7.2 Sharing Life with Jesus
An essential part of being enclothed with Christ Jesus is that He gives His Life to us that we might share it with Him, and we give our lives to Him that He might share them with us. There are two aspects of this sharing of Life together; the first is complete union, both inwardly and outwardly, and the second is Fellowship shared together, Person with person inside our souls.
Being joined with the Lord as one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17) is a complete union inside of us as the core and essence of our humanity. Sharing flesh with Jesus, one flesh with Him (Ephesians 5:30-31) is a complete union in our outward expression. Jesus lives as us. Then, inside such union, Jesus and you share sweet fellowship together, forever.
Defining Life. We speak of “Life,” but what is Life? Jesus said that Life is knowing the Father. Yet we know the Father only through knowing Jesus Sent into us first. Thus our fellowship with God always begins with our fellowship with Jesus. – Companionship with the Father and His Son (1 John 1:3). Yet that fellowship of soul is the topic of the next lesson; in this lesson, we want to consider the entwining of our lives with Jesus’ life and the entwining of Jesus’ life with ours.
A rock is “static.” There is no movement inside of it, and it doesn’t go anywhere of itself. Life is an action that shows itself in two ways. First, there is movement taking place inside of a form, and second that form moves from one place to the next. We could say that life is “fluid,” within and without.
Character and Plot. The “story of a life,” then, is also two things, within and without, also called character and plot. The story we tell ourselves about ourselves is our character, the inscribing of words. – As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Solomon). But our actions over time is also the story or “plot” of our lives, that is, the account we give of ourselves as we move through every next moment and interaction inside of God.
For the Word of God is living and energeoing and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating through [all inside]… and is capable of judging [inscribing] the pondering and purposes of the heart. And …all are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him [our Father] to whom is our word of account [our story of self] in return (Hebrews 4:12-13).
Giving an Account. The living and energeoing Word always penetrating into us is Personal, the Lord Jesus, now become our very hearts of flesh. Having no sufficiency in ourselves, we offer only the same Word as Christ back to the Father. – Put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself, upon all that you are (Romans 13:14). This is the meaning of honesty, faithful and True.
Giving an account is normal and forever, it is the story of self which we speak, Grace – God-with-us. Giving an account of our lives inside the presence of God every moment is the most EXCITING part of our glorious Salvation, for the Joy of entwining Jesus with ourselves and ourselves with Jesus in our knowing, in every conceivable way, never ends, but only increases forever.
Jesus Lives as You. What does it mean that you are completely one with Jesus in Spirit and in flesh, in the core of your humanity and in all your outward expression? What does it mean that Jesus lives now as you and that you, in fact, live now as Jesus?
Inside of this love brought to full completion fused together with us, we have the boldness to speak [Christ our life] inside the [to]day of judgment, that just exactly as He is, so also are we in this present world-cosmos (1 John 4:17).
On the one hand, everything you do and experience is Jesus sharing Himself with you and on the other hand, every part of your human stumbling and foolishness, Jesus carries as Himself as the living scapegoat of your Atonement. Jesus Himself has become your life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45)
My Name and Yours. How are we enclothed with all that is Christ Jesus? Jesus first includes us inside Himself. – You inside of Me and I inside of you. – As we acknowledge that He does, then we place Jesus upon ourselves in response. Yet even with our response, the faith of the Son of God now ours, Jesus continues as an active agent in this way, “I will write upon you My new name.”
Then we also include Jesus inside of ourselves, by invitation first, and by dining with Him second. Jesus fills all that we are by our permission, by our active acknowledgement. That means that He actively places us upon Himself in this way, “I will speak your name inside the presence of the Father.”
Now, when we say Christ Jesus, we mean all that He is, Spirit and Word, and when we say us, we mean all that we are, personally and together.
Symmorphy and Synergeia. The Greek word Paul used for “put on” was enduo. Enduo means that we enclothe ourselves with Jesus as a garment, as sinking into the covers of our bed. Thus, when people see us, they see Jesus as the image of the Father, and we see one another as Jesus to us. In the same way, Jesus enclothes Himself with us as a garment. Thus when the Father sees Jesus, He sees us, the expression of His own Person.
Just as Christ Jesus is Word and Spirit together, so we share with Christ Jesus both the form of Life and the movement of Life always together, that is Symmorphy and Synergeia. All we have known of this union remains fixed, even when we forget momentarily, but all increase of our knowing continues as an active engagement with Jesus, and He with us, forever.
All That You Are. Consider the meaning of putting Christ Jesus upon all that you are. Every part of your humanity is enclothed with Jesus. Every part, aspect, and meaning of your spirit is enclothed with Jesus. Every part, aspect, and meaning of your physical body is enclothed with Jesus, and declared clean by God. Every part, aspect, and meaning of your soul is enclothed with Jesus.
You put Jesus upon all your abilities, inabilities, and disabilities. You put Him upon all your triumphs and mistakes, all your joys and sorrows, all your aspirations and losses. Yet in placing Jesus upon yourself, you never lose your humanity, the person you are and have always been. As Jesus says always to you, “My presence with you is all that you need, for all that I am finds its completion inside all your human weakness.”
Every Moment and Interaction. I also put Jesus upon all the memories of my past, and upon every present and ongoing moment. This is the account I give of myself inside of God, the story of self active in my soul.
In the present time, I place Jesus upon every memory of every moment I have lived, and upon every interaction with others, such that every memory etched in my being, spirit, soul, and physic, is speaking only goodness, only thanksgiving, only Christ Jesus to me. Yet in the ages to come, I will revisit every interaction I have ever had with others, together with that person. Whatever our interaction might have been, we together will place it into Jesus and Jesus upon it, inside of FIRE, yes, but also in goodness and joy. Every knee will bow and every tongue will speak Christ.
All That He Is. You are enclothed entirely with all that Christ Jesus is, means, and does. You put all that Jesus is in His humanity, every moment He has known, upon yourself in every present moment. You put all that Jesus is in His divinity upon yourself in every present moment.
Paul uses the word enduo, enclothe yourself with, in reference to bowels of Compassion, to immortality and incorruptibility, and to all the armor of God. We see this armor now as every ability of Jesus which He imparts to us as our overcoming. All of these things, no matter how big they are, are just parts of the Lord Jesus. There is always so much more, every part of Word, every part of Spirit, and every part of Father connected utterly with us.
Beyond Our Wildest Comprehension. Let’s just list some of the big things that are Jesus that, by the Gospel of our Glorious Salvation, we place upon ourselves until we KNOW that we are enclothed with Christ Jesus.
We place Jesus upon ourselves as every Word God speaks fulfilled, as rivers of Spirit poured out without limit, as the One who cleanses and resolves all, as the King of the Universe, as the Sustainer of all in power, as the Revelation of the Father. We place Jesus upon ourselves as all Love, as all Redemption, as all Wisdom, as all Pro-Seeing, as all Judgment, as all healing and life and joy flowing out, in all our knowing and person. Yet in all this mighty Symmorphy and Synergeia, beyond our wildest comprehension, Jesus remains Himself, our Savior and Master, the One upon whose breast we always lean our heads.
An Indissoluble Life. In all this entwining of Jesus’ Life with yours, and your life with His, Jesus always remains Himself, and you always remain you. Yet in all, you and Jesus are always together, part of one another. This is the meaning of an inseparable, indissoluble, and endless LIFE (Hebrews 7:16). Nothing either you or Jesus has known is ever lost, yet all things are always returning to you together, brand new.
Yet inside this sharing of form and movement fused together with Jesus, we also share with Jesus, privately inside our own souls, a sweet fellowship that only grows forever. Then, added to that fellowship, all the fulness of the Father comes with Jesus to us, along with our love for one another, the glory of knowing one another in the same fellowship, being enclothed with Christ Jesus.
Let’s Pray Together. “Lord Jesus, You have become so wonderful to us, so real, so ever-present. Lord Jesus, You have become the very fabric and meaning of our lives. We would know You, Lord Jesus, even before knowing anything or anyone else, for we know the Father and one another only through You.
“We belong utterly to You, Lord Jesus, for You have first given Yourself utterly to us, that we might be with You inside of Father. We give ourselves to You in open acknowledgment. Lord Jesus, cause us to know You as all Word fulfilled and as all Spirit out-poured, inside of and through us for real, as we have never known You before, for You are our very LIFE.
“Yet Lord Jesus, we recognize that above all, it is Your bowels of Compassion for Your Church, for Your own ones all across the earth caught in darkness, caught in their hour of greatest need, that we place upon ourselves, You, Jesus, through us. Let Compassion for all our fellow Christians be the all-consuming drive and meaning of our lives.
“Lord Jesus, this is the Day of Your Power; we give ourselves to You in all readiness, that You might through us strike down the darkness that accuses Your Church. We are Your authority in the earth, Lord Jesus; we speak You into our world. Be free, Lord Jesus, to reveal Yourself through us, to remove the cover of blindness from Your people. You are God’s answer to us, Lord Jesus; You are our Victory.”