
This understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in our symmorphy with the Lord Jesus did not exist in my thoughts half way through writing this lesson.
God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. – Now we have received… the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:10 & 12 reduced).
As a fish is utterly immersed in the water, and as a bird is utterly carried by the wind, so we are IN the Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to do what He already does in you, to symmorphose you together with Jesus as the revelation of Father, by giving Him the RNA of Christ in your mouth.