2.3 Lost inside of Salvation
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We must now move towards the primary topic of this text and thus consider our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world. We are speaking of all who love Jesus and who call upon His name in some way. We are also speaking of all who are “born again,” but we are unable to make any judgment by outward appearance regarding “who” that might be.
For our purposes, however, we will reduce all believers in Jesus down to two, Brother A and Sister B. We want to understand who these are and where they live. We will see them through the eyes of Jesus, that is, as they actually are, and we will also enter into their bubbles of self-awareness, so to speak, to see as they see.
Inside all Salvation. Brother A and Sister B are born again and filled with the Spirit of God. They live entirely inside of Jesus, and the Lord Jesus Christ lives inside of them. They live in and possess all that Salvation is and means, God filling them full, God flowing out from them, God sharing all things with them for the sake of others.
They are not only filled with all the fullness of God, but they are also connected as one person together with the Father by the continuous and active operation of a symmorphic Jesus inside of them. The Father shares all of their life together with them, and through them sends forth rivers of Spirit as the fragrance of Christ into every place.
Salvation out from Them. Brother A and Sister B live inside of absolute glory and goodness, are filled with absolute glory and goodness, and send forth absolute glory and goodness everywhere they go.
Now, we can see clearly the reality of our brothers and sisters in Christ because we see all things out from Jesus’ eyes, our brethren as they actually are. More than that, we KNOW that the love of God is poured out in their hearts by the Holy Spirit given to them. For that reason, you KNOW that, whatever Brother A or Sister B might do, say, or think, they love you beyond what you can know, they lay down their lives for you, they think more highly of you than they do of themselves. And you are humbled in the face of such love.
Entering Their Bubble. Now, you and I are able to see as Jesus sees because we live entirely inside of His bubble of self and His eyes are our eyes. Let’s now, for the sake of understanding, leave our view through Jesus’ eyes and enter into the bubble and the seeing of Brother A and Sister B.
In our minds we are entering into all GOODNESS, GLORY, and SALVATION. But when we open our eyes inside of the eyes of our brothers and sisters what do we see? We find ourselves inside an entirely different world, an imaginary world, a world of shadow and unbelief, a world in which the obvious knowledge of God is dim and very limited. And in the place of the knowledge of God we find a powerful knowledge of things that are simply not true.
Our Question. Brother A and Sister B live inside of absolute glory and goodness, are filled with absolute glory and goodness, and send forth absolute glory and goodness everywhere they go. So what is their problem? – They do not know any of that. And it seems to us that what they do “know” with all fervency is much more not-Goodness, not-Glory, and not-Salvation.
So what prevents Brother A and Sister B from knowing the glory of full Salvation in which they already live and which already fills and flows out from them? That is the question we are seeking to answer in this text. And we begin our answer with this assertion – as Jesus said, “An enemy has done this” (Matthew 13:28).
Spirit and Flesh. Let’s picture ourselves as a little video camera, roaming around inside the being and person of our brother or sister in Christ, seeking to discover what is the cause of this unbelievable disconnect, a Christian living inside of all GOODNESS and knowing almost none of it.
Let’s buzz first into Christian’s spirit. Here the light is so bright we can hardly see. All around us, as Christian is joined to the Lord, so his spirit is one spirit with the Spirit of Christ. Christian’s spirit knows God; his spirit is incorruptible; it is life and light and power. No, we can’t find any blockage here.
Let’s look at his flesh. Whoa! We see a flesh washed clean and pure by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:22) and filled with the Holy Spirit, one spirit with Christian (1 Corinthians 6)!
Hi, Jesus. Yes, we find ourselves inside the very flesh of Christ, flesh of His flesh, one flesh with Him, holy and clean and filled with God. Of course, we are not unaware of the weakness and stumbling of Christian’s flesh, be we are overwhelmingly aware of where it exists, utterly inside of Jesus, all of its falling short carried inside an empty, empty grave. No, there is no problem here, in Christian’s flesh, for his flesh is the flesh of Christ.
Let’s check out his heart. “Hi, Jesus. LOL. It’s so good to see you here, You are so glorious and kind, so overflowing with love and goodness. Allow us to look just beyond you, Jesus, to all the pathways of Christian’s heart. Just as we expected, there You are, Lord Jesus, written as every Word God speaks (2 Corinthians 3:3). And, oh my, look at all this Love poured out towards us (Romans 5:5); we are overwhelmed.
A Hard Iron Wall. We are having a hard time, for we are just not finding any problem. Christian is filled with God, all the fullness of God, and lives embedded utterly inside all the Love that is God all around him, directing his every step. There’s only one more place for us to investigate. Let’s check out Christian’s mind. BANG! Ouch, ouch, ouch! What a hard, iron wall; can we even get in?
I think we have found the problem. Christian lives in all glory and goodness; he just does not think so. In fact, he thinks quite the opposite.
As we leave the “camera” metaphor, let’s keep this picture of a mind encased inside an iron wall and filled with every kind of confusing thought.
Every Good Thing. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds (Romans 12:2). Jesus lives in Christian’s heart, but darkness rules in his mind.
Let’s look at two lines that position the good words found inside of Christian. – Father… having blessed and spoken well of us with every spiritual speaking of goodness and blessing in the heavenly realms inside of Christ (Ephesians 1:3). – Acknowledge every good thing inside of you inside of Christ (Philemon 1:6).
As we enter into Christian’s mind – and we can do that because we are speaking of our own former minds as well – we do find a measure of these good words existing in a limited relationship with many other thoughts and words that are not Christ.
My Problem. Let’s switch our viewpoint, for we have no business being inside of our brother or sister’s mind. In fact, I will use my own mind as it once was as our example.
Through all my Christian life, I knew and loved the Jesus of my heart. I did not “know” that Jesus always carried me, but I did see the evidence of All-Carrying on a regular basis. And in my mind were many good thoughts and verses regarding the grace and kindness of God and of the joy and power of my salvation. My problem was that those good thoughts and verses were all mixed up with cursed thoughts along with verses applied through unbelief. And out from my mind, I extended a definition upon all of myself that was contrary to Christ my life.
An Imaginary “Self.” I did not know myself. I knew only a false version of “myself” existing only in my mind, but so powerful that I was able to extend that false way of thinking out over Jesus Himself living in all glory and power inside my heart.
We have two questions. First, why did I extend a fantasy self out over my real self, that is, out over Christ my life? And second, what constituted that fantasy self, that is, what false words created an imaginary “Daniel Yordy?” We must always start with “why,” that is the heart of rebellion, before we can understand the “what,” that is the ideas of unbelief. Here’s what I am saying. I lived entirely inside of all Salvation, but in the imagination of my mind, I was mostly LOST.
I Hated “Myself.” Why did I imagine myself “lost?” – Because I did NOT like myself. I was “inferior,” and I wanted to be “superior.” I wanted people to think highly of me, but I knew that most held me in contempt. I was utterly ashamed of myself. But – even though I despised my low estate, I exhibited the outward quality of arrogance in harshness towards others.
Arrogance and contempt regarding self and others are two sides of the same thing, mirror images of each other. – It is [God] who has made us {just like Himself}, and not we ourselves (Psalm 100:3). Because I hated my untrue image of myself, I also hated my untrue image of God. And out from the fantasy power of those untrue images of God and myself, I often did or said unkind things that brought hurt to other people.
“I” as My Source. I was afraid, and so I hid myself. I felt naked, and so I tried to cover over my imaginary self with “Christian piety” and with the image of being an “anointed one,” though I was never successful at pretending either one.
As I am thinking back, I am just astonished. You see, none of that was true, and I had no need to pretend any of it. My problem was that I did not think so.
But we haven’t really gotten to the root of my creation of a fantasy “self” in the power of my mind. From the beginning, I had always assumed that “I” was my own source, that “I” was responsible for myself. Thus when I entered Christian teaching, I naturally embraced anti-Christ.
Life Means Source. The evil one says, “You have a life of your own; you have a life that is NOT Christ.” Look at that word “life.” Life means source; it means the generation of what I am as a human. It means the acting energizing quality by which I exist.
So when I believed in the fantasy of my mind what I was told by Christian preachers, that I have a sinful nature, I was believing that “I” am my own source. I believed that I was responsible for myself and therefore that I must “fix” myself. Why did “I” need to “fix” myself? Because I despised my weakness and my low estate. – I wanted to be superior.
My Own “God.” Because I lusted after superiority, I willingly embraced the teaching that I possessed a “fallen sinful nature,” and that God gave me the Bible so that “I” would fix myself. I saw myself as my own source. – The son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonian 2:3-4 – NKJV).
I am the temple of God. I am filled with all the fulness of God, and I live embedded inside of all the Love of my Father. But when I “believed” that “I” had a “fallen sinful nature,” a “life” of my own, I was believing that I was my own “god,” my own source. I was living in darkness – LOST – inside all the glory of Christ.
Unthankfulness. Sustaining all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Nothing is or can be evil in its source. All things come out from the good-speaking of Jesus. Evil, then, is the actions, words, and thoughts of any human, living out from all that goodness, but with his or her back turned against Jesus while spinning an imaginary story of themselves, an untrue story that they prefer.
And the reason for any Christian to deny the Jesus out from which they come is that they hate being the image of a God who reveals Himself through weakness, a God who is meek and lowly of heart and who sees all others as better than Himself. To say, “I am a sinful human” is the depths of unthankfulness.
Our brothers and sisters live inside all the glory of Salvation and Goodness, lost in the imaginary darkness of their own minds.