18.3 Learn of Me
The issue of “who is responsible” is central to the reality of giving an account of our lives in the presence of God. In searching for how two seemingly opposing concepts fit together in a Godly manner, I made the following statement in the last lesson. – No account given will say, “But they.” Jesus is responsible for us inside of God; out from Him, we are responsible for ourselves in the presence of all other people. –
There are those who say, “I am responsible for myself before God.” Yet this is the very reason why God executed them upon the cross of Christ. More than that, by refusing to turn around, they are rejecting the Salvation of Christ.
The Face of God. We could say it this way. – Because Jesus has/is my back inside of God, I am God’s face towards others. The word “of” in “Learn of Me” means source, generation, “out from.”
I have just completed writing “Sealed in the Storm” in the account of my life. Just as the prayer I spoke out loud in May of 2013 changed my life, so completing this chapter has changed my understanding of giving an account. Because my account towards God is only Christ Jesus in all that He is, I am a mature son of God. Therefore the account of my life now becomes the face of God towards others. This is our new understanding of what the “likeness of God” really means.
Jesus Alone. When we say that we are responsible for ourselves in the face of other people, then, we mean that no other person can insert themselves between us and God. Indeed, that place belongs to Jesus alone.
For that reason we can see that the statement “I am responsible for myself before God,” is actually a violent act against the Lord Jesus, casting Him out. At the same time, any human, attempting to assert power over another human, is also violently attacking the Lord Jesus, to cast Him out.
A good teacher will bring discipline into the life of a student, even while being humbled by the privilege of guiding this one, who is the image of the Father, into glory.
Make It Known to You. Then, as we saw in lesson one, the end of all learning is glory, and each step along the way, from glory to glory. Glory is two things, first, it is the deepest value and second, it is a job well done.
Let’s put two verses together to understand Jesus’ words, “Learn of Me.” – The Spirit of truth… will guide you inside of all truth; indeed, He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He may hear, He will speak, and the things coming [from God] He will make known to you. All things the Father possesses are Mine… He will take out of that which is Mine and will make it known to you (John 16:13-15). Our new definition of being the likeness of God is spot on.
Reflecting Glory. Here is our second verse. – We all, then, having been unveiled in face, are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror and are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just exactly as from the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3).
I know the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit never teaches “about” Jesus, but always the Spirit shapes the things that are Christ inside of us through travail. Everything of God coming through Jesus, then becomes ours, and not just ours as a possession, but ours as the fabric and workings of our nature and construction. Then, we reflect that glory to one another. The word “transform,” then, refers to being the image and likeness of God forever.
Describing Glory. I like to write. Writing this text in particular is becoming glorious. That means two things. It means first that I am gaining the thing most valuable to me, that is to LEARN everything God means by living at Home in my heart sharing my life with me. And it means second that my writing is edging towards a job well done.
Yet someone else might excel at flying kites. And I do not use that example to be facetious, but to show the full range of humans revealing God. The art and science of flying kites is as much a reflection of the joy of God coming through Christ as anything else. Our joys and interests are God’s, that is, glory.
Making God Human. Here is our new definition of ourselves from the first lesson. – The “likeness” of God is our ability to take the next part of Himself that God is desiring to show, to make that next part of God part of ourselves on a small scale (likeness), and to reveal God into our world as He wishes in that moment (image).
Compare that thought with Paul’s words – are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror and are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory. A human is someone who takes what is of God and makes it human inside the created world, thus revealing God to others. That word “transform,” metamorphose, is taking on a meaning we have never considered before.
Metamorphy. Now we can say that, when Jesus said, “Learn of Me,” included in those words was the meaning – “Reveal Me to one another.” And we can coin a new word – metamorphy. The word “transformation,” while technically correct, does not measure to what it means to be human.
Symmorphy – Synergeia – Metamorphy. Sharing the same form – sharing the same life force, entwined together, the same Spirit – taking what is God and making it human and thus known to others. This is why the ruling verse of the Bible says “symmorphosed with His image,” because symmorphy pre-supposes metamorphy, making God known inside creation.
How God Designed Us. Please understand, we have not left the topic of human education, what it means to “learn.” In fact, we have just discovered the most wonderful meaning of “education.”
At the same time, I realize that my pre-Symmorphy writing on metamorphosis, a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly, held a fundamental error. That error is an underlying assumption remaining of – “caterpillar, bad; butterfly, good.” We now see that metamorphy, that is, applying metamorphosis to our purpose as humans, is how God designed us, an essential element in the Ekenosis of God, that is, calling God into our world.
And right now, so many Bible verses are leaping inside my heart into a far higher level than I have ever known them.
Symmorphy VIII? Let me include this. I am an educator, in training and practice equal to the doctorate level. In fact, this is more fundamental to how God made me than building or writing or gardening. That day, in January 1984, when I first stepped into the classroom, I stepped into JOY.
Writing this short chapter has changed my life and placed all my conclusions concerning real education at a far higher level and working together far more harmoniously than I have known. I am now looking forward, with eager anticipation, to the writing of Symmorphy VIII: Education. I will count that text, as the Lord gives me grace, as my own personal “doctoral thesis,” yet I must wait until I have first finished Symmorphy VII: Completion. Indeed, ADVENTURE is the next chapter.
The Process of Metamorphy. Let’s trace out the process of metamorphy, our new term for what “Learn OF Me” really means.
First, we must resolve an ambiguous phrase in Jesus’ words – and the things coming [the Spirit] will make known to you. Most translators assume that Jesus is giving the disciples the Spirit gift of “predicting the future,” that is, the “events coming in time.” But that is not our relationship with the future, rather we possess age-unfolding life, that is, the “future” unfolds out from us. Prophecy calls forth; it does not “predict.” I assert that, from the context, the word “coming” refers to God’s Pro-Knowing – the things coming out from God.
From the Father. Step 1: The first step of Metamorphy is – All things the Father possesses are Mine. Thus we assert that “all things coming” are out from the Father, out from Pro-Knowing. The Greek word is just “all.” It’s not wrong to say, “All things,” but only if we do not limit “all” just to created and tangible things. All means all inside of God, all the fulness of God.
Step 2: Jesus omitted step 2 in His words in the upper room because He had not been given the task of teaching Paul’s gospel. Jesus could not teach His disciples that He Himself would live inside of them and be their very and only life, for He was not yet glorified and they had not yet received the Spirit. Step 2 is that each “thing” of God and inside of God, Word and Spirit becomes Jesus, that is, spoken out loud into creation.
Submission to Hearing. How, then, do the “things” of God become Christ Jesus? Here is another verse that has finally found its true place. – This One [Jesus]… was always heard because of His careful reverence, though being a Son, He learned submission to what was spoken by [giving thanks in] all the circumstances, good or bad, acting upon Him. And having been brought to full completion and perfection, He became the causation of and responsibility for age-unfolding salvation to all who are hearing Him (Hebrews 5:7-9).
A teacher who teaches, “Do what you’re told,” has already failed in all good outcomes. Thus “submission to hearing” means, the Word becoming you, becoming the fabric of your soul. This, then, is the same Jesus who lives inside of our hearts.
Our Teacher-Guide. Step 3: The Spirit of truth… will guide you inside of all truth – He will take out of that which is Mine and will make it known to you. The Spirit is the teacher, and a teacher is a guide inside of all truth.
We have found very often that we must take a line from John and weave it together with a line from Paul to get the full picture. And so here is the same Step 3 from Paul. – Just exactly as from the Spirit of the Lord. This is the task of the Spirit of God, the Devoted Spirit, to form Christ in us, to guide us inside of all that is Christ.
Step 4 of Metamorphy is what happens next to this “thing of God.” - We all… are being transformed into the same image. This “thing of God” becomes us, the human us as we are, just as it first became Jesus.
How? Step 5, then, must answer the question – How? How does this one thing, out of all the fullness of God, become you or me? Two things are needed, the inner and the outer, and Paul provides us with both. The inner is the word – metamorphoumetha, an inflection of metamorphoó: to transform.
Here the Calvinist commenters actually get it right – https://biblehub.com/greek/3339.htm. “Metamorphóō (from metá, "change after being with" and morphóō, "changing form in keeping with inner reality") – properly, transformed after being with; transfigured. Applying this Greek word into English as the term for the transformation of outward appearance, metamorphosis, is also fitting.
BECAUSE! Yet we have turned around, and thus we see that it is God who is spending time with us and the “thing of God” becoming our human form.
Remember God’s principle of being and causation. – We love God BECAUSE He first loves us. – God’s doing always comes first. We enter into union with Christ BECAUSE Christ first enters into union with us. – We are made like Jesus BECAUSE Jesus is first made like us. We share life with God BECAUSE God first shares life with us. We are a reflection of God, that is, each specific “thing” that God is revealing through us, BECAUSE God is first sharing with us our human form – Symmorphy!
A Process of Faith. Metamorphy, that is, education, is the process of Symmorphy. And education has fulfilled its purpose only when the learner has made the thing being taught to be an integral part of his or her own life and doings – in full harmony with the word spoken.
Let’s make Step 6 of Metamorphy to be the outward part of the “how,” which is – We all, then, having been unveiled in face, are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror. Paul is making this process 100% of faith, for we are already unveiled in face in our present human appearance. Thus seeing Christ in one another through faith is the outward part of our involvement in our own education, that is, our own becoming the revelation of the Father.
Learning Together. One tenet of modern education is that a portion of real learning takes place in collaboration with other students. From my own teaching/learning experience, I agree, and we see in Paul’s words, so does the Spirit of God. Christ is formed in us as individuals, members in particular, AND Christ is formed in us as one body together.
In our “Steps of Metamorphy,” the first four are an actual progression, whereas the last three are things that tell us something about that progression. Step 7, then, is placing Synergeia, our active involvement with God and God’s active involvement with us in this thing called “human learning,” that is, “revealing God.”
Transfigured. You see, Paul says that this metamorphy (transformation) is from glory to glory. – And it is forever.
Now, the Calvinist translators did get in their dishonesty with the word metamorphóō because when it applies to humans, they said “transformed,” but when it was used for Jesus, they said, “transfigured.” This keeps the massive barrier they have attempted to erect between us and Jesus intact. And thus, “transformed” when applied to the human, means being changed from something not-good into something entirely different, but the same word applied to Jesus means, clearly, the glory of God revealed through Jesus’ human form.
Well, it means the exact same thing regarding us.
Synergeoing. My rendition of Hebrews 5:7-9 in the Jesus Secret Version gives us the synergeoing together essential to metamorphy. – He learned submission to what was spoken by [giving thanks in] all the circumstances, good or bad, acting upon Him.
I inserted the thought “giving thanks in,” because the Greek word for “circumstances” does mean all, both good and bad. Since Jesus responded to God as Adam should have, then we know that giving thanks is what He did, the thing that became the expression of God through Him. Giving thanks, speaking good grace, is one half of our synergeoing with God. Expecting God to arise and expecting the Spirit to turn all things good is the other half.
Learning of Jesus. I testify that in my own experience, this process of giving thanks and expecting God brings in me an increase of the knowledge of God, that is, coming into harmony with Spirit and Word.
I am not the one accomplishing this increase, but God is. It is God who is arising in me as springs of living water. It is God who intends to show Himself through me. I become gentle and lowly of heart and God becomes known through my human form, that is, the essence and being of God is transformed into that which creation can know.
Learning of Jesus through every Word He is means three things, first, we know Jesus Sent as our closest friend, second, we are just like Him, and third, Father is made known. This is education, that is, metamorphy.
Applied to Human Learning. All created things in both heaven and earth are complex and vast beyond measure. Yet they are only a tiny part of all the word that is God. Nonetheless, because a thing exists, whether large or small, whether spiritual or physical, it exists because that original word inside of God is being spoken as Jesus.
Adamic humans took the created things and made them as “God.” As sons of God, we impart to all created things the knowledge of God, that each is coming out from Him. This is the transformation of the universe, which we now know of as metamorphy, that is, setting creation free. Humans learn; it’s how God made us.
Understanding. This chapter, “Human Learning” was intended to fit the understanding/comprehension level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Of truth, I never knew that learning was God’s design of me at the very core and center of His Word. Symmorphy is what Jesus does; synergeia is what the Spirit does, but metamorphy is my part; metamorphy is what I do.
“Learn of Me” is semi-passive on Jesus’ part, but always active on mine. Understanding this basic reality of human nature is profound and life-changing. Learning is for doing, for putting together and taking apart. Indeed, I now see ages of absolute adventure just ahead.