10.4 Identity from the Lamb
In this lesson, I want to set out how it is that Jesus as the Lamb of God is the only thing that fills our identity perfectly as God designed us. And when we say, “The Lamb of God,” we mean everything found in Jesus carrying us inside Himself from Gethsemane to the Resurrection, and we mean our Blood Covenant with God.
Of necessity, part of this discussion will include elements of our redemption, that is, our own passage out from ignorance into the full knowledge of God as His Mercy Seat. Identity as war is very much part of that passageway, speaking Christ against all opposition and refusing not-Christ, yet the war we learn is part of our completion as well.
The Lamb Alone. By the end of this lesson, we want to be back to the wondrous reality of God flooding our human soul as Word and Jesus as the anchor of every part of our human identity. This is the practical meaning of symmorphy, for it is the Lamb of God who has entered into us to be all that we are.
We will not follow the path of redemption in this discussion, but rather the simple layout of the five aspects of God’s design of our human hearts. You see, sharing Hheart with Father God is the highest and deepest level of symmorphy, yet we have seen that we can share the form of our hearts with everything not-God and call that awfulness our “human self and nature.”
It is the Lamb alone that makes the difference.
A Neutral Vessel. The five aspects of the human heart we have called ambition, person, definition, devotion, and fellowship. These things are the construction of a neutral vessel, just like the form of God’s Heart. You see, God is symmorphic as well, and His Heart is designed to contain another Person just like ours, another Person filled with many persons, you and me.
You see, God is meek and lowly of Heart, and because His Heart is filled with us, inside of Jesus, He thinks more highly of us than any other part of His Being. In fact, if God’s Person is the center of His Heart, that means that we share form with the deepest privacy and respect of God’s Person. Indeed, this is the meaning of Blood Covenant.
Which Came First? Before continuing, we must ask the question, which came first? Was the Lamb having been slain and alive again a response to human need? Or was it the other way around?
And so we assert that the Walk of the Atonement was the clearest report ever given to creation of God as He is; the stumbling Walk of the Atonement comes first. That means then, that every part of the human, and especially of the human heart, was subsequently designed out from the Lamb Slain to receive and to reflect, to contain and to sing in harmony with, to fit and to reveal, that initial and only revelation of God AS HE IS.
You were designed to sing the Song of the Lamb!
Ambition. Ambition – zeal – determination – the need to rule, to build, to increase – the need to procreate – ferocity – endurance – the need to protect what belongs.
The zeal for Your House has consumed Me. - For the JOY set before Him. This is the nature of God’s Heart; this is the nature of our hearts.
The best of what is human comes out from this quality we are calling “ambition,” and the worst. It is the quality that leads one man to lay down his life so that others might live, and it is the quality that leads another man to murder many so that his own “kingdom” might increase. Ambition is the strong outward drive of all human doing; it is the thing that takes any of us forward.
One Thing Only. Ambition led Jesus to lay down His life, the ambition to win your heart for His own. Ambition has led me all my adult life, the ambition to hear Jesus say, “Well done.”
BUT – I don’t care for other people much; I typically care for myself in any present moment. What on earth, then, would cause me to turn every moment of my agony into blessing for the sake of others? One thing only – the Lamb Slain for me. – I am crucified with Christ.
Because I KNOW that I will never please Jesus, and because I KNOW that His death IS MINE and that He carries me inside Himself all the way through, all the ambition of my heart is turned to His. Only the Lamb Slain for me could possibly change the direction of my heart.
Person. Person – self – me – the center, the director, the observer, the overseer – the ego – the ‘I’ – self-awareness.
I am that I am. – I am… (the life, the light, the door, etc.).
In order to isolate this aspect of the human heart, we remove all qualifying words such as “the need to.” This is why a “split-soul” as James describes it, cannot ever be just two, for there is always the ME, tired and afraid, running back and forth between flesh and Christ, between good and evil. This is the “me” at the center, looking out. My emotions and desires are out there, my circumstances are out there, my thoughts are out there, but I am here, inside, both subject to and ruler over all those other parts of me. – I am defiant and afraid.
One Thing Only. When I began this lesson, I had no thought of Galatians 2:20, yet it did not take me long to see Galatians 2:20 in every part. One thing only can save me from me, and that one thing is Christ Jesus, willing with all His heart, having become me.
Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ.
Indeed, this is the very center and depths of symmorphy, apart from which no other aspect of Christ could become ours. Zeal, word, fellowship, devotion, these are things that Jesus and I can share together. But FIRST and foremost, Jesus shares me with me, and I share Him with Him. My self-awareness is Jesus’ self-awareness, and Jesus’ self-awareness is my self-awareness. This is me!
Definition. Definition – philosophy – ideas – the need to understand, to figure out, to explain or excuse – the need to tell a story – to speak – reasoning – designing – the need to be RIGHT.
As I hear, so I speak. – The wisdom which is from above. – You are a letter of Christ written with Spirit ink. This is the nature of God’s heart and the nature of ours.
Now, much of the processing of this aspect of the human heart flows through the human mind, that is, the brain. Nonetheless, all underlying definitions are found in the heart. The brain thinks only by the direction of the heart. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Solomon). Why do you reason thus in your hearts (Jesus).
One Thing Only. What is the quality of the Lamb Slain that touches the reasoning aspect of the human heart? – And the life I now live inside this sphere of flesh, I live entirely inside the sphere of the faith of the Son of God.
Can I believe that the word of Christ is actually describing me? – Absolutely NOT! – And forever not! It is Jesus Himself coming to me and enveloping me with His own faith in every Word God speaks that enables me to eat of Him, to place His speaking upon my entire self-definition. Faith is that female and human quality that receives Word from God into itself to become that Word. Jesus gives me His own FAITH, the Faith that took Him forward every stumbling step.
Devotion. Devotion – belonging – attachment – the need to have a place, to belong, to fit in, to be admired and respected – sanctity - loyalty. Then, conversely: antipathy – disrespect – treachery – the need to hold in contempt.
Be devoted to Me, for I am devoted to you. – When he had found one pearl of great price, [he] went and sold all that he had and bought it.
This quality of the human heart is the inward parts out from which fellowship comes. It is the cause of that which we hold most dear, family and home. And it is the cause of the worst parts of human awfulness and war, that is, the willingness to destroy every other family over the excuse of “protecting my own.”
One Thing Only. What will save me from the horror of pretending to love my own family and self, while destroying, or at the least, disrespecting yours? What will save me from my crippling devotion to myself?
One thing only - This One having loved me.
The personal and immediate LOVE of the Lord Jesus for me is the one place where I live, where I belong. I can think about the possibility of loving you ONLY when I KNOW that I am found only inside of His love for me first. – Jesus is devoted to me. – I can give myself to the Father’s purposes, ONLY when I, personally and continuously, know the love of Christ for me, rooted and grounded inside of His love.
Fellowship. Fellowship – reciprocity – companionship – the need to give and to receive – the need to cooperate. Then conversely: antagonism – dislike – ignorance – the need to disagree.
Lo, I am with you always. – Love one another. – Give and it shall be given to you.
The first two qualities of the heart fit the personal side of being human, whereas these last two qualities fit the social side. The same applies to God’s Heart as well. All human communication operates out of this quality of reciprocity, from learning to speak to the memorial service. This is the ability to receive, to make it one’s own, and then to give a new, unique, and personal version to others.
One Thing Only. This quality of the human heart employs the rest of the human body and soul in its outworking more than the other qualities. Indeed, most all human education and work fits into the category of receiving and giving. It is the responses of others towards us that shapes so much of how we build our personalized kingdom of self.
One thing only will entice me into leaving all my construction of self-identity projects behind – this One… having given Himself [traded Himself] entirely for me. – A full exchange of all – full and continuous reciprocity. I hear Him say to me, “Learn of Me,” and I am intrigued. Then I discover that receiving Him is a continual exchange, my self-story now His, and His self-story now mine. I prefer Jesus with me to me by myself every single time.
War. Now, the Lamb of God Himself has provided to you all these things as His own Person, yet He never forces Himself into your knowing. Knowing Jesus Sent into you is a deliberate and intentional action on your part, an action you will choose to do ONLY out from the qualities of the Lamb Slain for you and alive in you.
Everything in your life in this world and in your former makeup, even as a Nicene Christian, is designed to block and strike down, to mock and refute the Lamb Slain becoming you. If you want to KNOW that you are just like the Lord Jesus Christ, you must fight. The re-creation of your identity, your human soul, happens only by striking down on the one hand and prophesying Christ as yourself on the other hand.
Victory. We now have a new definition of “victory.” Victory is Jesus and I so one with each other that our every step is now placed inside of and for the Father’s purposes.
Every one of the five qualities addressed in Galatians 2:20 is first Jesus towards me. – His death, His Person, His faith, His love, His fellowship. Those five qualities of Jesus towards me fill my heart. Then I do what only a human can do, I reshape the qualities that are Jesus as my own self, brand new, and I give my new-found self back to Jesus, my life, my person, my faith, my love, my fellowship.
Jesus first becomes me, that I might become Him. Placing the entirety of myself into utter rest inside of Him is my all-victory.
Joy. Joy, then, is the celebration of victory, the celebration of my full and continuous union with the Lord Jesus Christ and through Jesus, with the Father. – This is me.
Look again at the picture of a man stumbling under a cross He cannot carry, carrying me inside Himself, carried by Father through a way that neither He nor we could go. I share all form with that Man, and He with me. The Lamb Slain, the living One who was dead, but now lives inside my heart and as me forevermore.
My human identity, the entirety of the story I tell myself about myself comes out from and is my personal response to His desire, His Person, His word, His devotion, His fellowship. – The Lamb.