7.1 Jesus Is Union First
Salvation is Christ Jesus saving us, direct and immediate, personal and total, now and forever, Jesus, the Song of Joy which we sing, and our very hearts. The title of this chapter, “Clothed with Christ Jesus,” comes from the first commandment of the gospel – Put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself (Romans 13:14). This we do every moment, with eagerness and confidence; we put Jesus upon ourselves, upon all that we are.
Putting Jesus upon ourselves is the first quality of being human. It is not a one-time action, but continues increasing forever. Although it is simple in its execution – through faith alone, it is vast and complex in meaning and reality.
One Person inside Another. The essence of our Life is that Jesus actively enters into union with us in all that we are in every present moment. – Know that I am inside of the Father and you inside of Me and I inside of you (John 14:20).
For one Person to be inside of another Person, especially when that Person is the Father, requires that the Father consciously and actively envelops Jesus inside Himself, but it also requires from the Father an intense Desire to know all of Jesus inside all of Himself. Then Jesus turns, with the authority of the Father, and does the same thing towards us. Again, we can be inside of this Person, Jesus, only by His expressed Desire.
What Jesus Wants. I DESIRE that those whom You have given Me might be with Me where I am (inside of the Father) (John 17:24).
When we put the Lord Jesus upon ourselves, we are simply responding to His DESIRE to include us inside of Himself and with Him inside of the Father. Just as Jesus’ inclusion of us inside Himself is deliberate and active in every moment, so is our ongoing response of putting Jesus upon ourselves. Putting Jesus upon ourselves is our God-enabled response to Jesus’ inclusion of us inside Himself with great Desire. Including us inside Himself is part of Jesus’ larger action of coming into union with us first, and is the cause of our right and ability to put Jesus upon ourselves in return.
Possessing Life. God’s Life, by its very nature, is always dynamic, deliberate, and filled with great Desire and mighty energeoing, yet it dwells in pure and perfect peace. – Just as the Father possesses life inside of Himself, so also He gave to the Son to possess life inside of Himself, and He gave to Him authority to execute judgment (John 5:26-27). – The life unfolding the ages God has given to us, and this life is inside of His Son. The one who possesses the Son has the life (1 John 5:11-12).
This, then, is the wonder and Glory of our lives that, just as the Son has the authority to include us inside of Himself, so we also have the same authority from God, God-Life, to include Christ Jesus inside of ourselves – And I inside of you.
Out from Certainty. We KNOW that the Father actively and deliberately includes all that Jesus is inside all of Himself. We KNOW that the Father gives the authority of the same Life to Jesus to possess as His own. We KNOW that out from that same God-Life, Jesus actively and deliberately includes all that we are inside all of Himself. Out from all of this certainty, in response to the Energeoing Life of God filling us full, we put the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves, all that He is upon all that we are.
Yet it does not end there, for we KNOW that Jesus gives His same Life to us as our own possession, and we KNOW that He gives us the authority and the ability to actively and deliberately include all that Jesus is inside all that we are.
Uncountable. Our complete union with the Lord Jesus Christ, then, is our obvious response to His complete union with us first. Yet this knowing of union is always through faith. Just as we are enclothed with Jesus, so He is enclothed with us.
It is clear that the extent of meaning found in John 14:20 and Romans 13:14a cannot be described in full if we were to write ten billion chapters, let alone just one. All we can do is suggest a brief and limited outline of a few of the uncountable aspects of this union with the Lord Jesus that defines us. In this lesson, we consider Jesus’ coming into union with us, first. You see, every single one of these uncountable aspects of union requires the active engagement of Jesus with us and we with Him, an utter engagement of Desire and Life.
The Measurement of Desire. “Father, I DESIRE.” These words are where all things concerning us begin. Yet just a few minutes after Jesus spoke them came this, according to Luke – And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
“Father, I will drink Your Cup,” is the implied response of Jesus to God as He rose to His feet in Gethsemane. The AGONY gives us the measurement of the DESIRE, the depths by which Jesus WANTS to include you and me, each one of us inside Himself inside of God. Yet just a few minutes before, Jesus had said to His disciples, in so many words, “Watch Me carefully, for I will show you the Father.”
God’s Determination. Jesus is the speaking forth of the KNOWING that is God. The DESIRE extending to AGONY shown to us by Jesus is the visible expression in time and space of the infinite DESIRE extending to infinite AGONY of God All-Carrying, WANTING you and me to be inside of Himself, coming into union with us with all fierce intensity.
Let me say the same thing in fewer words. – Those whom He pro-knows, He also pro-determined them symmorphosed with the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). The agony of Jesus, that we be inside of Him, shows us the DETERMINATION of God that we already share form with Jesus as the revelation of the Father. Jesus’ union with us begins with and comes out from His expressed Desire showing us the Father’s absolute Determination.
Every Word Fulfilled. The first part of Jesus’ coming into union with us first brings us out from the depths of intensity inside the core of God Himself, rooted and grounded inside of Love. But the second aspect goes in a different direction, to the vastness of every Word God speaks, beyond our human ability to see. Consider this line – Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the [entire Gospel, Old Testament and New” (Luke 24:44).
The Bible is so big because God can’t stop talking, He loves Jesus too much. John said that the testimony of the speaking of Jesus would fill more books than this world could contain. Jesus comes into union with us first as EVERY Word an infinite God speaks, already fulfilled.
Enclothed with Word. Consider the vastness of the Gospel Word already all, that is Jesus come into union with us first, every Word, every detail, unfolding in ever greater depths forever. Jesus envelops us with Himself as Word, power-filled Word sustaining all (Hebrews 1:3). Every Word is Jesus, and every Word swallowing us up into its completion is utterly personal to Him and to us.
This is why we speak Christ, every Word God speaks now made personal as ourselves, so that we might KNOW the meaning of that which has already come into union with us. For in enclothing ourselves with every Word that is Christ Jesus, so we are enclothing ourselves with the very thoughts of our Father out from which we come.
Unlimited Spirit. Consider this Word that is Jesus swallowing us up inside its completion. – It is the Spirit that gives Life. The words that I speak into you are Spirit, and they are Life (John 6:63). In our limited space, we include the three most important and most staggering aspects of Jesus’ union with us first.
The One whom God sends speaks God’s words, for God does not limit the giving of His Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand (John 3:33-34). Or we could say, “God gives His Devoted Spirit without measure.” – The Love that is God is poured out and shed abroad inside our hearts through the Devoted Spirit freely given to us without measure, including us utterly inside of Jesus first (Romans 5:5 paraphrased and expanded).
Union with Us First. Jesus’ union with us first begins as the expression in time and space (by this we KNOW Love) of the INTENSE and aching DESIRE inside the depths of God’s being, WANTING you and me to be inside of Him, inside His Heart, inside all that He is, wanting to envelop all that we are with Himself. Jesus’ union with us first then includes every Word God speaks already fulfilled, swallowing us up into itself, always together with the Spirit of Devotion given freely without measure.
Yet, as staggeringly immense as all this UNION really is, all this DESIRE, all this Word, all this poured out Spirit, still, it’s all Jesus, personal and True, the One whom we love, upon whose breast we always lean our heads – Jesus, Master.