6.2 Many Brethren
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Proōrizen symmorphous tēs eikonos tou Huiou autou, eis to einai auton prōtotokon en pollois adelphois. – Pro-determined symmorphosed with the image of His Son, into (for the purpose of) being Himself the firstborn inside the sphere of many brethren (Romans 8:29).
Jesus inside the sphere of many brethren. Firstborn of many brethren, just like Himself, of His same Kind. Born of the same Father. Born of the same mother. Carried in the same womb. Birthed by the same pressure of tribulation. Seized together into God and into His throne.
Look at the Greek. Symmorphosed with – INTO being Himself the firstborn IN many brethren.
Symmorphy. Here are Paul’s three uses of symmorphy – symmorphic image, symmorphosed death, and symmorphic body. Symmorphic image is Father revealed; symmorphosed death is a past tense action, the completion of the atonement by Jesus, all things now made new; and symmorphic body is you and me fused together by the Spirit as members of one another. Symmorphy is all three, always all, all the time, in every way, in every place, in every togetherness, and in every solitude.
Symmorphic with His glorious body (Philippians 3:21) has another name in the New Testament used by both Paul and John – koinonia. Koinonia is our symmorphy together.
Spirit upon Flesh. We have, now, in front of us, a huge question, one which I am only beginning to ponder. How does symmorphy (You in Me and I in you) work together with and express itself through koinonia (members of one another)?
Consider the contradiction of symmorphy. “And it shall come to pass in the last days,” says God, “that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17 and Joel 2:28). God’s Spirit upon ALL flesh. – Spirit upon flesh. Now if that isn’t a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is. Because God gave humans hearts as bold as God’s, it is our tendency to use Spirit for our own superiority over others.
A Problem. I have had a sobering experience over the last few days. I won’t go into the specifics, but I saw, quite clearly, that demons are quite willing to call themselves “Jesus” inside our own seeing and to speak words of “Christ as me,” though in a mocking way. Now, that topic fits into the section on “Sheltering Roof,” but I bring it in here to show the immense assault coming against us as we seek to call forth Christ into the human experience.
Spirit upon ALL flesh inside this present age of the ignorance of God, the conniving of humans, and the provoking and setting-against work of demons is hugely problematic. God knows exactly that. And for that reason, God set into His history the entrance of Israel into their promised land as a pattern for us as we enter into all that Christ is.
Entering the Land. The children of Israel, immediately upon entering their promised land, faced walled cities and giants hostile against their possession of anything in that land. Christians, immediately upon entering into the fullness of Christ, that is, the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:21), face demons and religious flesh hostile against their possession of anything in Christ.
Manipulating others for religious superiority on the one hand and acting religious in order to impress on the other hand, are human actions always energeoed by the strange fire of angels. This is not a problem for God or for us, but only if we understand, and only inside of love one another. Entering the land, however, is the next lesson; let’s continue here with “many brethren.”
Disability. To understand the relationship between symmorphy and koinonia, let’s look further at the issue of disability. Disability is entirely of God. God is complete in Himself, yes, but God’s disability is that He has no Body, no way of expressing Himself to and in His creation.
God’s completion, however, is infinitely complex. That infinite complexity cannot be expressed through one human person. For that reason, even though each one of us is filled with all the fullness of God, we, by ourselves, in no way express all of God, nor do we even imagine such a thing. What God does, then, is place a small facet of the expression of Himself into each one of us as individual members.
One Tiny Facet. In all that I am, I am an expression of one tiny facet of God’s vast and wondrous personality. And thus my personality, Christ as me, is a vital and integral part of God’s revelation of Himself.
But if all people saw was me, they would NOT be getting the full picture of God as He is. For that reason, God gives a small facet of His expression to each member of His Body, that they, in coming together, might find and be the breadth of Personality and Being that is the full expression of God. And thus my many disabilities fit together with your ability and my ability finds its place among your disabilities.
Light Made Beautiful. A diamond is not one facet, but many together. And light (God) is made most beautiful by all the operations of those different facets together as one. Now, I am reading about how light flows through a diamond, and I am reading wonders. Alas, we must keep these articles for the sessions on “Capturing Light.”
Here is how it works. Consider Christ IN “many brethren,” 75 individuals, specifically, men, women, and children, including yourself, gathered together as the local church. You are one beautiful expression of God, but so is every other one of those other 74, and each one unique and critically important to the full expression of Father.
Being Fitted Together. As you bring your expression of Christ into the gathering together, and as I bring my expression of Christ along with 73 others, we find that we fit together and are being fitted together. What you enjoy doing and do well, I am incapable of doing. And what I enjoy doing, you are limited in that ability.
I am not made “like Christ” by obtaining your ability as one of my own (as the super-Christ people imagine). I am made complete in Christ by obtaining you as my brother or sister, walking together with me, being what you are. Light reflecting off of each one of us is beautiful, but when light passes through us into the gathering together, all the colors of the rainbow become strikingly iridescent.
Our Inheritance. In outward terms, in any given Community, one person loves to cook, another to garden, another to teach school, another to build things, another to fix things. Of truth, we all enjoy doing different things, but many other things we cannot do at all. One reason why I NEED community is that figuring money is far outside of my inclination. I need someone else who likes keeping accounts.
And so, as we saw in Symmorphy IV: Covenant, a very large part of our inheritance forever is one another. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you as the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in His presence? For you are our glory and joy (1 Thessalonians 2:19 – modified from the Greek).
People as They Are. The blessing of Community, the blessing of Church, is people. The problem with Community, the problem with Church, is people. Let’s talk about people. We don’t want to talk about idealized humans, something utterly fake, a mask driven by the whips of an arrogant Christ. We MUST accept people as they ARE.
Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God (Romans 15:7). The Spirit of God is referring directly to Gethsemane – and then to 1 John 3:16, “And we also – for the brethren.” The revelation of God is always through full reciprocity.
Receiving God. When I accept you as you ARE, I am receiving God. When I require you to be like my “image of Christ,” I am rejecting God and exalting the serpent in the garden. I can assure you of this. Most of my experience in Christian community was found in the second statement, not the first. And that is normal to Christianity in this world.
When I accept you as you ARE, I am receiving God.
– I think that should be one of the mottos inscribed visibly somewhere to remind us daily of what we are about. Yet how can I accept you as you are unless I know what you are? What are you?
What Are You? The House of God is people. The site of that House is humanity inside of heaven/earth. The Heart and Soul of that House is fellowship, the relationships of family.
So, what are you?
Here are two things we must know about each individual person coming into a community, those who are visiting, yes, but even more so, those who are committing their lives to walk together with you for this season. First, each person is very much like you. And second, each person is very different from you.
The essence of Church, which, according to Paul IS the fullness of Christ, is being fitted together with other people who are like you AND who are very different from you.
You Are Just Like Me. How are you just like me? (I will use the word “you,” but I am describing myself. Am I getting it right?)
First, you live inside a bubble of constant self-awareness. Inside your bubble you are always thinking and feeling about yourself as well as perceiving things and people outside your bubble. You are the only person you know; you are the only person in the universe. Other entities you recognize outwardly as fellow humans come and go, but you alone remain – always. Inside your bubble, you have one primary drive – the pursuit of happiness. You pursue that which you value most, that which most satisfies your innate sense of desire. Some value duty and work most; others value sensational pleasure most – both are pursuing “happiness.”
The Pursuit of Happiness. Now, your pursuit of happiness, however you define your values in the present moment, inside your bubble of knowing yourself, deepens on the one hand and becomes habitual on the other hand as you grow older. Some things become more and more important to you, things like your children growing up, and other things become habitual, like your coffee in the morning.
In your pursuit of happiness, inside your constant awareness of yourself, you have two large fears, one inside and one out. The inside fear is that you will be attacked, and that in being attacked you will suffer pain and humiliation – even to the point of death. You possess this fear because you have been attacked by angels (and humans) from your conception.
Your Fear. The outside fear has two parts. First, you fear that you will lose what is valuable to you, and second you fear that you will be thwarted in your pursuit of what you value. You have little awareness of the attacks of angels, but you have a large awareness of the attacks from people and people taking what is yours or preventing your pursuit of what you want or accusing you of being wrong.
Thus, to a certain extent, you see other people as a threat. At the same time, you also see other people as an opportunity for you to further your pursuit of happiness. You are aware of how other people respond to you and you have learned how to maneuver towards them in getting the responses you want.
A Strange Fact. On the other hand, you seldom actually think about these other persons, in their own bubble of self-awareness, feeling and fearing, desiring and pursuing, as being just like yourself. Even if you think about this “strange” fact, you cannot ever actually know the other person, that is, you cannot enter into their bubble and look out at the world through their eyes.
Now, since you are the only person you know, and since you have developed at great cost over years your own ways and values, habits and loves, fears and objections – you KNOW that you are right. You must be right, because otherwise, you would be wrong, and that is inconceivable.
They Are Wrong. When you act, you always act in sincerity, but when these people out there act in a way you don’t like, their motive is always suspect, for if they are not doing it your way, aiding your own pursuit of happiness, are they not WRONG? When you offend, grace and forgiveness towards you is what you always expect. It’s easy for God to forgive you, for you are always right and sincere. When these other entities offend you, since their motive is false, since they are so obviously WRONG, they are much more deserving of punishment than you ever could be.
Now, as we become mature adults, we learn to work through these miss-conceptions with those whom we value, yet that “working through” is always governed by our own knowing of nothing other than ourselves.
Jesus Sent into Me. Do you know what it is that solved and continues to solve all my dilemma inside my self-bubble of knowing only myself in all my mess? Jesus Sent into me, becoming all that I am, and my freedom to place every particle of my mess entirely upon Him. You in Me and I in you.
And now we realize that knowing God and knowing Jesus Sent means two other Persons inside the knowing of my own self-awareness, and me inside the knowing, inside the bubbles of self-awareness that are Jesus and Father. Symmorphy means knowing together, being an intimate and intrinsic part of each other’s bubble of constant self-awareness.
You Are VERY Different. Then, the second thing we must know about “other people” is that they are very different from me. You have entirely different values, likes and dislikes, fears, desires, interpretations, definitions, ideas, habits, ways of doing and thinking and speaking. In fact you are VERY different from me. You are so different from me that I cannot, here inside my bubble of solitary self-awareness, actually comprehend what it is you are. You don’t make any sense to me, you like things that I think are ridiculous, your ways of doing things are just “dumb.” And your ideas, when you disagree with me – well, I’d better say no more.
My Way Is Better. My biggest problem with you, however, is your ways of doing things, that is when we have to do things together. When we work together, we’re either going to do it my way or we’ll have to do it your way, and you know full well that “my” way is always better. (I’m speaking as a typical human, but my wife would say that is how I operate towards her.) What can I say? I am always right, and my way is always best.
Here is what God has proposed (you see how eccentric He is) – God has proposed to dwell INSIDE the relationships among all of these identical self-bubbles, each one of whom is always “right” and whose way is always “best.”
The Day You Became Valuable. And yes, I have not left Romans 8:29 in all this discussion, for our symmorphy with Jesus is found in the midst of “MANY BRETHREN.”
It was a great day in the course of my life, somewhere in my mid-thirties, when there entered into my bubble of self-awareness the possibility that your way of doing things could be of great value to me and that your ideas could be precious. I know, it’s a stretch, but at least I could begin to imagine such a possibility.
Now, I have written in this way in order to convey the importance of me, personally, considering other people as we enter into the press of walking together. The roots of the everyday difficulties and their solutions are found in this realization of one another. – When I accept you as you ARE, I am receiving God. –
Father at Home. Let’s go back now to Jesus inside the sphere of many brethren. Born of the same Father. Born of the same mother. Carried in the same womb. Birthed by the same pressure of tribulation. Seized together into God and into His throne.
Jesus becomes us inside our bubble so that we might become Him inside His bubble.
And when we know that Jesus has become us and we have become Him (you in Me and I in you), it dawns on us that, when we look at all these actors and agents, these other self-bubbles in our awareness, we must, by definition, love them as Jesus to us.
And then the day comes that, to our amazement, since Jesus through us is REAL, we have fallen in love with all of these other people, and with our gathering together – Father at Home.