27.1 A Symmorphic Body
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Our citizenship (our inclusion in God’s ecosystem) exists right now active in the heavens (in the realms of spirit), out from which we (continuously and) eagerly welcome our Savior (and Life), the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the outer appearance of our lowly (individual) physical bodies, symmorphosed with (sharing the same form with) His (entire) glorious Body (the Church), down to the finest details of the energeia (the mighty continuous and swirling action) of His ability to cause ALL (by symmorphy) to be subject to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21 – modified).
In Symmorphy IV: Covenant, we investigated these lines from the view of our binding Covenant with God. Here we want to see the same thing as expressed outwardly in life together.
Symmorphosed With. Symmorphosed with (sharing the same form with) His (entire) glorious Body (the Church).
Yet we are looking at this extraordinary statement inside the pattern of home called, “composing with materials,” that is, each one of us as we are, giving our unending beauty to the whole. And we are looking at it inside of knowing God by knowing one another. We define “His glorious Body” by the same principles, actions, and knowing by which we use John 14:20, “You in Me and I in you,” and Romans 14:13, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” to define ourselves. Every nuance of Christ as me we have learned we place upon Christ as us together.
Is Jesus Symmorphic? You see, how on earth could the Church across this earth BE the very BODY of the Lord Jesus, the Body of God, as Paul claimed we are, except Jesus Himself be fully capable of being symmorphic? How, then, does Jesus coordinate all of His Body across the earth into being one body and through whom Father is speaking and singing and blessing people?
Here is a difference between Jesus and us. Jesus has the capacity of a universal life-giving Spirit. How He does such a thing, we don’t have a clue and likely never will. But He does – as Paul said – down to the finest details of the energeia (the mighty continuous and swirling action) of His ability to cause ALL (by symmorphy) to be subject to Himself.
Putting Christ on Us Together. How do I PUT the Lord Jesus Christ UPON myself? I do so by speaking that He is upon all that I am until I pass from believing that He IS to knowing that He IS to living in the full consciousness that He IS.
It is no different with our gathering together as the Church. We speak that the Lord Jesus Christ IS upon all that we are and do together until we pass from believing together that He IS to knowing together that He IS to living in the full consciousness together that He IS.
And the key is CONFIDENCE. We together are the expression of Christ together ONLY as we are confident together that we ARE!!!
A Life-Giving Spirit. Paul’s statement of our being symmorphosed with Jesus’ body was always translated and read as nothing more than our physical bodies in the resurrection being just like Jesus’ separate physical body as He exists in a humanoid form right now. But the Greek words do not place a direct correlation between our individual physical bodies being swallowed up by life and this being symmorphosed WITH His glorious body.
Symmorphosed with His body is something entirely different. For us to be symmorphosed with His Body, Jesus cannot be limited by a humanoid form; rather, He must be a life-giving Spirit, as Paul said He is. The One Body together is Jesus’ present human form.
The Full Completion. I do not take “symmorphosed with His glorious body” as meaning that we live inside of one another in the same literal way that Jesus lives inside of each one of us and each one of us inside of Him. It certainly means that we are inside of one another symbolically, in that we share the same care for one another.
Rather, I take it to mean the full completion of Jesus’ symmorphic Body in the resurrection of our own physical bodies. From that moment on, there will be no question regarding God showing Himself through the togetherness of His many-membered Body.
Members in Particular. This glorious Body, then, is composed of many members in particular, you and me as individuals, the materials of God’s House. This pure and perfect relationship between the individuality of our persons and the togetherness of His Body will be God-made-visible forever.
Outwardly, however, all you will “see” is a bunch of individual people doing what people do through the course of daily life. Thus this symmorphic and glorious Body, defining “glory” as Father carrying all, is nothing more than you and me in our human personalities relating together as we are. Love is the bond of our completion, not some sort of “super-power” or “outwardly high and holy heavenly glue.”
God as He IS. Therefore here is truly a description of God made visible, God seen and known, God showing up inside His creation as part of His creation. And be kind with one another, tender-hearted, forgiving [giving favor to] each other, in exactly the same way that God inside of Christ gave favor freely to you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk inside of love, in just the same way that Christ also loved us and gave Himself to us for our sakes, an offering and a sacrifice to God, into a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 4:32-5:2 – JSV).
This is God as He IS. And the materials composing God as He IS are you and me. Every part of our human persons is a wonder of God revealed.
Real Glory. Everyone since Adam has been looking for “something else,” something not human, something with an imagined cloak of some sort of superior aura and awe.
But Jesus’ Body is a human Body, many humans together. And GLORY is carrying one another in our hearts.
There is nothing in all the universe more GLORIOUS than caring for one another. You want super; that’s super. You want high and holy; that’s high and holy. You want “heavenly”; that’s heavenly. What is not “high and holy” is a superior and perfect, but outward and arrogant heavenly form.
Real Glory Forever. So, for us to be the real “high and holy” humans together that we already are, we must know two things. We must know, first, all this Word, this Spirit Word from which we come in every continuous moment. And we must know, second, one another as humans.
We have the Word from whence we continuously come and have been studying it to know it for some years. You see, for the first time, I see wondrous verses of the New Testament as the source of what I am as a human right now, not just the most important, but all that support them.
But then here is the surprising part of the full reality and meaning of GLORY forever – enjoying one another as humans.