34. The Way of Life
This will be the concluding lesson of our studies in John’s gospel with “Jesus Sends Me” as the finale, one might say. In the first seven chapters of his gospel, John sets before us LIFE, the generation of life, and how we partake of it. Then, he begins again, out from the contention between two, this time to present to us the way of life.
This is not the way TO life. It is the way of Life. In this case, Life is generative, as John 1-7 has shown us. And the WAY comes out from Life every moment as its source. The Way is every step we take, coming, every moment, out from the LIFE we share with God.
Into Real. This has been for me the most incredible and life-changing series I have written. In essence, through these studies, God has brought me from knowing into real.
My experience of Father-with-me has become such that when I am attacked concerning the word, it’s no longer personal to me. Rather, it’s God they are struggling with. If you knew me inside, you would know that this is a massive transformation. Yet for me to know that it’s God they are struggling with, not me, is not religious self-exaltation, but quiet certainty and confidence that God is working in their lives.
Our Reference. In this lesson, we are considering John 19:25-30 & 34-35, eight verses that include Jesus’ statements on the cross until the moment of His passing as well as the blood and water pouring out from His side.
Now, I had said that we will compare these events with Psalm 22, and we will do that. In actuality, Isaiah 53 also includes a critical seeing of these moments. But my question this morning is slightly different from what I might have thought in penciling in this lesson title. As is often the case, prior thoughts and statements may not be what arises now out from the knowing of my heart.
How Redemption? Sometime in 2013, Kathy McDonald asked me a question, “Why did Jesus have to die?” What that question is also asking is – What is the specific mechanism of our redemption, and how and why?
I answered with what I knew at the time, but my answer, though good and in the right direction, did not satisfy me, and I pondered and wrote about the issue for years after. What is absolutely unacceptable to us is the answer to Kathy’s question as given by Nicene Christianity, an answer that is to me the most repulsive and evil accusation that can be made against God.
A Demon “God.” That most wicked teaching is that God requires human sacrifice for Himself, to satisfy His own vindictive wrath against our sinful human natures. That God then accepts this murder as payoff to Himself, so that He will “back off” and not throw all humans into eternal hellfire. That the present work of Jesus as “intercessor” is to remind God to allow some humans to escape His hostility and “go to” heaven, while letting God throw all the rest into unending torment. That God must be “appeased” just like the pagan “deities.”
Two Boxes. Now, I knew that the Bible teaches no such thing, but rather, this “doctrine” is forced onto the Bible words. Yet here is our problem. Consider these two boxes.
| Nicene Theology | Life Theology |
| Everything. Every verse. Every metaphor. Every doctrine. Every definition. Every experience with God. |
Everything. Every verse. Every metaphor. Every doctrine. Every definition. Every experience with God. |
Not one thing can remain from the first box to the second. To exist in the second box, everything must be different.
No Shadow. Let me give a for instance. Union with Christ is in the second box. But many who embrace union with Christ want to keep many of the other things in the first box. What they produce is discordant thinking, trying to tie together mental ideas that are utterly opposed.
Part of the knowing inside of me is the determination to know EVERYTHING inside of the Life box. Union with Christ has placed me in the Life box. Now I must know EVERYTHING inside that same Life, with no shadow of the wicked ways of accusing God found in the Nicene Theology box.
From Root to Boundary. Four things in particular are radically and immeasurably different in the two boxes. Those four are the definition of God, the definition of man, the definition of Christ, and the definition of salvation.
Here’s the thing. You can’t go from one box to the other. Radical means to the root. Immeasurable means there is no relationship between the two that can be identified. “Saved by grace through faith” sounds the same outwardly in both boxes, but in reality, there is no relationship. “Whacking at” things in the first box cannot take anyone out of it and into the second.
What Is Redemption? The only way we know the second box is to live inside of Jesus and to know the Father upwelling from within our hearts, making His Word, as He speaks it, our life. Then, our understanding of everything becomes utterly different, transformed out from LIFE.
My purpose here, however, is our view of that one small thing, “What is redemption?” Or we could say it this way. – What causes a human to pass from being lost in their own ignorance of God to belonging inside the fellowship of Father and Son? The answer to this question is very, very personal.
Into Jesus’ Soul. And the answer to this question is the whole point of John’s gospel. What is life? How do we obtain it? How do we live in it? What comes out from it? Every one of these questions has only a personal answer – Jesus, that is, John 14:20, that is, Jesus and me and us.
Now, the most wondrous thing is that we can enter into Jesus’ own Soul upon the cross by joining with David. And we are already inside that Soul, inside Jesus’ own mind, emotions, and desires, inside His turmoil and confusion, inside His utter devotion, for Jesus personally received us into Himself as He rose to His feet in Gethsemane.
Two Principles. Before we join with David, I want to set out two massively important principles of God. The first principle is giving and receiving and the second is substance and appearance.
God gives to us first what He expects to receive back from us in return. Before we can return back to God what He gives us, however, we must first receive it, then acknowledge it, then call it to be ours. God KNOWS Himself and what He gave us out from Himself. When we try to offer God our own “love,” for instance, He cannot know it, for it’s not His.
The Only Thing Always True. Everything we give to God we have first received from Him and have made it ours and only through faith.
Then, the appearance of God in space and time is one thing only, it is the entirety of God-Substance, all here now. When Jesus said, “He who sees Me sees the Father,” He included all. Every moment, every step, of Jesus’ outward appearance was for us to see what is already always TRUE inside of God.
In other words, God did NOT forgive us “when” Jesus died. Every particle of the appearance of redemption shows us the ONLY THING ALWAYS TRUE inside of God.
Forsaken? So, let’s join with David, now, inside Jesus’ Soul. And what are the first words that hit us, shouted out loud in inconceivable agony? – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Nicene theology asserts that God DID forsake Jesus because Jesus was now all SIN, and thus abhorrent to God. This argument gets much more wicked than that, but we will not be sidetracked here.
But then, look at how small Psalm 22:21b is, inside all the noise of dogs and the thrust of wild ox horns. – “You have answered Me.” God did not forsake Jesus.
He Opened Not His Mouth. So how do I know? – The truth is, I want the answer to this question for myself as well.
To answer that question, let’s bring in one of the things Isaiah sees in this same place where we have joined David. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. What Isaiah means is that Jesus never defended Himself, regardless of the accusations. Jesus NEVER presented Himself as separate from God.
My Handicap. Autism is a disability. It is a great handicap that has stripped me of certain abilities most humans can do. All my life, every time I have been accused of anything in any way, I have WANTED to defend myself so very badly. But I cannot. Every single time over decades when I wanted to defend myself in the face of others, I could not do it, no matter how much turmoil was taking place inside my soul.
You see, it’s the law of giving and receiving. When you receive accusation, the only way you can defend yourself is to speak accusation back in return. To accuse someone to their face is something I cannot do; I freeze inside and the words cannot formulate in my mind.
And We Also. Before continuing I must say this. I am NOT talking about our redemption, how WE are to be redeemed. I am talking about how we share redemption with Jesus, how Jesus and us together redeem others, that is, draw other people out of their own unnecessary lostness. I am speaking of “And we also.”
Christ is our life, living as us, end of story. Do you feel contempt for others? If so, then you are JUST LIKE Jesus – read Psalm 22. It’s not what we feel, but what we speak. In all these things, rather, we are looking at the revelation of Christ through us into our world. – That the world may know.
Pressed by Contempt. From May of 2013 until today, I have never once thought separation from God inside my own heart and story of self. God sealed me into a mind that never departs from the acknowledgement that God my Father shares all with me.
Yet I am pressed to the wall by contempt every single day. And I have been pressed to the wall by contempt for forty-five years. Don’t tell me that the people in your life are more “contemptuous” than the people in my life, for that is just being silly.
NO MATTER what I feel, I place myself inside of God-with-me, and my God, who is REAL, KEEPS me.
What Do I Want? So what is it that I have KNOWN, all through my soul, from May of 2013 until today? I have KNOWN that to place myself in my own mind and heart as being “on my own” separate from God, the mind that screams, “God, You have forsaken me,” is to place myself into VOMIT. Into vile FILTH. Into EVIL. Into INIQUITY. Into screaming ACCUSATION. Into Satan and all his demons gloating on top of me.
Why would I want to do that?
What do I want? I want to be with Father. I have no interest in the other option.
Your Feelings Are Me. Out from this simple knowing, then, when I hear Jesus screaming “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me,” I know without question that Jesus is teetering on the edge of the abyss. WHY would Jesus do such a thing?
It’s God’s law of giving and receiving. We cannot be like Jesus unless we first receive a Jesus who is just like us. Psalm 22 shows me that I am just like Jesus in all the awfulness and turmoil of my own human soul. And then I hear Him say to me, “That’s Me. Your feelings are Me sharing My feelings with you.”
One Hundred Percent Personal. And then I hear Him say. “Daniel, can we take our shared feelings, no matter how awful they are, and place them into Father’s love, that Father might carry both of us together?” And I say, with all the joy of my heart, “Yes, oh yes, we can.”
Do you see where redemption is found? It’s one hundred percent personal, to Jesus, to me, and to Father. Then I turn around, Jesus and I together, and extend that same redemption to others, one individual at a time.
But it wasn’t until June of 2019, with “Setting Forth Our Souls,” before I understood what Jesus actually did for us on the cross, and it wasn’t until December of 2020 that I did the same for another as I never had before.
They’re Just Words. Before we get to that, consider speaking either one of these two sets of words out loud to someone, to their face.
“You are as Jesus to me, and I receive you as you are.” – OR – “I accuse you of falseness, brother.”
What’s the problem? They’re just words. Well, they’re not “just words.” They are life unto life or death unto death. They are Jesus to Father or Satan to Hell. Only you can’t cause hades inside anyone except yourself. It’s a simple human decision which to speak; no “extra power” is needed. Nothing prevents anyone from speaking life or just closing the mouth, even when they FEEL horror.
Christians Are Lost. So, here is one who is filled with all the fulness of God. They dwell in all Salvation. God, their Father, shares every moment of their life with them. Yet they will not place their sinful actions upon God nor speak Christ concerning themselves when they fail. Rather, they spin hades inside their own mind and momentarily speak out from hades into someone else.
I’m talking about every Christian on earth, both sides. Christians are lost inside their own carefully crafted and unnecessary hades even though they dwell inside of all Joy. What will ever bring them out?
Prove Yourself. Now, the next lesson is titled “Jesus Sends Me.” Jesus sends us to give to others that which Jesus has given to us. We give only what we have first received, and in doing so, we never give anything of ourselves, but only what we have been given of God.
Someone might say, “Well, Yordy, prove yourself.” I have proven myself empty and incapable, end of story. Yet God is – and I choose to believe that God is telling me the truth. My faith in God is my only proof (Hebrews 11:1).
So what have we received from Jesus that enables us, then, to turn and give to others the redemption of God?
The Path of Redemption. We do not give anyone Salvation, for they already possess all Salvation and live nowhere else. What we give to people is the path of redemption, the Way that comes out from Life inside of them by which they can walk out of their own self-created hades, a fantasy that exists only in their minds.
God shares your awfulness with you, just as He did with Jesus. Place yourself only upon and into Him. And there I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the Mercy Seat – inside Jesus own soul in the midst of His great agony.
Jesus Said. Our redemption began in Gethsemane and was completed in Jesus’ final moments on the cross. (Use your own name.)
In Gethsemane, Jesus said, “God, I will drink Your cup. I will drink Daniel Yordy into Myself. I receive into Myself Daniel Yordy with all of his wicked actions, his perverse heart, his contempt for others, his arrogance, his ill-treatment of others. I drink all that Daniel Yordy is into Me.”
And on the cross, Jesus said, “God, here am I, and Daniel Yordy is inside of Me, and I am feeling awful. I feel as if You have forsaken both of us. I am ripped all to pieces. Yet I know, Father, underneath our awfulness, that You share all with us. You and Daniel Yordy join together inside of Me.”
One Hundred Percent Personal. Another Person joined me together with God inside His own Heart. Then He said to me, “Daniel, just as I have received you into Myself, into a shared life with Father, so receive this one who offends you with the receiving I have given to you.”
Redemption is one hundred percent personal from Jesus to me and from me to you. Here is how I can receive you into myself in the same way, regardless of how much contempt I might “feel.” – For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth.
Jesus Carries Me; I Carry You. Jesus does not return to the Father except He carries me, Daniel Yordy, inside Himself to share life with God. The Love that is God, poured out in my heart, does not return as my Love back to the Father except it carry you, one individual person, inside myself to share life with God. I love God by loving you with the same Love by which Jesus received me into Himself to share life with God. And I do so in spite of all my normal human feelings of contempt, just like Jesus does.
Here is the birthing of the Church; here is the cause of our togetherness.
Members of Each Other. We must use the observations of all the gospel writers in order to know Psalm 22 from inside to outside. John heard and saw everything, but he recorded only some of it, including two things the others did not.
Jesus… said to His mother, “Woman, look at your son.” Then He said to [John], “Look at your mother.” I see nothing different in this line today than what I heard from Sam Fife over forty years ago. This admonition from Jesus was not momentary and isolated. Jesus was speaking the same receiving into all, everyone to everyone. We are members of each other.
Witnessing the Church. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and immediately out came blood and water. And the one having seen this [John] has borne witness, and his testimony is true. And he knows the truth that he is speaking, that you also might believe.
John witnessed the Church drawn out from Jesus’ side, just as Eve was drawn out from Adam’s side. And the Church, many together as one, come, every moment, out from this same place of joining together with God inside Jesus’ own Soul, inside His intense agony.
And we also – do the same for one another.
Life Proves Itself. There is only one Life, and that is a shared life with God. And the Way coming out from that Life comes out from Father and me together. That Life, then, is proven when a brother or sister OFFENDS me with all awfulness, when I am reeling in pain, when I FEEL all contempt, when I WANT to defend myself, but can’t, when I WANT to throttle that person, JUST LIKE Jesus, and when, just like Jesus, I receive that person into my own heart with the same receiving Jesus gave to me, and when I bless them and set them free from myself into LIFE.
This is why Jesus died; that He might be Himself inside of me. That He might win your heart.
What I Need. Consider again the question, “Why did Jesus ‘have to’ die?” The truth is, I must know an absolute salvation; that is, I must have God’s redemption as an answer to everything.
I know only myself. After a life of observing other people, I know they are similar in the ways of being human that count. I am a psychological mess. God has dragged me into knowing Him, even as I kicked and screamed every step along the way. How on earth could one so messed up as me speak Christ as my ONLY life into all certainty? Jesus died FOR ME, for my sake. I NEED a positive END to myself. I NEED to know that my life is brand new.
A Positive End. One thing and one thing alone gives me the confidence to run recklessly into all the knowledge of God, confident in His salvation in every moment of my life.
Jesus is the one through whom all things become. The entire creation exists and is sustained by His good speaking. When Jesus went silent and then died physically, the entirety of the old creation vanishes for us in our understanding. Yet I see readers still struggling over “sins.” Two things ONLY persuade me to flee from any calling of myself my own. First, by the cross I fear God, straight eyeball to EYEBALL, and second, the CROSS ENDED ME.
And We Also. But then we see God placing contempt for others straight in front of Jesus such that His own soul agonized with the same feelings you and I feel. The death of Jesus towards that contempt gives us the COURAGE to call ourselves the same.
And then we look upon our fellow Christians. One thing and one thing alone allows and enables us to impute no consciousness of sins to those who are visibly obnoxious. – The death of Jesus in our knowing, and the blood and water pouring out from His side.
We KNOW Love because Jesus loves us – and we also.
Reading for Next Time. We’ve gone a bit longer in this lesson than normal, but we must complete a full foundation for the final page of John’s gospel in The Jesus Secret II, “Jesus Sends Me.” Read all of John 20 and 21 for next time. Consider carefully how Jesus contends with Peter to win his heart back.
Jesus then said to them, “Peace to you; just as the Father sent Me forth, so I also send you.” And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive Spirit Devoted. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain any, they are retained.”
I am grappling with our authority to redeem.
Let’s Pray Together. We cannot give to others what we do not first accept from God for ourselves. I can receive you into myself in spite of all your offense BECAUSE I acknowledge, inside my own story of self, inside the deepest places of agony, that Jesus receives ME into Himself. Yet let’s speak to Jesus as and for the sake of the Church poured out from His side into the earth, yet one by one.
“Lord Jesus, I am the one who has been hostile against God for no reason. I am the one who has erected mighty barriers of accusation against a God who loves me. I am the one who must be “appeased,” that is, to be made willing to come out from my own hades into knowing all Joy.
“Lord Jesus, I receive Your sacrifice as sufficient for me. I receive Your death as my own; I receive Your resurrection as the only life I am. Then I turn with You, Lord Jesus, and I see Your Church drawn out from Your side, that they cannot believe and will not receive Your life as their own.
“Lord Jesus, here is my brother who has offended me, yet he is my friend. In my own soul, I want to despise my brother, but I see You, Lord Jesus, and I see that he comes only out from You. I realize with You, Lord Jesus, that he does not know what he is doing. Lord Jesus, I dwell only inside of You. Yet as my brother is part of me and I am part of him through You, I am able and willing to speak to God as and for his sake.
“God, my Father, I speak inside of you as and for the sake of my brother, those things he is unable to speak for himself. God, I receive Your offering to me, the Lord Jesus, and I place all my wicked actions upon that sacrifice. For the sake of my brother, Oh God, I run into You, into all Your Devotion, and I place all my wicked perversity entirely and only upon You. I belong to You, Oh God, and You belong to me.
“Oh God, for the sake of my brother, I accept the death of Jesus to my full satisfaction, that I, indeed, am dead. The old is gone, and only the new remains. I accept the Blood of Jesus to my full satisfaction, that I am part of You, that You cannot forsake me. I accept the LIFE of Jesus as the only life I am. God, my Father, You share all with me.”