5. The Word of the Cross

Covering 1 Corinthians Chapters 1-3:

The problem in “categorizing” Gospel Word is that it flows as flood waters, knowing no bounds, but going from one place to the next with all exuberant Joy. Yet the purpose for attempting such a thing is to show to us, in our limited human thinking, the richness and togetherness of one Gospel Word. This purpose is then set against the present “broken apartness” that the Bible has been to many.

Even though this FLOW of Gospel Word is quite exuberant, it comes out from immense pro-determination and it goes forward in every necessary way to accomplish the one thing God will have for Himself. God will have for Himself a House, a body, a form inside of creation through which He can show and be Himself.

Considering “Form.” Because our understanding grows over time, we must expect to make slight adjustments in how things are worded. The Ten Ruling Verses are all a means to an end. The eleventh and twelfth ruling verses are that end.

And yes, I am now thinking of 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 as #11, the Form for Jesus, and Ephesians 2:19-22 as #12, the Form for Father God. This is not “form of,” for God’s form is All-Here-Now Spirit Word, but “form for,” which is entrance into finite and limited creation. Neither is it “a” form; God has only one dwelling place, the Church, the Form for God. Thus both Forms exist as shared with us, and therefore Symmorphy, a shared Form, is the right term to use.

Clarifying Our Categories. Much of Paul’s purpose in 1 Corinthians is that believers in Jesus would be one, members of one another, the Form for the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father inside of Him. I find that calling those verses just Kingdom remains vague. Now, I have “Speaking Christ” as a subset of Covenant, actually. So, maybe I will have “The Form for God through Jesus” as a subset of Kingdom. Let’s try that and see how it works. And the truth is, this might be a cumbersome title, but it is better than the other choices (Incarnation, etc.) because it is direct to Purpose.

Then, if I first explain all this, I can write the comments assuming the reader understands these things. Let’s continue, now, with 1 Corinthians Chapters 1-3.

Covenant and Kingdom. 4 I thank my God always concerning you, • for the grace of God has already been given to you inside of Christ Jesus, 5 that in everything you have abounded and been made rich inside of Him in all speaking of word and in all knowledge, 6 just as the witness of Christ was established inside of you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift • as you eagerly welcome the unveiling of our Lord, Jesus Christ, 8 who also will establish and sustain you to full completion, without blame, in the day of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The purpose of this study is to make me to be orderly in my thinking, thus we don’t always need explanation. These two points are our two main categories, Covenant and Kingdom.

Into Divine Fellowship. More than that, there is a lot of definition here regarding Covenant and Kingdom, and a significant number of times that the Lord Jesus is placed into both.

• Covenant: Grace, the gift of a shared life with God, is found inside of Jesus inside of us. We are made rich inside of Jesus through speaking Christ made personal as us, that we might know the Father. To be established as witnesses of Christ is to be made just like Jesus, the Covenant.

• Kingdom: We are filled with all spiritual gifts to build up one another even as we welcome every moment the Apocalypse, the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, seeing Him as He is and being made just like Him. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who establishes us together inside of all completion, the Kingdom. Even as God, in all faithfulness takes us into, opens to us, makes us part of, the Fellowship of His Son, the enjoyment of divine Fellowship.

The Form for Jesus. 10 I encourage you, brothers and sisters, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there not be any divisions among you, • that you be one, since you already have been perfectly fitted together inside of the same mind and inside of the same purpose.

What a beginning statement for the Form for Jesus! First, one sent of Jesus speaks encouragement into us, strengthening our hearts. We know that “through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” means being made like Him. Thus we have a list of seven aspects of being many together as one. (1) Being made like the same Lord Jesus (2) speak the same thing – Christ made personal, (3) no divisions, (4) we are one, (5) we are already perfectly fitted together, (6) inside of the same mind, (7) inside of the same purpose.

Fitted Together. This is NOT “group think,” nor any forced conformity. We retain our own identities, we see things differently, we do things differently. Being one means honoring one another’s differences, not pretending we’re “all the same.” I define “oneness” as a blob, merging personalities into the dominant personality in any gathering. “Many fitted together as one” is an honoring of each individual person by name.

Yet, of truth, the first and last points are the primary unifying factor, being made like Jesus, our Savior, and sharing the same purpose, which is always to be the Form for God, that our Father might come Home inside our love for one another. But the statement “already have been perfectly fitted together” is staggering, a detailed expansion of Romans 8:30.

Fitted from the Start. God’s metaphor of the construction of His House, the building of Solomon’s temple, shows the fitting together of every stone taking place AFTER the stones have been fully shaped in the quarry. Paul is saying that, right from the start, our being fitted together as the Body of Jesus is perfect.

• The Form for God through Jesus: The Church is the Body of Christ, the Form for Jesus inside of creation. This Form is us, walking together inside of Love. This Form for Jesus is fitted together perfectly right from the start (See Ephesians 1:23). We are one, yet not outwardly. Rather, we respect and honor one another’s uniqueness. We together are made just like Jesus (through His name), and we share the same purpose, that Father might come Home. We speak the same thing together, for we each speak Christ made personal as us.  

Circling around Galatians 2:20. • 18 For the word of the cross is indeed foolishness to those perishing; but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. – • 24 To us who are called, however, both Judeans and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

From 1 Corinthians through Romans, Paul is always circling around Galatians 2:20 in his mind. That is, Galatians 2:20 will become the best expression of this critical thought.

In the past “the word of the cross” always carried a weight of pain and obligation imposed upon us. It always told us that we were decidedly fallen short. We must OBLITERATE all such thinking from our minds, for it is absolutely of the evil one.

Joined Together. “The word of the cross” means that Jesus has joined us together with the Father inside His own Soul. It means that Jesus Himself carries us inside of Himself into being metamorphosed into His same image, that is, into Salvation (See Romans 1:16-17). The word of the cross is the power of God; Christ is the power of God. Therefore the word of Christ which we speak is that same power.

Now, the critical thing for us concerning the death upon the cross is that it is finished. We wake up into LIFE, discovering that whatever it was in us that was not of God is GONE! To “put off” is not “to get rid of”; it is to change our minds through faith. Yet this is foolishness to most people.

Keeping It Personal and Intimate. Whenever we see the words “being saved,” we now think “being made like Jesus.” And so this “word of the cross” goes even further, that is, “And we also.” It means that we also join our brethren together with God inside the giving of our own souls. And that is the channel through which Power flows. Nonetheless, we must keep these things inside the personal intimacy of Jesus having already come into union with us.

• Ruling Verse 5: The Word of the Cross is best expressed by Galatians 2:20. We wake up into Life to discover that all that was in us that once opposed God is gone forever, we know not how. Believing such a thing is foolishness to most. We are SAFE inside of Jesus. And this same Jesus is now the Wisdom and Power of God towards us, making us to be just like Himself (saved) in a shared intimacy, deep and personal.

Boasting in the Lord. • 30 Rather, out from God, you are inside of Christ Jesus, who has become as us wisdom from God and just innocence and also as us devotion and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

When we speak Christ our only life, we are the ones BOASTING in the Lord. The one who says, “I remain a miserable sinner,” is the one boasting in the flesh.

Now, this is clearly Galatians 2:20, Jesus now living as us as all that the Father is. Yet it also contains the single largest FACT of our redemption, which then also goes into the Fifth Ruling Verse. – It is God alone who places us into Jesus, inside of Jesus, right from the start. All we are required to do is to acknowledge what God has already done.

Jesus as Us. Then, Paul lists four things that Jesus has become as us. And I did not bend the Greek words much at all to translate them into “as us.” The Calvinists bent words much more to take us away from the Lord Jesus now. Those four things are (1) wisdom from God, (2) just innocence, (3) devotion, and (4) redemption: – Jesus as us.

• Ruling Verse 5: There is no human path from death to Life. It is God alone who places us into Jesus, inside of Jesus, right from the start, in one mighty action, entirely separate from our own doing. All we are required to do is to acknowledge what God has already done, to believe “into” Jesus. Jesus Himself, having come into union with us first, now lives as us, in just innocence and devotion, for we are redeemed.  

All Safety Now. • 2 Indeed, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him having already been crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of intellectual wisdom, • but in the demonstration and proof of the Spirit and power, 5 so that your faith might be… inside of the power of God.

The true Word of the Cross means ALL Safety, already NOW. The word of Constantine’s cross means no safety ever. Sam Fife had “one foot inside” the Most Devoted and the other back in Nicene awfulness. The worst thing he preached was Constantine’s cross. It was that false cross that made Community life in the move to feel so unsafe for so many, something that was not right, that I never understood.

Carrying Us. In Romans 1:16, Paul says, “the power of God CARRYING us into Salvation.” I want to include the two most powerful things I have ever written that transformed me completely. The first was in The Kingdom Rising, when God showed me a vision of Himself as He really is, and the second was in Studies in John, on John 14:20. The second came immediately out from the first.

~ God always reveals Himself through weakness, swallowing up into Himself all that we are including our sin and rebellion, becoming us in our present state. Thus, carrying us inside Himself, stumbling and falling along the way, He arises out from death into life, ascending on high, and we inside of Him. ~ – CARRIED into Salvation!

My Way to Connect. Then ~ Living inside of Jesus is my Way to connect with the Father sharing my life with me. Jesus living inside of me is the Father’s Way to connect with me sharing His life with Him, that God might enter creation through me. Life itself is my Way, moment by moment and step by step, not ‘to’ something, but rather life-unfolding, the living and dynamic expression of God-with-me unveiled new every morning forever. ~

This is the Word of the Cross Paul preached, inside the demonstration of the Spirit, so that our faith would be in the POWER of God carrying us all the way through. And it is the same word that has made the crossing of the Jordan to be the Old Testament picture containing for me the deepest meaning of sharing Hheart with the Lord Jesus.

From Speaking to Glory. • Kingdom: When Jesus said, “It is finished,” in that moment the entirety of the old creation ceased. And when He rose from the dead everything became brand new (See 2 Corinthians 5:14 & 17). Now, inside of LIFE, the Cross keeps us utterly safe, and the Power of God carries us into being made just like Jesus.

• 7 Rather, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery kept secret, which God pro-determined already from before the ages into our glory…

• Ruling Verse 1: We speak God’s Purpose that, by His mighty Determination, God takes us straight into Glory already ours, that we together, sharing form with Jesus, are God’s greatest accomplishment and the fulfilment of His deepest Desire.

Defining God and Us. • 10 To us indeed, God has unveiled it through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of the man except the spirit of the man inside of him? Even so also, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. • 12 And we have not received the spirit of the world-cosmos, but the Spirit who is out from God, that we might know the things God has already given to us.

The things of a man and the things of God are the same, for everything you and I are internally is the story of words continuously going through our minds, coming out from our desires and attended by various emotions. This is God as well. God is a story of Words inside of a Spirit Self-awareness. And like God, you and I are a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness.

That We Might Know. Verse 11 is a significant part of how we are made in the likeness of God, but Verse 12 is beyond all, and then, coming out from Verse 12, we go back to Verse 10 and are awestruck. We have received the Spirit that we might KNOW. – To receive the Spirit means that the Spirit out from God has become part of our humanity. KNOWING is what we are made to be, yet we cannot be what we are without the Spirit.

Then, the word “unveiled” in Verse 11 is apocalypsed, that is, the inability to know God is removed from us. And so the Spirit, now part of us, one spirit with Jesus, searches the “depths” of God, finding everything of God belonging to us, everything that is already ours, and teaching us to take possession of God our Father.

In Much Trembling. • Definition: God is a Story of Words inside of a Spirit Self-Awareness. He made us like Himself, also as a story of words, coming out from desire and attended with emotions, inside of a spirit self-awareness. God gives us His Spirit to be part of our own spirit, part of our humanity, that we might know, not only ourselves, but also God. The Spirit causes us to know every part of God that belongs to us.

I want to go back to verse 3: I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. – This line means two very different things according to which gospel is being preached. Now, I won’t develop this here, but I do intend to have a chapter in “Being a Witness of Christ” titled “In Much Trembling.” It will be similar to Chapters 3 & 4 in The Feast of Tabernacles, but expressed in present word.

From Jesus to Us. • 16 Who, indeed, has known the mind of the Lord, that he will prove or instruct Him? We, however, possess the mind of Christ. – To take God seriously is to be overwhelmed.

There are three Greek words referencing the mind, nous, dianoia, and phroneo. Nous is the intellectual mind, the thoughts taking place in our brain. Phroneo is the heart-gut mind, the deeper, ruling thoughts of who we are. Dianoia is “through-mind,” that is, the passage through the intellect and into the heart. Gospel verses give all three from Jesus to us. In 1 Corinthians 2:16, it is the nous, the thoughts in our brain. Now, we each possess the intellectual mind of Jesus, yes, but this also includes “fitted together inside the same mind.”

Thinking Like God. To think together like God thinks is one of the things the Spirit brings to us out from God. This includes the ability to reason with the reasoning of God. This is both Covenant, inside each of us, and Kingdom, the Body of Christ together. In light of the entirety of 1 Corinthians, I want to keep this as that which God inhabits. And so this is thinking together by the Words that are God’s.

• The Form for God through Jesus: The Greek word refers to the intellectual mind of Jesus; elsewhere, the heart-gut mind of Jesus also is ours. To think like Jesus thinks is to think like God thinks, with His own words flowing through our minds. This also refers back to “fitted together inside of the same mind,” that, as we speak together the thinking of God, God shows us His residence as Love among us.  

Synergeoing with God. • 9 Indeed, we are synergeoing with God, and you are God’s cultivated field, God’s dwelling place. Purpose – purpose – purpose! Everything is about one thing, that God our Father might have a dwelling place inside of that which is created, that He might be known as He is.

When we arrive at Galatians, we will be hit hard with the Apostolic Authority given to Paul by Jesus. And what was Paul always doing out from that Authority? He was always synergeoing with God, that is, sharing the dynamism of the Spirit of God with the Father, to bring forth in the Church the dwelling place for God, in every possible way and at whatever the cost to himself. – For whom I labor again until Christ is formed inside of you.

Our Purpose. Purpose, Pro-Thesis, is the Ruling Verse of the Bible. This is that for which we exist, and the direction of all our action. To synergeo together with God making all things good, is to make all things filled with the knowledge of God, who alone is Good. Our purpose is to form a dwelling place for God everywhere we go. And this purpose fills our minds.

• Ruling Verse 1: Our purpose is the same as Paul’s, to synergeo with God inside of the Spirit, bringing all things into goodness, into the knowledge of God. Everything is about one thing, that God our Father might have a dwelling place inside of that which is created, that He might be known as He is. Our lives and thoughts are devoted to this one thing, whatever the cost, that our Father might come Home.  

The Fire Proves Christ. • 13 the work of each will become visible; indeed, the day will make it clear because it is unveiled inside of fire; and the work of each, what sort it is, the fire itself will prove. • 16 Are you not aware that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells inside of you?

Being filled with God and synergeoing with God go hand in hand. Here we have the Apocalypse again, the cover comes off our eyes inside of Fire, that we might see and know. The Fire proves Christ, faithful and True; we place ourselves and all that we do into Him and nowhere else. So - part of seeing Jesus as He is, is to see Him faithful and True inside ourselves and through every step of our way, in all that we say and do, thus we are made like Him.

All Belongs to You. 21 Therefore, let no one boast in men; • indeed, all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter or the cosmos or life or death or present things or coming things, all are yours, all belongs to you. 23 And you come out from Christ now, and Christ now comes out from God.

I hope to pull all this together into two comments, the Form for God and Kingdom. Fire is not incidental, neither is it a one-time event, for our God is a consuming Fire. In fact, synergeoing with God is a quality of Fire, for God’s metaphor is the Pillar of Fire touching down upon the Mercy Seat, now part of us. Verse 23 is also not a “one-time” event, but rather the continuous flow of who and what we are, out from God.

God Coming Home. The way of the cross and the passage through the fire are two different ways of seeing our walk, just as Jesus walked, for the Father, that He might come Home into His creation.

• The Form for God through Jesus: As the Body of Christ, we together are the Temple of God, His dwelling place inside of creation, that all might know Him. We together are filled with the Spirit, with all the fulness of God (see Ephesians 3:19). God is our Source.

• Kingdom: Our God is a consuming Fire, and we synergeo with Him in all. The Fire proves Christ Jesus, faithful and True, in all that we say and do. Because we come out from God through Jesus, everything now belongs to us, everything of creation and everything of God.

The Way of the Cross. How the veil is being removed from our eyes, and we are now seeing a Glory and a Power that has always been right there, on the pages of our Bibles, but which we could not see. And we discover that inside of the Apocalypse there is indeed pure and perfect REST. Yet at the same time, it is taking God seriously, inside the Authority given to us, that makes the Word to become such Fiery and Living Power, like we have never known it before.

The Way of the Cross is being just like the Lord Jesus Christ, reaching out to include all whom the Father has given to us, carrying them inside our hearts, paying no attention to our stumbling or the dirt, but carrying them through faith all the way through death and into all the Life of Christ.

Reading for Next Time. I am writing about two of these lessons a week, and so only one will I share inside of Zoom. Yet in reading and/or listening to all of the lessons, you should read that portion of Scripture in the JSV. Next is “Run to Win,” 1 Corinthians 4-11 and then “The Form for Jesus,” 1 Corinthians 12-13.

I am staying well ahead in inserting the JSV back into the website. As I do that, I first put the bullet points into each book. Then, I also set the bullet point verses into the Power Point layout for each lesson way ahead. I want to complete the JSV and get it into your hands as soon as I can. Yet this exercise is causing me to see and to understand Gospel Word, what God says and what He means, way more and way faster than ever in my life. I am enthralled.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we want to know You. For that reason, we want to be a part of a people who know You. It is only together that we are able to know You as You Truly are. Father, we ask You to bring us swiftly into our place inside the Body of Christ, that form through which You are making Yourself known inside of creation.

“We know, oh God, that for such a thing to happen, we must be joined together with other believers of like precious faith with us, those who see Christ alone, those who have turned around, now seated upon Mercy. Father, we ask that You would give to us those many that are Your Firstfruits, those convicted by Your Spirit, by Your mighty arm bringing Salvation to You.

“Oh God, our brothers and sisters must be sealed in their minds, sealed through the Fire into the Tree of Life, into Your mind and thinking now theirs. We know they must be willing, but we also possess, together with You, the sending forth of that power of the Spirit to CONVICT.

“Inside of the name of Jesus, Oh God, we send forth the Spirit as rivers to convict thousands of people all over the world right now, to convict them of the awfulness of the gospel of death and to convict them of the Glory of Your Gospel Word now flowing into them. Sign Your seal upon many, right now, Oh Father, that You and we might come Home. That Jesus might be proven faithful and True in all that You speak.

“Dear God, dear God, You have indeed answered us.”