16.2 The Axis Lines
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
God has given us the answer, an answer far more important than you might realize. I have said that I would not join with any gathering together that is not flowing out from the word that I share. Now I know exactly what I mean and why. It’s not “the word I share,” but rather living together IN Christ versus living together not IN Christ.
Now, when I saw that the six points of proportion and balance were drawn out from the wonderful balance found in nature, I placed drawing out from nature as the first point. Let me do that again. 1. The balance of all things in life together must proceed out from the nature of the Spirit.
One Spirit with Him. Placing this point first then teaches us to place another verse before Galatians 2:20, for we learn Galatians 2:20 only out from this verse. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). We learn that we are flesh of His flesh, one flesh with Him, inside of Galatians 2:20, but we could never enter through Galatians 2:20 if we did not first KNOW that we are one Spirit with the Spirit of Christ.
Then, we expect to pencil out six more things found in this verse that is our entrance into all that is Christ. But first, we must place the cross.
Vertical and Horizontal Lines. – Organize the house along lines of movement and growth, both in plan and in elevation. One line, or axis, normally starts at the main entrance, branching out toward the sun and views, away from the street and its noise. Another begins at the ground and grows up towards the sky. –
Think about the house in which you live. Step out into your front yard, even, and look at these two lines in the proportions of your house, the vertical line reaching up to the sky and the horizontal line covering the full extent of your house. Walk around your house and you will see those same two lines moving always with you. Fly over your house in a plane and you will see the two lines even from above. Whether in-balance or not, all houses are encased in these two axis lines.
Outside the House. Now, as you are considering the axis lines of your house, appreciating them in their full view from every direction outside your house, what is the one thing I can say with absolute certainty about you?
You are outside the house. Inside the house there are other factors of balance, but inside the house things are three-dimensional, not two.
All who SEE the cross are living outside of Christ.
You see, the agony I lived in through the entire 21 years I was part of that fellowship had nothing to do with the difficulties and hurts of learning to walk together with others. The agony was something entirely different.
Agony Undiminished. Now, that agony lessened in later church experiences, yes, but only because modern church means very little in people’s lives. And, now that I think of it, it was the difficulties and hurts of walking together that lessened, not the agony which continued right on.
In the early years of the Christian communities “seeing Christ in one another” was frequently preached. That word vanished long before I left. If you see the flesh in one another, the flesh will always grow larger than Christ. And HOW ON EARTH can you love one another when your core theology tells you that your heart and their hearts are deceitful above all things, that you dare not trust your heart, that the heart is the enemy that will take everyone from God.
The Mighty Barrier. One of the most revolutionary actions I have ever done in my life was the first time I wrote in these letters, “the cross is behind us.” It takes a man or a woman who dares to go against the flow, not just to say and believe such a thing, but to live inside of Jesus as a result.
The cross is the outside of the house. The house is John 14:20, living in Jesus and Jesus in us. Outside the house, the cross – DIE, brother, DIE – stands as a mighty barrier keeping God’s unbelieving people from entering into Christ. Inside the house, the cross – I am (already) crucified with Christ – stands as a mighty barrier keeping all sin and death from entering into us.
Two Wings of a Great Eagle. Now, I’ve said these things before in differing words, but this illustration now so enlarges and clarifies our understanding.
Then I thought of the horrifying dilemma of the Church of Jesus Christ, our brethren, kept out of Jesus in their knowing by all the Nicene preachers telling them that they are not allowed to live in Jesus, not until they die to their flesh, and, since, by default, that cannot actually happen, not until they die physically. Thus “heaven” becomes the house, not Jesus.
This line rose out from my heart and I understand our war. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent (Revelation 12:14).
Into Her Place. “To her place” – what place is that except John 14:20? God’s people belong in one place only, inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of them. (The serpent is outside the house.)
Now, remember our picture from Covenant. As we enter back into the Church of Christ, we ignore entirely the “dealings of God in the altar of incense” and all the preachers standing before the veil, turning God’s precious people away from union with Christ (they all do that, I can show you, each time, how they do exactly that), and we go directly to the Table of Showbread, teaching Christ as He IS because we KNOW that the cross is already finished. Why the wings of an eagle? To take the Church of Jesus Christ right over their heads, right through the wide-open veil.
A Big Deal. We know Galatians 2:20 regarding our own lives as members of Christ. Our purpose now is to see our entrance into Church, into that life together that is Christ in fullness, through this same wide-open DOOR.
And I have spent all this time getting to the Door because the agony was so great, and its answer is the central meaning of my life. It’s not sufficient for me to know Christ as me, I must also know Christ as us together. I’ve already written the first lines of the next session, beginning with “I feel like crying.” Even though I hope to place the answer between here and there, I will leave those words and build from them. It’s not possible to express how big of a deal this is to me.
Galatians 2:20. You must know that the answers we will find as we unfold “parts in proportion” through Galatians 2:20 and inside life together as the Church, are the answers to the deepest dilemma and agony of the entire human race. Through all those years, God had placed inside of me the agony of creation; God had placed inside of me His own travail. And we are referring, of course, to Gethsemane.
Christ I have been crucified with. I live, however, but no longer I. Christ {Himself in Person} lives inside all that is me. More than that, the life I now live inside this sphere of flesh {flesh of His flesh – see Ephesians 5:30-31}, I live entirely inside the sphere of the faith of the Son of God, this one having loved me and having given Himself [traded Himself] entirely for me (Galatians 2:20 – JSV).
Finding Our Points. Look at that, point #1 is already there in Paul’s wording, Paul did not say, synestauromai Christo, I have been crucified with Christ, he said, Christo synestauromai, Christ I have been crucified with. Let’s find our points.
1. We are one Spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ before we ever enter through the cross. Everything, then, of balance and proportion, proceeds out from our observance of the very natural Spirit of God.
2. The axis lines of the cross, one line through the connection of earth and heaven, the other line across the breadth of all creation, order all things in perfect balance. All things of the old enter the new only through the cross.
3. The cross is already finished and complete, a past tense event made perfect in our every present moment. The cross is our entrance into Christ.
4. Inside of Christ, we are one with Him. It’s all Jesus and it’s all us, brand new and alive. It’s all us, yet it’s all Jesus, our very and only life.
5. The present faith of the Son of God inside which we dwell allows us to place every moment and action of our lives in the flesh, past, present, and future, entirely and only into Christ.
6. Jesus, this Son of God, accomplishes this transaction, our having passed through death and into life, entirely because He loves us as His own.
7. The manner in which Jesus accomplishes our full union with Him is by giving us His soul in exchange for ours, His story in exchange for ours. Every part of our story has now become His and every part of His story has now become ours.
Christ Our Life. Christ is our life; we have no other life. Those who live inside the house see only Christ, in themselves and in one another. Sin is not in their knowledge, and “flesh” has become the manifold expression of Christ through each one fashioned by God.
Our life in this present flesh, then is defined by three verses, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 5:30-31, and Hebrews 10:19-22. And here we are extending all these things from ourselves to each other, to life in the flesh together.
Our Action Points. Let’s reduce these to seven action points.
1. Live out from full and natural oneness with the Holy Spirit. 2. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God inside of Christ Jesus. 3. Live with no consciousness of sins inside of Christ, for the cross is finished. 4. Walk in the knowledge of your full union with Christ, Jesus living now as you. 5. Place every moment and circumstance of your present flesh entirely into the faith of the Lord Jesus. 6. Rest utterly in the determination of Jesus to accomplish all union with you by love. 7. Take Jesus’ self-story upon yourself and place Jesus upon every element of your own story. – We are compelled to add another. 8. Extend every element of your union with Christ to include that same union of Jesus with life together as the Church.
Continuing with the Axis Lines. I never appreciated Galatians 2:20 the way I do now. I gave it two and a half chapters in Symmorphy I: Purpose, yet I did not know it the way these eight simple action points make it to be now to us.
In the next session, we want to explore how the balance and proportion wrought by our entrance into full union with Christ through a finished cross governs the order of life together as the Church, how everything fits. In the next lesson, we will implement the concept begun for us in the story of Ruth, that of extending our own personal union with Christ out to include every aspect of life together. But in the remainder of this lesson, we will continue with the two axis lines of balance and order.
The Vertical Line. Let’s start with the vertical line. The authors of Patterns of Home state that this line begins with the ground and reaches up to the sky, but passes through the main entry door in the center of the house.
The first part of balance, the first part of union, is that the cross restores absolutely the connection between heaven and earth, spirit and flesh, that was ripped apart by Adam. Death is no more. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). And now we understand Romans 8:13 – If you, through the Spirit, put to [this] death [of a completed cross] the deeds of the body, you will live [inside of Jesus].
The Union of Spirit and Flesh. Inside of union, we divide no one into flesh versus spirit, for flesh and spirit are fused together in full and perfect balance by the finished work of Jesus. Inside of life together, we see all things of the heavens merged together with all things of the earth. Cleaning the public toilets is as much a ministry of the Spirit as preaching an apostolic word. And we recognize every element of being a normal human being, in all bumbling foolishness, as the prism through which any real apostolic word might be coming.
But look at the point through which that line passes, the heart of Jesus – the doorway into all that is Christ, now our hearts as well.
The Horizontal Line. Then, the horizontal line of the axis is very interesting, a bit complicated to understand at first. – One line, or axis, normally starts at the main entrance, branching out toward the sun and views, away from the street and its noise. –
First, the horizontal axis clearly includes all that was old. For if One died for all, then all died – Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5).
“Starts at the main entrance” – starts at the heart of Christ Jesus, both lines. “Toward the sun and views” – towards putting the Lord Jesus Christ upon life together, upon all that we see, every view out from the windows.
Away from the Noise. “Away from the street and its noise” – away from the cacophony of this world. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2), by seeing all things as Christ.
The noise of the street is the false judgment that wants to place sin and the evil one upon one another’s flesh, upon the very flesh of Christ. That’s what it is, cacophony and noise, this false judgment that begins with accusation and complaining and ends with exalted self-righteousness – gone by the cross of Christ. All false story is swept into and thus ceased upon the cross of Christ.
Out From and Through. Finally, the author’s state that these lines are lines of movement and growth. That means that the full connection of heaven and earth is alive and dynamic. It means that the full gathering of all things into Christ is alive and dynamic.
And what is the source of that aliveness, the point out from which both lines proceed? Two things. In one picture it is the heart of Christ Jesus, Gethsemane, and in the other picture, it is the wide-open Door, our entrance into all that is LIFE, all the House of God.
When you step into Christian Community, you are stepping through the Heart of Jesus, now your heart as well.