22. The Jesus Inside
Covering Colossians 1:
Paul finished Romans, likely by February of AD 58. This was followed by his return to Jerusalem, arrest and imprisonment, the long trip to Rome through shipwreck, etc., and finally to Paul’s arrival at his “house arrest” in Rome, where he would have relative peace in which to write for nearly three years. The letters to Philemon and the Church at Colossae were the first letters that Paul then wrote, almost three-and-one-half years after writing Romans.
I had thought to build a viewpoint from Romans to Colossians through this path, but now I realize that I must tackle the great issue from Romans to Colossians-Philemon head on. And I have placed Philemon after Colossians so that the word “acknowledge” frames both sides of that issue.
The critical picture here allows us to speak with understanding. The problem for God is not the worship of the flesh, but rather the worship of God at the same time.
Split Seeing Causes a Split Soul. You are neither cold nor hot; I wish you would be cold or hot. Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth (Revelation 3:15-16). Hot sees Jesus alone. Cold sees Jesus not at all. Luke Warm sees God and sin in the flesh at the same time.
Nicene theology came out from the worship of God inside of worshipping sin and death, and it provides its victims with the framework of thinking to call that practice “the gospel.” The crucifix and the actual performance of the mass symbolizes placing Jesus into the worship of sin and death. Calvinism threw out the symbols, but elevated Nicene thinking to hyper levels, turning the Bible, and especially the KJV, into almost an absence of seeing Jesus now and an increase in seeing sin in the flesh. The key such verses follow.
Glorifying Sin in the Flesh – the King James Approach. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. – O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:12-18 & 24).
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13). – Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience (Colossians 3:5-6).
Altering the Words. We cannot speak to this directly; we cannot respond to people who worship God and sin. There is NO path from the tree of knowing good and evil to the Tree of Knowing Life. When you try to show them Jesus alone, they cannot see; they will not look. They live under a spell, and their only escape is honesty. – “I CANNOT please God; I NEED Jesus.”
The spell works in two ways, by seeing and by hearing; we are addressing both. The serpent used God’s words to speak his “gospel” to Eve and to the Church. He invited Eve to a Bible study, and then he altered, just a bit, the meaning of the words. This is exactly how the King James Bible works. And it is why I became so very angry when I saw the treachery and the deceit in the Calvinist translations that had robbed me and all Christians from knowing Jesus our only life.
The Issue. The issue is NOT “whose translation is correct.” The issue is knowing Paul’s Gospel of Christ our Life. – When Christ your life becomes visible and clear [to you], then you also will become visible, clearly with Him inside of glory (Colossians 3:4). I have labored over the wording of the Jesus Secret Version, that it be true to the Greek words Paul uses – AS they are defined by the context, and not by Calvinist theology. And thus, that they be true to the God whom I know.
The great dividing line is worshipping God through Jesus versus worshipping God and sin in the flesh at the same time. Our answer is found in this Flow of Gospel Word in Paul’s letters to the believers in Colossae, out from the Jesus Secret Version, which is named out from Colossians 1:27.
Acknowledge Desire. (Chapter 1) • 9 We also… have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the acknowledgement of His desire inside of all wisdom and spiritual understanding, • 10 to walk worthily of the Lord into all desire to please in every good work, bringing forth fruit and increasing in the acknowledgement of God.
Paul sets the stage with two Greek words, epignósis and theléma. The translation of these two words is critical, “the knowledge of His will” or “the acknowledgment of His desire.” The “will of God” is hard and unknowable, and in this reference, “knowledge” is static, an interpretation to be imposed. We can speak freely of God’s desire, for we know Jesus. And to acknowledge is to speak inside of faith, out from knowing Jesus; to acknowledge is to call God True.
God’s Desire. Notice the title of this lesson, “The Jesus Inside.” The second lesson for Colossians is titled “The Cross and the Flesh,” and the third, “Acknowledge Him as All.” I will progress through Colossians and Philemon as the ongoing Flow; nonetheless, verses referencing each of these three topics will be found in each of the three lessons.
Now, our first bullet point is this. – Be filled with the acknowledgment of God’s desire inside Spiritual comprehension. – God’s desire is easy to express and uncontestable. – Jesus proven faithful and True. Yet the meaning of “Jesus proven faithful and True” is very specific across the whole range of historical reality from Eden to the Apocalypse. We must repeat that meaning.
“God Lied.” Inherent inside the serpent’s words was the un-voiced ACCUSATION, “God lied.” You see, Adam himself was brutal in his hatred of the way God made him, his rejection of Jesus, and his reach for control, but it took the cleverness of the devil to twist the words God spoke into “God lied.” Calvinism followed that same cleverness, but it was Augustine who imposed the worship of God inside the worship of sin in the flesh onto all Christians as “theology.”
From Confessions: “When I shall with my whole self cleave to You, I shall nowhere have sorrow, or labor; and my life shall wholly live, as wholly full of You. But now, since whom You fill You lift up, because I am not full of You I am a burden to myself. My evil sorrows strive with my good joys; and on which side is the victory, I know not. Woe is me!”
Self Worship. I have the larger quote in Symmorphy II: Essence, Lesson 21.1 “The Confessions.” In this short space, let me just summarize.
You can see the worship of God and many Bible verses filling Augustine’s words. Yet the evil comes entirely out from this initial statement, “When I shall cleave to You.” No, you won’t, dear brother. Jesus is the One who cleaves to us. “I am a burden to myself” and “Woe is me,” are SELF WORSHIP. “I shall nowhere have sorrow” is hating the way God made us and refusing to be like Jesus, as Adam did. But “I am NOT full of You” is the very worst, for it is an open declaration, entirely inside of worshipping God, that God lied. Augustine’s words are filled with “I, not Christ.” This is the “gospel” the serpent preached to Eve.
All Salvation Now. Now, set all of Augustine’s lament of self-worship against Paul’s conclusion coming out from the mighty Core of his Gospel. (We will paraphrase that conclusion.)
God gives Jesus freely to us for our sakes, in all that Jesus is, and with Jesus God gives everything that Salvation is and means and everything that God Himself is – already NOW!
This is what Augustine is crying against, and all Nicene Christians who follow, in weeping over MY, ME, MY sin. Now, please understand, I have laid all this way of seeing out carefully BECAUSE, although Paul cannot know the full horror that will come into Christianity, he does understand the issues and the bottom line. And this is what Paul is actually addressing in his letters to Colossae and Philemon.
The Proof of Jesus. We can now see that Paul’s opening strength is just the very opposite of Augustine’s lament inside of gross unbelief. – Be filled with the acknowledgment of God’s desire.
Jesus proves Himself faithful and True by one proof only, that He makes us to be just like Himself, that we would know the Father as He knows the Father, and that we would love one another just as He loves us – inside our present dying bodies. The one proof of Jesus, that He is All that God speaks fulfilled, is Christians on this earth loving one another with pure hearts fervently. And the evidence of that assertion FILLS the Gospel. Yet the Gospel itself is NOT an antithesis or antidote to the worship of self, for the Gospel knows only LIFE.
Out from Jesus Inside. Covenant: Paul is writing out from and towards the fact that, as believers, Christ Jesus is inside of us as all that He is (see Colossians 1:27). The Covenant, our connection with God, is the Jesus who dwells in our hearts. God’s desire is that Jesus be proven faithful and True as every Word that He speaks. Jesus accomplishes that desire by making us to be just like Himself. Our part is to acknowledge that God speaks the Truth.
Definition: We are one Spirit with the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 6:17). Spiritual understanding is the knowing given to us by the Spirit, that Jesus’ words are Spirit and Life (see John 6:63).
Kingdom: We live and walk out from the Jesus inside of us, inside the same relationship with the Father that He knows. “Good works” are found inside of loving one another, and our fruit is the knowledge of God, God acknowledged by all.
Empowered into Thanksgiving. • 11 For you are empowered with all power according to His glorious sustaining might, into all perseverance and longsuffering with joy. • 12 You give thanks and speak good grace to the Father, the One who made you sufficient into the portion of the inheritance of the devoted ones inside of light.
Life: We are sustained every moment by Jesus’ power-filled Word (see Hebrews 1:3). This power empowering us, this sustaining might, is not of us (see 2 Corinthians 4:7), but of the Jesus who dwells in us. Our suffering is joy shared with Him.
Kingdom: Giving thanks, the Eucharist, is our return to the Father. We are empowered into speaking good grace, into giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all things. Light is honesty. God did not make us to be sufficient in ourselves, but the Father is our sufficiency and our inheritance.
A Great Transfer. • 13 He has rescued us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, inside of whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Paul is contrasting between two opposites, the “authority of darkness” and “the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Contrast is part of defining terms by the context.
Definition: Just as light is honesty, so darkness is dishonesty, hating human weakness, and refusing help. Dishonesty then wields authority over those who will not see Jesus.
Kingdom: Our transfer into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son is absolute and finished. We are inside of Christ Jesus, all that we are in all that He is. In Romans, Paul fully established our redemption, the removal of all disconnection from God,
A Flow of Relationship. • 15 He, the Son, is the image, the appearance to creation, of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation. 16 Because inside of Him all things were created, both inside of the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lord-ships, primaries or authorities; all things have been created through Him and into Him.
The doctrine of “the Trinity,” imposed upon the Bible by argument, continuously eliminates any knowledge of the flow of relationship from God through Jesus to creation. Central to that argument, (following the lead of the serpent), is the debate over Jesus. Was Jesus a created being or was Jesus “God the Son?” It is evident that such an argument never entered the mind of any Bible writer. The result of it is that God and Jesus are kept far away from us.
The Jesus Inside. When we allow the words God speaks about Himself and us to flow through us without forcing our own religious unbelief on them, we see a reality the natural mind cannot see. Yet we must bring in the essence of God’s meaning, without entering into any debate. Debate saves no one, only Jesus.
However, we continue to pre-suppose verse 27, that Paul is describing the Jesus inside of us, a Jesus who makes us to be just like Himself as every Word fulfilled (see 2 Corinthians 3). It is impossible for a man to have written 2 Corinthians 3 & 5 and Romans 8 without then writing in all out from that which is ESTABLISHED as the Gospel. The number of times Paul places Jesus inside of us and us inside of Jesus is staggering. The Jesus inside is real and literal. Becoming like Him is the only outcome, God’s Determined Desire.
Image and Firstborn. Image means God’s appearance. God-made-visible is inside of us. All things are being created, that is, brought forth out from God’s thoughts, inside of the Jesus inside of us. “Firstborn” means we are made by His pattern. “Firstborn” does not sever between God and creation, it describes the flow, the Covenant, the Jesus makes us to be as He is inside of God.
Definition: We never impose external ideas on the words describing God through Jesus. Image means God-made-known. All things are being brought forth out from God’s thoughts, inside of the Jesus inside of us. “Firstborn” means we are made by His pattern. “Firstborn” does not sever between God and creation; rather, it describes the flow, the Covenant, as Jesus makes us to be as He is inside of God.
Source and Connection. • 17 And He is before as the source of all things, and inside of Him all things are connected together. • 18 He is the head of the Body, the Church, as well as the Source, the firstborn out from the dead, so that inside of all, He might hold preeminence.
God does not dwell in time; time comes out from Jesus, as He is God’s thoughts now spoken into our every next moment. Jesus as connection, that is, Covenant, causes the Church.
Definition: The Jesus who is inside of us is God-speaking, that is, the Source of every created thing. Even more than that, Jesus as the Covenant is the Connection that binds believers in Jesus together as His Body, which is the Church, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all (Ephesians 1:23). The Jesus inside connects us together as brethren.
God inside of Christ. • 19 For inside of Him all the fulness [of God the Father] was pleased to dwell, 20 and through Him to reconcile all completely into Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, whether things upon the earth or things inside of the heavens. • 21 And you, once being alienated and hostile in mind inside of evil deeds, now, however, He has completely reconciled you 22 inside of the body of His flesh through death, placing you beside and with Himself devoted, unblemished, and blameless inside His presence, • 23 if indeed you continue in faith, established and firm…
This is 2 Corinthians 5 re-worded, the foundation of our ministry as sons of God setting creation free. Consider Augustine’s “repentance,” alienated inside of evil.
God inside of Us. Ruling Verse 10: All the fulness of God dwells inside the Jesus who lives in our hearts. We live inside of God inside of Him.
Ruling Verse 9: God is inside of Christ inside of us reconciling the world to Himself (see 2 Corinthians 5:19). We now share that same ministry of reconciliation with Jesus.
Ruling Verse 6: Jesus alone, through the Blood of His Cross, carries us into the Father, into full reconciliation with God. We never imagine that we will “cleave to” God of ourselves. And here inside of God, Jesus has already placed us with Himself with no consciousness of any disconnection or “sin.”
Ruling Verse 7: We are part of Christ in all as we are convinced through faith that we are part of Christ. We stand upon firm, the Word God speaks, regardless.
A Desperate Step. • 24 Now, I rejoice in sufferings for your sake, and I am filling up that which is lacking of the travailing pressures of Christ in my flesh for the sake of His Body, which is the Church, 25 of which I became a servant, • according to the stewardship of God having been given me into you, to make the Word of God full and complete.
If Augustine’s words are true, then Paul’s statement here is not just nonsense, but almost evil and one of those many heretical Bible statements that Augustine insisted we ignore. But if Paul’s words are true, then Augustine misses the whole point of the Gospel, which is the Covenant fulfilled, that we are just like the Lord Jesus Christ in all. Here’s the truth. I knew I was taking a desperate step into faith, from 2008 to 2012, when I determined to go with Paul.
For the Sake of Others. 1 John 3:16 has already turned us around, giving us the same ministry towards one another of Jesus towards us. More than that, our “flesh” has never been but for one purpose, the Intercession of God through us for others. We now see clearly how Ruling Verses 8 & 9 work together in all, sharing Hheart with God and setting creation free.
Ruling Verses 8 & 9: By this we know Love, in that Jesus set forth His soul for us. And we also are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). Jesus has turned us around; Jesus is the Heart we share with God. We offer our dying bodies as a living offering to the Father (see Romans 12:2), that all our difficulty and sorrow might be His intercession for the sake of our brethren, that they might know the Gospel of Life as well.
He Loves – And We Also. Augustine’s Confessions, etc., are the most influential books in Church history. In them, you are reading how almost all Christians think, separate from the Gospel. I am bringing that false “repentance” in as a great contrast, but will not always place it in the comments. Here is one of those times.
Covenant: We are redeemed. God continuously declares us to be justly innocent inside of Himself. Jesus alone removes our sins from us (see Hebrews 1:3). Jesus alone connects us with the Father. There is a “repentance” practiced by some that is weeping over sin in the flesh in hostile refusal to acknowledge Jesus inside of the believer. The flesh is not “for sin,” but for God. And in the Blood Covenant by which the Father and we walk together, all pressure and all difficulty serve only as our intercession, God with us for the sake of others.
The Secret Is the Whole Point. 26 The mystery which has been hidden and concealed from the ages and from the generations, has now been made clear and visible to His devoted ones, • 27 to whom God desires to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery, this SECRET, among the ethnic peoples, which is Christ inside of you, the hope of glory.
“The Jesus Secret” is just another way to say, “the mystery of Christ inside of us.” NEVER do we separate between Jesus and Christ as some do who will not have a meek and lowly Jesus, but who lust for their own “heavenly superiority.”
Yet this is the whole point of the Gospel. It is Jesus Himself, now inside of us, a Secret, that is, unknown by outward judgment, who accomplishes all that Salvation is and means, who enables us to share life in every moment with God.
The Jesus Secret. The mystery of Jesus inside all that we are, in all that He is, has been made clear to those who are devoted, that is, those whom the Father has given to Jesus, especially including those from all ethnic families without distinction.
Covenant: Jesus Himself, now dwelling inside our hearts, and written there as every Gospel Word fulfilled (see Ephesians 3:17 & 2 Corinthians 3:3), is the Secret of our Life with God, the Way through whom God accomplishes His Purpose and desire in every moment and circumstance of our lives.
Life: Life is knowing the Father through knowing Jesus Sent into us (see John 17:3). Christ Jesus inside of us, now our very and only Life, is HOW we share life with God our Father every moment. This is the mystery of God; this is the Father’s Life; this Jesus inside of us is our LIFE as well.
Completion and Energeia. • 28 We preach Christ, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we might present every person perfect and complete inside of Christ. 29 Into this also I labor, contending according to His energeia energeoing in power inside of me.
Kingdom: The Kingdom, the outward Goal of the Gospel, includes every individual KNOWING completion inside of Christ.
Definition: Energeia is the Life Force by which God lives, active and dynamic. Every part of our Christian labor comes out from this Energeia, this Spirit energeoing inside of us.
As we consider the whole of Colossians-Philemon, against a fake “put to death/mortify,” we see that God’s HOW must be applied in full. We start with Jesus coming to us first.
Ruling Verse 5: We do not save ourselves; we do not “seek” God; we do not cease from sin; we do not “please” God. We cannot know God except that Jesus comes to us first. Passover was one moment’s time, followed instantly by the feast of unleavened bread. Our acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus as sufficient for us was one moment’s time, followed instantly by Jesus entering into union with us, connecting us with the Father.
One unlimited sacrifice for sins forever (Hebrews 10:12).
Every part of the Christian life, all good works, all return to the Father, all loving one another as the Church together, comes only out from Jesus Himself in Person living in intimate fellowship inside of each one of us. There is no other Gospel; there is no other Salvation; there is no other connection with God; there is no other Life.
Two Kingdoms. Kingdom is outcome, appearance, the ordering of creation and the flow of time. God sets out two opposing kingdoms. The titles given to these two by Paul are very telling. – “The authority of darkness” versus “the Kingdom of His Dear Son.”
There were two outcomes from the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus in His ministry versus the Pharisees. In the same way, there are two outcomes from the New Testament Gospel, symmorphosed with Jesus, with the image of His Son, versus Nicene Christian expression, worshipping God inside wailing over sin, and the refusal of Jesus INSIDE. Colossians 1:24-25 & 28-29 is the obvious outcome of the Jesus who is inside of us, for as He is, so are we inside this present world. “For the sake of others” is the Kingdom.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we know our redemption, for You have shown us Jesus inside our hearts, Jesus who has already come into union with us, Jesus who has already turned us around that our lives might now be for Your sake, for Your Desire.
“Oh God, we see our Christian brethren caught under a horror of darkness, caught inside of the spell cast by the one who denies that Jesus is our only life. Yet we know, Oh Father, that they love Jesus, and that He already carries them through all the darkness.
“We now know, Father, that our lives are utterly good, even in these dying bodies, for all things are now out from You. Through all our travail and difficulty, Father, You are inside of Jesus inside of us reconciling Your Church to Yourself.
“Father, we would be, Father, we ARE Your intercession. All our difficulties and sorrows, all our joys and triumphs, are GOOD, for not only do You share all with us, but we together stand in the gap for all our Christian brethren. Break the demonic spell from off of Your Church, Oh God. Send Your mighty angels to drive every false spirit out. Let our dying bodies offered to You be “that which is lacking in the travail of Christ for the sake of all who belong to You.”
“And most of all, Father, let this pure and living Gospel Word FLOW, even out from our bellies, into all Your Church, into the knowing of every single one who calls upon Jesus. Father, it is Your hour. Glorify Yourself now inside Your Church. Father, we belong to You.”