3.1 The Cycle of Life
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Jesus begins His prayer in John 17 by establishing His authority to speak the Kingdom of God into existence. The basis of that authority is the first definition of glory, specifically, “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”
Then, in verse 5, Jesus brings in the second definition of glory. And, in fact, verse 6, I have manifested Your name, comes entirely out from this second definition of glory. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was. We KNOW this is NOT “heavenly” glory, for this is glory before heaven existed.
Keeping Word
Once Jesus establishes His authority to speak the Kingdom of God into existence, in verses 6-8 He transfers each one of us from the power of darkness and conveys us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). This transfer happens by a very specific process defined by this line – They have kept Your word.
Here is the process of “keeping Word” as defined by Jesus; remember to think in terms of all here now, continuous. Father gives words to Jesus -> Jesus gives words to us -> we receive those words -> we know that Jesus is always coming out from Father -> we believe that Father sends Jesus (always into us, every moment).
John 17
Before returning to this process, I want to make some more comments about John 17. First, this chapter is rarely preached or taught. Out of thousands of hours of sitting under Bible teaching from many church realms, I remember very little on John 17, typically only a passing reference to emphasize something else. This oversight is an egregious (meaning ‘remarkable as a bad idea’) error on the part of the church of Christ. This prayer is the shape of the true Church and the outflow of the Kingdom of God. The more I look at it now, the more its precision, power, and extent grows in my understanding. Yet by God’s design, it is only now being unveiled to us.
Nouns and Verbs
In this lesson we want to look at some specific words.
There are 21 nouns that Jesus uses in this prayer, including the four actors, as well as other specific objects or concepts. Those nouns in order of first appearance are: Father, Son, authority, age-abiding life, flesh, earth, work, glory, world, name, men (disciples – us), word, all things, words, one, son of perdition, Scripture, joy, evil one, truth, love.
Then, there are 21 specific actions in this prayer, many of them repeated a number of times. Those actions in order of first occurrence are: Glorify, give, know, send, finish, possess, manifest (make visible), keep, receive, come forth, believe, pray, come to, lost, fulfilled, speak, hate, sanctify, perfected, love, declare.
The Process of Life
The words we want to focus on here, however, are four nouns, glory, name, word, and words, as well as four verbs, finish, manifest, come forth and come to. Two of these words are inside the process of “keeping word,” the process of LIFE that Jesus describes in verse 8, the others come just before or just after. Each of these eight words are critical for us to KNOW this cycle of life by which we live every moment.
But why is it that the church does not know this prayer? Mostly because of verses 20-23, the greatest BLASPHEMY ever uttered upon this planet, the total overthrow of “heavenly – angelic – glory” as the image of God.
Finished
I have finished the work– Jesus is speaking entirely by faith; He has not yet walked the path of the Atonement. Yet that walk IS the Glory of which He speaks, Father revealed. It is finished (John 19:30). These words are absolute and total. Everything of the Kingdom of God begins in these words. Everything is already finished.
Finish (Webster’s 1926): the result of completed labor; the condition of being perfected. Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Finished – Absolute and Today, the foundation of all present reality.
Glory
I have finished the work– is the first definition of glory, glory as a seed to be planted in the earth. Yet the two definitions of glory are always together, the first always becomes the second, glory as the revelation of Father; the seed always brings forth more seeds just like itself. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them – and I am glorified in them (verses 22 & 10).
The work is finished, but the glory is not. The glory of “it is finished” becomes the Father’s heart revealed through us. Thus we find the highest expression of glory, the core of the Kingdom of God, in these words: and you also ought to lay down your lives for the brethren (1 John 3:21).
Name
I have manifested Your name. Name (Webster’s 1926): The title by which any person is KNOWN; a description, an account of character; a representation of individuality, reputation, and character.
We ascribe only one primary “name” to God, and that is Father. All other words may describe His character. We do not call God “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”; those who use such terms do so to turn God into an idol and drive Him far away from their hearts. In Germanic languages, the word “God” is a form of “good,” and is appropriate because it does not idolize Father.
But the One we KNOW, by Jesus’ prayer, is Father.
Manifest
I manifest Your name. “Name” is the second definition of glory, revealing the Father’s Heart, showing the character of His Person in action.
Ephanerōsa (I manifest): a form of phaneroó: to make visible, make clear. I make clear, I make visible, I make known. From phos, “light,” to illumine; to become apparent.
Jesus makes an invisible God visible; Jesus the Man, through weakness, is the appearance of the Father. Thus all knowledge of God begins first only by knowing the Man, Christ Jesus, the One who lives in our hearts. Here is how we know Him: By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us (1 John 3:21).
Word
And they have kept Your word. Jesus always speaks by faith; there is no other way to speak.
According to Strong’s, word, logos, is the embodiment of an idea. In this case, the “idea” is Father in Person. Your Word – the embodiment of Father in Person. This Word is inside of Father as the essence and meaning, the description of Father’s Heart. The Word is a metaphor; the Word is a Body carrying an invisible Person, Father, making Him known.
My body is my embodiment; it represents me because I live in it. You cannot know me except by metaphor, that is, through my body.
Come Forth
They know that I come forth from You. Exēlthon (I come forth): a form of exerchomai: to come out of. From ek, “out of” and erchomai, “to come.”
Here is where all deifying and reducing, idolizing and separating, Father and Son must be vanished from our minds. This word is describing a continuous ACTION, always NOW. Exerchomai means to emanate from, to make known, to arise from, to be uttered, to flow forth from.
I am IN the Father – absolute, on the one hand, yet always, on the other hand, coming forth, emanating out from, as light out from the sun, causing Father to be known.
Words
You give Me words; I give those words to them. Rhēmata (words): from rhéma: a word; a thing spoken, a word or saying of any kind, a matter or business.
We do not separate between rhéma and logos as many do; the logos is not “written,” but spoken as well. Rhéma is the entering of the logos into us to become logos in us. The Logos, One, as He comes every moment out from the Father, becomes rhéma, many words entering into us to become again One, Christ Jesus Personal in us. Rhéma allows us to call every Word, words, coming forth from God into us to be this same One Jesus, the Father’s business, inside of us.
Come To
I come to You. Erchomai (am coming): same word as “come forth,” a continuous action, filled with dynamic energy.
This same Jesus who is, every moment, in every place, coming forth from Father into us, is, in the same way, coming forth from us into the Father. This action is the ever-acting nature of the cycle of life, represented to us by the Bond of the DNA molecule.
As we established in Symmorphy II Essence, Jesus, the Human, is eternal and infinite, ALL HERE NOW, causing Father to be known in every heart in which Father is becoming known. We are speaking of the source of the Kingdom of God.
The Cycle of Life
There is an English word that means this cycle of life – symmorphy.
Look at the circles; see how Christ is always coming out from Father into us and then always proceeding out from us into Father. Christ is not passive static, but always mighty energy and dynamic workings. This cycle of life is the constant connection of Father with us.
Alternating Current
This dynamism of connection between Father and us through Christ Jesus, as Jesus is speaking it into existence by His words in John 17, is pictured for us by alternating current electricity. Direct current is the slow passage of electrons through a wire from power source to power consumer. But alternating current is the passage of frequency from the power source to the power consumer in a constant back and forth traveling at the speed of light. That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Yet this “alternating current” is words, the Lord Jesus Christ, continuously declaring the Father’s NAME, that is continuously revealing Father, making Him visible through us.
Sharing Heart with God
Is this cool or what?
And I am glorified in them. Glory is sharing Heart with God. Glory is revealing Father’s Heart to all. We do that by 1 John 3:21, life laid down and love poured out.
The Kingdom of God, then, is the ordering of all things new out from Father’s Heart revealed. I have never in all my born days known such a wonderful thing.
Finished; I AM the result of Jesus’ labor. Father’s Heart in me now; Father’s Heart revealed.