7.4 Living In John 14:20
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In that day you shall know that I am IN My Father and you IN Me and I IN you.
Romans 8:29 governs how we know God’s intentions and thus, how we read the Bible. It gives us the framework for the larger picture. But John 14:20 is the primary verse of our personal salvation. Here is where we live, now, and forever.
To put it quite simply. You live inside of another Person who, Himself lives inside of you. At the same time, this other Person inside of whom you live, also lives inside of another Person, the Father, who also lives inside of Him.
The Verses of Symmorphy. Here are the verses that show this living arrangement of person inside of Person that Paul called “symmorphy.”
That where I AM, there you may be also. – He who has seen Me has seen the Father. – Believe that I am IN the Father, and the Father in Me. – Know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. – We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:3, 9-10, 20 & 23).
That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us. – that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one (John 17:21-23). Begin to take note of how symmorphy also connects together all who believe in Jesus.
Utterly Enclosed. Consider the diagram carefully. It depicts where you live right now and your dwelling place forever. I am IN My Father and you IN Me and I IN you.
You were created by God to contain another Person inside yourself AND to live yourself inside of that other Person. More than that, this other Person, Jesus, not only Himself lives inside a third Person, but also connects you to that third Person.
We Know a Man. There are many, many reasons why Jesus is in-between you and Father in this symmorphic relationship. More than that, Jesus is also in-between you and all your fellow believers inside this same place. One of the primary reasons we live in Jesus first is that Jesus remains a human. We know a Man.
Yet, at the same time, Jesus is also in the form of a life-giving Spirit, which means the Jesus inside of me is the same Personal Jesus who is inside of you. More than that, Jesus shares the same relationship with the Father that He shares with us. For that reason, everything that is of an invisible God comes to us as and through a human Person living as Himself in each one of our hearts.
Changing Your Thinking. Now, it is true that you have never thought in this way before, that you live inside of another Person who lives inside of you. And it takes some years of thinking that is, as Paul said, the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), in order for this reality to become utterly known to each of us personally. Yet as you learn to live IN this Jesus who Himself lives IN you, as you learn to think in that way through every day and circumstance, it becomes a real and natural and living relationship.
Symmorphy IS what you are and how you live. John 14:20 is already your only reality, learn to think of yourself in this way as your entire story of self.
Never Alone. Here is one of the keys in the Bible to understanding God and man as mirror images of each other. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him [of his same kind]” (Genesis 2:18). Over and over, God saw everything He created as being good. Yet now, He calls “being alone” “NOT GOOD.”
Jesus expressed the same thing. In referring to Himself as the One Seed of God to be planted in the earth, He said that if He is not planted in us, He would remain alone. Jesus agreed with God and endured all suffering “for the joy set before Him” – never being alone again. Jesus said to God, “I desire that those whom You gave Me might be with Me” (John 17:24).
Father as Well. And so I have learned to live and to think about myself. I am never alone. I live always inside another Person who lives inside of me. And this other Person is my best Friend, Someone I know well.
More than that, this other Person, Jesus, is always connecting me with Father, a wondrous Being whom I could not know except through the human life-giving Spirit that is Jesus. And, astonishingly, this Mighty and Wondrous God also lives inside of me inside of Jesus and I also live inside of Him because I live inside of Jesus.
And so I know my Father as I know Jesus. I am never alone.
The Largest Word. Think about the word “in.” I use a Webster’s Exhaustive Dictionary, seven inches thick. Each large page contains three columns of fine print. The word “in” covers an entire page, more than any other English word (I suspect, though I have not proven it out.) No other word comes close to all the differing shades of meaning that are found inside of “in,” all the differing places it fits and all the differing ways it connects things together.
The Greek equivalent, en, is similar. Greek also uses eis, which is close to our English, “into.” I like translating en as “inside of” because it makes it stand out, whereas the human mind so often misses the power of “in.”
Know Your Beloved. Do you see, now, how vital it is for you to know Jesus AS HE IS, and that you ARE just like Him. For how else could you live inside of all that Salvation is and means. You are already there, inside of all the fulness of Salvation, and all the revelation of God is already coming through you.
But you don’t KNOW what is already true.
Now, you might think that I am not “explaining” this verse like I explain other verses. And you are right. When a third party introduces you to someone who will become more than the love of your life, you don’t spend time having the third party “explain” this wondrous Someone to you. You yourself must spend time with Him.
Sandwiched. Look back again at the diagram depicting the living relationship that is your life forever. Notice how SANDWICHED in you are, utterly enclosed inside of mighty and wondrous Persons. More than that, Jesus on the inside of you KEEPS you, and Jesus on the outside of you is always making you holy.
But then look at how Jesus is also sandwiched in-between you and Father on the outside of you and you and Father on the inside of you. Paul says that everything of your life and person comes to you out FROM Father, but THROUGH Jesus. But we are not speaking of unknowable and far-away entities, but of personal Persons close and real, our own heart and breath.
Our Connection with Father. This function of Jesus, connecting you always to Father and Father to you inside and out is the function of the High Priest.
Here is how Jesus defined Himself as our Connection with Father. As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself – even so the Son gives life to whom He will (John 5: 26 & 21). Jesus, inside of Father, One with Him, takes whatever quality Father is inside of Himself and becomes that same thing inside of you and as you.
It works the same in the other direction as well, Jesus takes whatever quality you are in yourself and becomes that same thing inside of Father as you. Jesus makes God, meek and lowly of heart, part of you and you part of that same personal Father.
Knowing Jesus As He Is. Living inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of you is what you are made for, its where you fit, the only BELONGING. Here are the next vital parts of knowing Jesus as He is.
19. The Blood removes all consciousness of sins. By the blood, you never see yourself as “fallen short” or “disconnected” from God in any way, ever.
20. The boldness of a true heart alone takes believers into everything inside of God. An aggressive desire to know and to live inside of God is the only thing that pleases Him.
21. Believers live only inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of them. This symmorphic relationship is Salvation, now and forever, the only place you live, the place where you BELONG.