24. Be Just Like God
We cannot escape the simple reality that it is God who says it the way He says it. He says, "Love, just as I love; be perfect, just as I am perfect." The greatest commandment of the Bible is this:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants… Revelation 1:1
When He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe… 2 Thessalonians 1:10
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:18-21
We are not children playing in the marketplace; we are sons of our Father and we are set with unmoving hearts upon the fulfillment of His purpose through us upon this earth. You and I are the story God is telling.
The central drive and focus of the great story of God is the one event, the one reality, the one overwhelming purpose that has been the grip and the passion of my heart and soul since my first community experience at Graham River Farm – the unveiling, the revelation, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.
It is this to which I have devoted my life; it is upon this that all of my writing and sharing is focused. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed openly upon this earth through you and through me in all fullness.
One of my students asked me, “What would you do if Jesus walked through that classroom door right now?” I said, “He has! He came into the room in you.” The look on his face said that he knew it was true in a “Christian” sort of way, but not really what he was seeking.
But that’s the whole point. How would you recognize Him? How would you know it was Jesus and not someone else? There are no lightning bolts, no grand heavenly music accompanying Him. He comes in as just an ordinary man, no beard, short hair, a simple button-collar shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. If He said, “Hi class, I am Jesus,” with no evidence whatsoever, would you believe Him?
Everyone looks for Superman, especially today. Yes, the Jews of Jesus’ day were also looking for Superman. They rejected Jesus because He was ordinary, one of them. They knew his family; they had watched Him grow up from a child.
But today, we are looking for Superman far more than they were. If God gave them a man and not Superman then, why would He give us Superman now and not a simple, ordinary man just like Jesus?
Yet our desire for Superman is overwhelming. We want power. We want open demonstration of superiority. We want blazing proof that we were right after all. We want thunderbolts coming out of His fingers.
Man is so backwards from God, so upside down, so inside out. He will never give them what they expect. Never!
~~~
10. Be Just Like God
God commands us to be just like God over and over through the New Covenant from Matthew to Revelation. Let me list some of them.
Be perfect just as your Father is perfect.
Be one just as God is one.
Serve just as I serve.
I send you just as the Father sent me.
Walk in life just as Christ was raised from the dead.
Receive one another, just as Christ receives you.
Love just as God loves.
Forgive just as Christ forgives.
Be holy just as God is holy.
Suffer just as Christ suffered.
Walk just as Jesus walked.
Purify yourself, just as Jesus is pure.
Overcome just as Jesus overcame.
Sit in Jesus’ throne just as Jesus sits in God’s throne.
Fourteen times here; there are more.
God does not play games with us; He does not say things He doesn’t mean, or fill His word with cryptic sayings that are “not meant for us here and now.” I reject utterly any such definition of God.
I reject the belief that we are to apply these commands of God to our in-part lives in an in-part way, waiting for some future age after we die and go to heaven to know the fullness of what God means.
I reject any theology that does not bring God into full victory and triumph inside the mud and the sweat and the blood of the physicality of this earth and in the human lives of those who believe what they do not see.
If God said it in His Word to me spoken through men upon this earth, then it must be fulfilled in me in fullness and not in part, in earth and not in heaven, in this age and not in the age to come. There must be a second witness of Christ through me upon this earth.
Otherwise His word is not true, we are yet in our sins, and it would be far better to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we will die!
Let God be true and every man a liar!
Of course, only God can be God. But we know that He reveals Himself as God through us. We are created by God to contain His life. He is Himself. We are just like Him as He is free to live as us and to show Himself to others through us. God is Himself; we are His image.
That means that God Himself shines forth through us. We are His “skin,” His temple, His dwelling place. Since God Himself reveals Himself through us, we are “like God” in the sense that we appear as Him. Yet it is always He, yet we ourselves are never absent. He reveals Himself through us.
However, even though I believe this explanation to be the truth, we cannot escape the simple reality that it is God who says it the way He says it. He says, “Love, just as I love; be perfect, just as I am perfect.” The largest commandment of the Bible is this:
“Be just like Me.”
We need a grace we have not yet known. Peter says that we need power to know the revelation of Jesus Christ – not thunderbolt power, but the power of God – GRACE. Peter said set your hope, your heart, your face, fully on the GRACE that has not yet come to you. This is the grace of fullness.
Right now, I call those things that be not as though they are. I speak, “I love as God loves, I overcome as God overcomes, I am holy as God is holy.” I speak these things in faith believing what I cannot see. God always leads me right now to dance in full celebration of a victory I have not yet experienced.
But my heart, my hope, my expectation is set fully on a GRACE that is right now coming out of the very bosom of Almighty God that must come upon me that I may know God as He speaks in all fullness and in all perfection right here and right now. That I may obey Him to be just like Him.
Grace requires weakness. No weakness, no grace. The Messiah of God is the very opposite of the Superman of man. This is the power of Story. It is the power of tenderness, the power of touch, the power of a cup of cold water, the power that opens blind eyes, that sets the captives free.
It is real power. It is to know the Father. Love, walking upon the earth, outwardly the lowest of the low, inwardly the King of Heaven.
Christ in us in all fullness. Christ who condemns no one – except those who condemn, and that only to bring them to their senses, for they can condemn only themselves.
The unveiling of Jesus Christ is cataclysm.
From my book, The Jesus Secret, Day 149-150.
~~~
Jesus is unveiled in me; God takes the cover off of Jesus in me!
The Greek word apokalupsis means “to take off the cover.” It is usually translated in the New Testament as “revelation/revealed” or “manifestation/manifested.” The book we call “Revelation” is really “The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.” It is a very specific Greek word with a very specific meaning. Each time it is used in the New Testament, that verse is central to the purpose of God. Each time it is used, it is talking about the same event.
The Apokalupsis of Jesus Christ.
An excited crowd filled the seats of the auditorium in an ancient city. There was no one, as yet, on the stage in front of them, only a large lumpy object covered by a gray, nondescript, and bulky cloth. But though they could not see what was beneath that cloth, every audience member had a notion of what it might be. Rumors had circulated throughout the city for months.
The master sculptor was finishing his magnum opus, his greatest work. What would it look like? Whose image would it bear?
Then two men walked out from behind the stage. The great Master of Ceremonies, dignified, eloquent, and beside him a scrawny little man who didn’t look like much – but everyone knew who he was.
The two men stood, one on each side of the lumpy figure on the stage. The Master of Ceremonies began by praising the sculptor, telling the history of all his wondrous works. The MC built his crescendo well, leading up to this unveiling, the greatest and most glorious of all the master sculptor’s works, the pinnacle of his skill and success.
Each man grabbed a side of the cloth covering the master’s work and pulled it back. The crowd rose to its feet in unison, wonder and acclaim in every voice. That which was there in their midst all along, but seen fully by no one, was now revealed in the full light of day.
There, revealed for all to see, was the sculpture of a man, shaped and polished as the very image and likeness of God, with the glory of God upon his face.
God takes the cover off Jesus in me! Jesus Is Unveiled In Me.
Webster’s 1926 “reveal” — That which has been concealed and kept secret – Jesus – is made known in me. Christ is unveiled, disclosed, divulged in me. Jesus is made clear, displayed, shown in me. Christ is communicated by divine power through me.
Webster’s 1926 “unveil” — God removes the veil covering Jesus in me. God uncovers the secret of Christ in me. God discloses to view Jesus in me. God reveals Christ in me. Jesus makes Himself known in me.
Webster’s 1926 “manifest” — God makes Jesus evident to the senses through me. God makes Christ apparent and distinctly perceived through me. God makes Jesus obvious to the understanding, evident to the mind, and easily apprehensible through me. God makes Christ open, clear, apparent, visible, plain, unmistakable, indubitable, indisputable, evident, self-evident in me. God shows Jesus plainly, makes Him appear distinctly, in me. God puts Christ beyond question or doubt in me. God displays, exhibits, reveals, proves, evinces, evidences Jesus in me. I am the public declaration of Christ. Jesus is revealed in me.
The Jesus Secret
My dear heart, your heart is My Throne, My Dwelling Place forever. You are My Image, the full effusion of My Glory.
You are My evidence, My proof. My Word is fulfilled in you. My Love is made perfect through you.
Together We rule. Together We seek and save all that is lost. Together We bring all things into subjection to Our Father.
My Father reveals Himself to all of His Creation through you. My Own Heart, you and I are One.
The Jesus Secret is secret no more. Christ is revealed in me.
~~~
When we understand the purpose and intention of God through us, then all of His Word comes into focus and meaning.
We are seized in the grip of His determination. The fullness of times is upon us. The deepest and most holy heart of Almighty God is coming upon us and within us. Our hearts burn with expectation. We shout, “No limit, God, no limit!” We believe all that He speaks. We have ceased seeing any part of ourselves in any way separate from Him.
Here am I, I, and the children whom You have given Me. Behold, in the volume of the book it is written of Me. I have come to do Your will.