10. Shed Abroad and Immersed
The next pages for Romans in The Jesus Secret II cover Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7. I had already created a page for each of these, but I have added a second page for Chapter 5, “The Love of God Is Shed Abroad in My Heart.”
I wasted a lot of space in my earlier run through and had made poorly constructed frames for my boxes. As I tighten things up on each page, including re-constructing the statements of faith layout, which I had done wrong, I end up with new space to fill. When I add a line or two, I will not bring that into the Zoom meeting. But I will include here any new box that I add along with the new pages.
Three Boxes Only. In all of these pages, then, including the new one, I have added three boxes. I will share all three in this lesson. The page for Chapter 4 is “I Believe that God Is Telling Me the Truth,” drawn out from Paul’s comments concerning Abraham. When I removed the wasted space, I had room for a large box which is “Like Abraham – Of Abraham.”
When I looked at the topic of the Love of God shed abroad, I realized I didn’t want to fill the page with heavy discussion. Instead I chose to use the piece I wrote to introduce Knowing Jesus As He Is, just condensed for this page and fitted into a “Jesus Secret” box. Then, on the page “I Live to God,” for Chapter 6, I added a small box titled “Immersed.”
Hearing the Same Voice. In our study of the people of the Old Testament, we saw that James was right, that these were people just like us, who loved God, who believed that He spoke the truth to them, and who wanted to be with Him.
Across all the years of hearing God speak to me in a still small voice, personal and real, I just assumed it was God and never thought otherwise, yet I never imagined that I was hearing the same voice Abraham heard. Only after completing my life story did I realize that this was true. Yet, according to Paul, it must be true, for we share the same faith of Abraham, that this is truly God speaking to us and that He is telling us the Truth.
Essence and Confidence. Then we see that God anointed Paul to place, right there into Abraham’s story, the essence of God and how He brings forth life, calling those things that be not, as they are. This essence of God is then matched with the certain confidence of faith in Abraham, glorifying God as God, that He is True, and that He is with me, and we find that we are tucked into this same faith, even a part of Abraham, synergeoing with God, making all things good.
Isaac came into the world through Abraham’s faith. Jesus came into the world through the Father’s faith. Yet God honors us by placing us into that same faith of Abraham, believing that God indeed comes now through us.
Like Abraham – Of Abraham. Abraham was God’s rebuke of Adam. Abraham treated God with respect. Abraham did not have a Bible. He heard God speak to him, inside his spirit, only a few times over many years. Yet those quiet and undramatic words were sufficient for Abraham. He always thought that it was truly God who had spoken to him, and he defined his entire life by those words. Abraham wanted to be with God and he was confident that God wanted to be with him. Upon this certain and confident faith, God established the gospel by which I am saved.
I am just like Abraham; I share his same faith. When God speaks to me, in the quietness of my spirit, I honor God. I believe that He is speaking to me and that He is telling me the Truth. God calls those things that are not and they become. Like Abraham, I am fully aware that the outward appearance of things do not line up with what I know God has spoken. But like Abraham, I am utterly confident that what God has whispered to me in my spirit and has revealed to me from the pages of my Bible is the only thing True. I glorify God as God. I come out from the faith of Abraham; I am his offspring.
Proof. The greatest test and the greatest proof that we are confident that God is telling us the Truth is our response to Romans 5:5, partly as it pertains to ourselves, yes, but even more so when it governs our view of our fellow believers in Jesus. Do you love me with the love of God outpoured in your heart by His Devoted Spirit – or not?
Like Abraham, we are fully aware that your outward appearance and mine do not seem to demonstrate what God has spoken. Yet also like Abraham, we honor God above all, and we know that He is causing that which does not appear to be the only thing True.
The Jesus Secret (From Me to You). I know that the Lord Jesus Christ lives in Person inside of your heart. And because I also believe in Jesus, I know that God is telling me the truth when He tells me that His love is shed abroad in your heart through the Devoted Spirit whom He has given to you.
For that reason, I know without question that you love me more than I can know. I know that you think more highly of me than you do of yourself. I know that you lay down your life for me. I am humbled and silenced by your love for me, for I know how costly it is. Do not be concerned about doing anything to cause me to doubt how much you love me, for I believe in the Jesus who lives inside of you, and I know that the love of God through you for me is without end.
I see you as the face of the Lord Jesus, the One whom I love, who fills you to overflowing. This Jesus alive inside your heart is every Word God speaks. And as every Word God speaks, this same Jesus is written as Spirit Word all through the pathways of your heart. Your heart, your human heart of flesh, is more the Bible than the opened Book on my desk ever could be.
God knows you in the depths of His own being. You are coming into existence every moment because Jesus Himself is speaking you out from the Father. In fact, He sustains you in power by every good Word that He is. I believe in Jesus, and therefore I am certain that God is telling me the truth about you.
God is meek and lowly of heart, and He thinks more highly of you than He does of Himself. God always carries you, walking beneath of you, lifting you up, causing you to know Him, causing Himself to be known through you everywhere you go. Your Father carries you through a way you could not go yourself, all the way through death and into life. Your Father causes you to be His dwelling place.
For that reason, I acknowledge every good thing inside of you inside of Christ Jesus. But I especially acknowledge the love of God poured out inside of and shed abroad out from your heart by the Devoted Spirit which He has so freely given to you.
Because I am convinced that God is telling me the truth, I know that His same Love overflows from my heart towards you as well. And as we, you and me, acknowledge the wonder and goodness of God as Love between us, then the Father Himself, God All-Carrying, is seen and known by all inside of His creation.
Be blessed in all the love and revelation of Jesus, Daniel Yordy
A Better Term. The page for all of Romans 6 I had titled, “I Live to God.” On that page, I used the term “fused together with God.” This time through, I felt that the term “fused” was not the right choice. “Fused” is a mechanical term, as in welding; whereas God lives in that which is organic. The concept is the same, but I have become very interested in using God’s terminology, though always in a personal way.
The word God uses in Romans 6 and elsewhere is “immersed,” or “baptizmo” in the Greek. The word “baptism” is much too ritualized to be of any use to us. But the direct translation into English, “immersed,” is.
No More Forever. I have now titled this same page as “I Live Immersed into God.” In fact, as I reword everything to fit with “immersed,” there comes a more beautiful flow.
The picture of baptism is the same picture as the crossing of the Red Sea. – The Egyptians whom you see today, you will see no more forever. – The old man of sin, that you now see as vanished into Jesus’ death, you will know no more forever. All we have to do is close our mouths and never speak of ourselves as if we are against God, ever again.
Yet our immersion is also into God’s Spirit, and we live always and only inside of Devotion, inside of Belonging.
Immersed. God uses the metaphor of water to enable me to understand Christ Jesus as a Living Spirit Word into whom I am immersed, as into a bath of water, and who floods into me, spirit, soul, and body, immersing all that I am with Himself. Because I am also immersed into Jesus’ death, complete and finished, I know that the old man of sin I used to be is gone forever. Therefore, I speak and confess the good things of Jesus inside of me, for He causes me to know that I am also already utterly immersed into God. And as Jesus floods my soul as Living Spirit Word, so also the Father immerses me. I live only to God.
Jesus in Our Hearts. It would not surprise me at all if we learned that, on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, as all the Old Testament devoted ones came rushing into Him, of all humans in history, the first to ask Jesus into his heart was Abraham. Think of that. The first human to ask Jesus into his heart!
The Gospel is quiet simplicity. The Gospel is utter trust and devotion. The Gospel is brazen confidence in God, that He is utterly with us, that we are immersed into Him. We are children of Abraham because we also have asked Jesus into our hearts, the sum totality of everything.