19. The Gospel Core: Symmorphosed

Covering Romans 8:28 to 8:39:

The reason the Ruling Verse is the Ruling Verse is that it gives placement and scope for everything found in the Gospel. In essence, Romans 8:28 is everything found from 8:16 to 8:27 expressed again in one verse. Yet that brief and condensed version is filled with so much more, on the one hand, and then connected immediately to so much more on the other hand, climaxing with the beginning – Already done, right from the start!

You see, Romans 8:30 means that our eager expectation to be set forth as sons is not to enter into something, but to win the knowledge of what has been the only thing ever True. Again, it was in writing Romans 8:29 that Paul reached for a word that did not yet exist and invented “sym-morphosed.”

The Only Remnant of “Sin.” Let’s now place Romans 8:28-30 into the Flow of Gospel Word and out from the burning passion of Paul’s heart. Up until Romans 8:10, the last time it is used, the Greek word hamartia, that is, SIN, fills the layout of Romans. Hamartia is “missing the mark” in an arrow-shooting contest and is best defined by Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The “target” is the Father’s glory, that is, God’s deepest value and His greatest achievement.

Here is “sin’s” final reference. – But if Christ is inside of you, then, although the body is subject to death through [your former] falling short; in complete contrast, the Spirit is life through the declaration of just innocence. “Sin” for us means ONLY the effect on our physical bodies, that we should groan for LIFE.

Not Sin, but Intercession. Then, in Romans 8:15, every thought of “sin in the flesh” is dismissed absolutely by calling it the false perception of everything given by “the spirit of slavery into fear.” We have received no such spirit, for we have received the Spirit of God.

Then, in Romans 8:26-27, Paul brings in the opposite of hamartia, which is entugchanó, “inside of hitting the mark,” as the ongoing meaning of the Spirit inside of us. Let’s use the wording of Romans 3:23 as it is now our only reality. For you are intercession, connecting utterly with the glory of God, sharing with the Father in His deepest value and His greatest achievement, sharing Hheart with God, setting creation free.

No More Darkness. Meanwhile, Romans 8:13 has placed the entire contention, not as any “struggle against sin,” but rather, as our role inside of Jesus as those who cast down all accusation, as those who give their lives for the sake of the Church.

Thus from Romans 8:16 on with the Spirit in us crying, “My Daddy, the Father,” “sin in the flesh” is utterly and forever absent. Instead, Paul places the weakness of our humanity as existing in full union with the travailing Spirit of God. Here is the reference, Genesis 1:2. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The perception of our human lives, that we lived in darkness and that so many things had no real purpose was NEVER true, for we have always shared Spirit with God.

Such Mighty Words. I think at this point, something happened inside of Paul. I think his heart burst wide open. I think he reached for the drinking of Rivers. I think he called upon God to fill Him full. And out from Paul’s own tears of travail there flowed such words, such mighty words, words that contained everything, words that placed the heart at the heart, the completion at the beginning and how everything begins as the completion, words that were so filled with the seeing of God as He is, God flowing out from Himself to us, from Purpose to Image, from Heart to the Church.

Yet this one thought stands at the center of everything, Jesus speaking to me. (Put your own name in the blank.) “Daniel, I have always shared everything you are with you, and you have always shared everything I am with Me.” – Symmorphosed!

Our Only Definition. We possess one thing only out from human rebellion, a dying body, yet God has made that dying body in all of its affliction to be our authority joined with His Spirit in Travail, giving to God that HIGHWAY prepared for Him that He might come into His creation as Salvation.

Our false perception is GONE. Here is the only place in which we have ever lived; here is our ONLY reality. Romans 8:28-30. We know ourselves only here. We know nothing outside of these words. Yet inside of Romans 8:28-30 are found all that is God and every Gospel Word. The Ninth Ruling Verse turns us around, yes, that we might be God’s way into creation, but the Ruling Verse of the Bible is the entire definition of our lives.

Ruling Verse 1: Already Symmorphosed. • 28 We are fully aware that those who love God are synergeoing with God, directing all things into goodness; these are those who are being called according to His pro-thesis, that is, His set-forth purpose. • 29 Because those whom He pro-knows, that is, whom He knows inside Himself as His own thoughts, He also pro-determined them symmorphosed with the image of His Son, into Jesus being the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, that is, of His same kind, born of the same womb. • 30 Even more than that, those whom He pro-determined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He has already declared justly innocent and approved; and even more than that, those whom He declared justly innocent, these He has already fully glorified.

Brand New. As I read these words now, I see them all brand new. I see my own life brand new. There are two reasons for that. The first is how powerfully Paul established that we have never lived inside of sin, and the second is “the manifestation of the sons of God” taking its rightful place in the Flow of Gospel Word, normal to all Christians.

Our entire lives have never been hamartia, but always entugchanó, that is, as we call ourselves to be only inside of God. You see, it is as we allow our present suffering to be God’s Travail through us, that every same moment of our past is swept into the same reality. Our lives are made whole. I think that I am reading Romans 8:28-30 without consciousness of sins, nor any wasted moment in my life, something I did not know so strongly before.

Expanded. We are fully aware that those who love God are synergeoing with God, with Him directing all things into pure and intrinsic goodness. These are those who are being called according to His pro-thesis, that is, His set-forth purpose, the Pattern of Jesus from the beginning.  Because those whom He pro-knows, that is, whom He knows inside Himself as part of His own thoughts, He also, with fierceness, pro-determined them already symmorphosed with, sharing the same form with, the image of His Son, the revelation of the Father, into Jesus being the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, that is, of His same kind, born of the same womb, born out from God. Even more than that, those whom He pro-determined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He has already declared justly innocent and approved; and even more than that, those whom He declared justly innocent and approved, these He has already fully glorified, sharing all victory and triumph with Jesus right now.

Personal & Definition. Christ Made Personal: God has already made me to be just like Jesus; Jesus has always shared everything with me.

Defining the Rule: God’s end purpose for humans, set forth inside of Jesus from the beginning, is that we would synergeo with Him to turn all things into goodness through giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all. Then, not only do we come out from God’s thoughts concerning us, but we share all form with Jesus and He with us as the revelation of the Father. Jesus makes us to be just like Himself, many as the Church. Finally, all things are accomplished right from the start inside Jesus’ Resurrection. We already share all Glory with Him.

Life and Covenant. Life: Life is knowing God through knowing Jesus Sent into us (see John 17:3), now sharing all form with us. God gives His Life to Jesus, Jesus gives that same Life to us, that we might call all things and every moment into Life.

Covenant: By the determination of God, Jesus makes us to be just like Himself in relationship with God and in set-forth Purpose. He does so by receiving us into Himself and by imparting all that He is to us, that we together might be the image and revelation of the Father. This is the Covenant, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and 1 John 3:2 together.

Speak Christ: We cannot depart from unbelief until we say, in confidence of faith, “God makes me to be just like the Lord Jesus inside my present life.” This is the Covenant. We don’t have to know what it means, but we must speak it forth.

Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: Knowing God begins with knowing His Purpose, what God WANTS regarding us. God wants many sons, just like Jesus, walking together as one, the Church. God wants His dwelling place inside creation that all might know Him. God accomplishes His purpose as Jesus shares all form with us, that we might synergeo with God, making all GOOD.

Ruling Verse 2: All Ruling Verses are found inside of and give their meaning to the Ruling Verse of the Bible, the setting forth of God’s Purpose and Determination. The first thing Christ shares with us is our hearts; our hearts are GOOD and filled with Jesus. Then comes prototokos adelphois, brethren together out from Jesus, loving one another inside the Love of God. Into such knowing, Father comes Home. God fills His House with all Glory; we are filled with all the fulness of God.

From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: God designed and created humans not only to be filled with all of His fulness, but also to reveal the knowledge of God to all creation. Nothing created can be good in itself. As we call all things into goodness, synergeoing with God, so rivers of Spirit flow out from us giving Life to all.

Ruling Verse 4: As Jesus shares all form with us, so He imparts to us His entire ability as the Lamb of God. Out from the ability of Jesus shared with us, we cast down every accusation against our brothers and sisters that they also might know God with us.

Ruling Verse 5: Symmorphosed with Jesus as the image of the Father, sharing all form with Him, is the largest expression of our union with Christ. John 14:20 makes that union very personal to us and to Jesus, and Galatians 2:20 places into union the wondrous intimacy of unbroken fellowship of soul.

From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: We come out from God’s thoughts concerning us through the good-speaking of Jesus; we are carried back into this same God through this same Jesus. Inside of God, we apprehend everything of God given to us for the Father’s Purpose, that God might be known through us.

Ruling Verse 7: We are already glorified; we already possess all of God. God has already made us to be just like Jesus. We already synergeo with God making all things good. This is our confidence of faith; this is our celebration of Victory.

Ruling Verse 8: Through sharing all form with each one of us, Jesus has made us brethren together, born of the same womb as He. We love one another just as Jesus loves us, for we are His face to each other. It is through our reciprocal Love that the Purpose of God, His DESIRE, flows into all creation.

The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: Ruling Verse 1 is set inside the overall of Ruling Verse 9, Refuge and Outlook, as the ROCK in which we dwell and out from which we see all things. God places us as sons just like Jesus out from Himself so that through our travail inside of Spirit, all creation might know their God.

Ruling Verse 10: John 14:20 is John’s way of saying Romans 8:29; the two are the same. You inside of Me and I inside of you, sharing all form together. All that Jesus is, we share with Him, and all that we are, Jesus shares with us - symmorphosed. Inside this wondrous meaning, we know the Father as He Truly is. Now, as we put the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves in our thinking and speaking, so we see the Desire of our Father – many brethren together, God’s form inside creation. And so we place the Lord Jesus upon His entire Church.

The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: Synergeoing with God, making all things good, is the Kingdom. The Kingdom is synergeoing with God, making all things good. The Kingdom is synergeia inside of symmorphy, sharing the same life force inside of the same outward form, God through us, shaping all the ordering of His creation by His knowledge flowing forth as Love.

The Form for God through Jesus: Each one of us symmorphosed with Jesus becomes many brethren just like Him walking together as one (see John 17:21-23). Just as Jesus shares form with each of us, so, in the same way, God Himself shares form with our life as one together. Living in Symmorphy with many as one is God’s Purpose from the beginning; all creation set free into knowing the Father is the result. This Glory of God-with-us-together has always been the only thing True.

The Entirety of God with Us. We must understand this absolute fact. Having brought forth Romans 8:28-30 out from God, out from his own belly, Paul cannot but continue to write only out from such glory. This fact prevails, not only for the remainder of Romans, but also for all subsequent letters. Not only that, but by God’s own nature, we know that Romans 8:28-30 reaches out to include all that came before, indeed, the entire Bible.

Read again “Defining the Rule.” Nothing in the Bible can contradict or hinder or diminish the absoluteness of those things, and all else found inside these three verses. Everything must contribute to their meaning in one way or another. Inside of Romans 8:28-30 is the entirety of the Covenant and of our life with God. Inside of the Ruling Verse is the entirety of the Kingdom, the Church, and our purpose forever.

God Is the One! 31 What then do we say to these things? If God is for us, for our sakes, who could be against us? • 32 For He who did not spare His own Son, but traded Him for us all, for our sakes, HOW shall He not also together with Him grace us freely with all things? • 33 Who will bring an accusation or debt against God’s elect? God is the One who has already declared His just approval! 34 Who is the one condemning? Christ Jesus, the One having died, rather, having been raised out from the dead, is also inside the right hand of God and is continuously and actively connecting us together with God.

Paul uses entugchanó again a third time here in verse 34. I translated it as “continuously and actively connecting us together with God,” again all those English words out from one Greek word.

To Intercede. Now, even the English “intercede,” in its earlier definitions from the Latin, meant to “be between,” that is, the active and ongoing role of Propitiation, the Mediator.

God is neither static nor mechanical; He is living and energeoing. Technically, tugchanó means “hitting the mark,” and entugchanó then means “living inside of the One who is always hitting the mark,” which in the issue of God and humans must mean living together as one in full honor. Intercede does NOT mean asking a reluctant God, “Pretty please.” It means Jesus enabling God and us to share life together, which is also what Propitiation means.

Again, the Ruling Verse enables us to place these two concepts together. Propitiation already done and intercession always continuous. Glory already done, Synergeia always ongoing.

God Graces All. Then consider verse 32, which fits Ruling Verses 5 & 6, but which I will place inside of Covenant, along with verse 34. The thing is, Romans 8:29 is the Covenant, that we share all form with Jesus and He shares all form with us. Thus Paul is simply expanding on the meaning of symmorphosed. Paul was fully aware that he had just invented a word out from the Spirit. He will never leave the meaning of that word.

Let’s paraphrase verse 32. God gives (GRACE) Jesus to us, Life for life, and with Jesus, God gives (GRACE) us everything that He is. Thus Romans 8:32 rules Revelation 11:3, “I will give Myself and all that is God to those who speak Me into their world” (paraphrased). The Gospel RULES the Vision.

Finally, the accuser and all accusation are obliterated three times in these four verses. Paul is positioning Ruling Verse 4.

GRACED. Covenant: Just as God has graced us with Jesus sharing our life with us, so He has graced us with all things. God has graced us with all of Himself; He has graced us with the ability of Jesus as the Lamb. God has graced us with one another to Love; He has graced us with all creation to inherit.

Ruling Verse 4: My God! We do NOT hear accusation of any kind against any believer in Jesus. We cast all such accusation down, and we refuse those who speak such wicked things. We clothe the entire Church with Jesus graced upon her.

Covenant: Jesus alone connects us with God, and He does so actively and continuously. We are inside of Jesus at the right hand of God, even as Jesus is inside of us as God’s authority in all of heaven upon earth. Jesus gives us His ability made complete inside our human weakness.

Placing Ruling Verse 4. 35 Who will separate us away from the love of Christ? Pressures of travail within and without? Or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written, “For Your sake we faced death all the day; we were accounted as sheep of slaughter.” • 37 But inside of all these things, we are hyper-overcomers for the sake of others through the One who loves us.

Paul is now placing Ruling Verse 4 absolutely inside of Galatians 2:20, inside the intimacy of Love that we share always with Jesus having already come into union with us. The word “hyper” should not be translated as “more than,” as if to overcome is one thing, but then, there is something else. Rather, it means to overcome absolutely and to the uttermost; it means to win in ALL for others. It means creation set free.

The Complete Turn Around. It is clear now that from verse 31 to verse 39, Paul is continuing with the full meaning of Ruling Verse 9, of our travail with the Spirit for the sake of all. Thus, Ruling Verse 9, Refuge and Outlook, our ministry of being God’s Intercession, is everything found in Romans 8:9-39. And yes, I see now that it begins with Romans 8:9. Then, Ruling Verse 1 is the beating Hheart we share with God.

Okay. The complete TURN AROUND happens from verse 14 to verse 21. In fact, Paul is placing two ways of perceiving our reality against each other, two very different minds. Oh me, oh my, I am a wretched man! Who will draw me out from this body of death? ~ versus ~ The freedom of the glory of the children birthed out from God. The mind of death versus the mind of LIFE.

So Much More. Paul does not know the concept of “the isolated individual seeking a someday salvation.” He has already turned us around; He has already placed us together as the Church, the full and only Body of Christ. What I mean to say is that, after I have finished the letter, “Becoming Intercession” in Being a Witness of Christ, I must follow it with a letter possibly titled “The Spirit with Our Humanity.” And I suspect that all that I want to KNOW on our being God’s Intercession will take many more letters.

Now, I have said that Romans 8 and Revelation 12 are parallel chapters, covering and including the same sets of meanings. At the same time, Ruling Verse 9 has grown to include so much more than we have ever considered. Indeed, the absence of Romans 8:19-21 is the ABSENCE of the Gospel.

Means – Motive – Opportunity. Let’s consider the larger picture in this way. Romans 1:18 to Romans 8:8 is the means, the how of God. Romans 8:9 to Romans 8:39 is the motive, the what of God. Then we will see that Romans 9:1 to the end of the letter is the opportunity, the who of God.

Means – Motive – Opportunity. How – What – Who?

Romans 8 is WHAT God wants. Revelation 12 is WHAT God wants, expressed in a very different way, but containing exactly the same meaning. God WANTS the Church, that is, His form inside of creation, that He might love and be loved as Himself towards all. Therefore God also WANTS those who will bring Him that Church, starting with Jesus, but also including us.

Romans 8 & Revelation 12. Romans 8:28 is Ruling Verse 9 (now Romans 8:9-39), how we bring to God what He wants. Romans 8:29, the Covenant, is the most powerful expression of “The Form for God through Jesus” ever penned. And Romans 8:30 is the conclusion of the Means of God, the Day of Atonement, already ALL.

Revelation 12:1-5 is the second most powerful expression of “The Form for God through Jesus.” Revelation 12:6-17 describes how we bring to God what He wants. Yet inside of that larger picture, Revelation 12:10-11 is the full expression, wrought inside our lives, of the Day of Atonement fulfilled, the Victory already ALL. And this is indeed the meaning of our verse. – We are hyper-overcomers for the sake of others through the One who loves us.

For One Another’s Sake. Nothing is more important to God right now than those who come to Him, bringing His Church with them, those who willingly carry inside their hearts every individual person whom God brought to them across the span of their whole lives, and with those, all who believe into Jesus. Sometimes I translate “hyper” as “beyond all” and sometimes as “for the sake of,” but here it must be both.

Ruling Verse 4 & 8: Nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ for one another that we share together. Nothing can keep us from giving our souls to the Father for one another’s sake. Nothing can prevent us from protecting one another, from giving Jesus to each other, from being together God’s Mercy Seat (see Revelation 12:11 and 1 John 3:16). Through all travail, we win all. Through all our distress, God is known through us.

Love out from God. • 38 For I am persuaded and filled full with confidence that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things at hand, nor things about to happen, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing has the ability to separate us away from love out from God inside of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Brother Buddy Cobb preached for two hours on these two verses convincing us that what God actually means is that we are the only ones capable of separating ourselves from the love of God, which we do all the time because we fail to “hear and obey.” You can understand why I was frozen inside for 2½ years after leaving that fellowship before I could say, in a moment of tear-filled surrender, “God loves me.” And with no BUT-BUT-BUT-BUT-BUT following “me.”

A Great Paradox. I say this because we must know the desperate evil out from which we are winning our brethren. The Salvation of God is a great paradox, that we draw our Christian brethren out from the EVIL of separation, even while we enclothe them with a God who has always shared all with them. You see, I have never seen this clearly the emphasis that Paul places on the fact that God speaks inside Himself and to everyone who will listen, that we are justly innocent. The thing is, translating that as “free from sin,” means little to us, but “always sharing life with God” means everything.

So yes, we live sharing all Love with God our Father in every step that we take, but this is Romans 8, this is God through us into our world, this Love is Love poured out and shed abroad. God-Love pours through us for others.

We Speak God-with-Us. John Calvin and Buddy Cobb said that we cannot know whether God has chosen us or not, and that, for now, we must struggle against sin, hoping that He might. Paul said, “I am persuaded and filled full with confidence.” God says, “Justly innocent” only of those who BELIEVE that God says “Justly innocent” concerning themselves.

Ruling Verse 7: We are persuaded and filled full with confidence that we live joined together with our Father, that Jesus alone binds us to God and God to us. We speak God-with-us in return even as God speaks Himself-with-us first.

Ruling Verse 2: Nothing has the ability to separate us from Jesus in our hearts, rooted and grounded in Love, the love of Jesus for one another beyond all knowing. The fullness of God-Love filling us full together is the only thing we KNOW.

Introducing “Who.” We can now see that through several chapters Paul uses many Scriptures and convincing argument to establish HOW God connects us to Himself through the Propitiation that is Jesus inside of whom we live. From here forward, Paul will use many Scriptures and convincing argument to establish WHO it is whom God has chosen, who are the ones to be unveiled as His sons. Indeed, “predestination” has placed “who goes to heaven and who goes to hell” as a wicked contention ever since.

In one way or another, everything Paul says in Romans 11-16 is a spelling out of “WHO” are those who are brethren together with Jesus, who are those who come out from the same womb. We have two more lessons in which to discover Paul’s answer to God’s Opportunity to Love through humans.