Interwoven Dance of Intimacy

In the last few posts I’ve tried to paint a picture of union in Jesus with some of the reasons and outcomes.  It is a difficult perspective for us in the west.  Western Christianity has much of its roots founded in the teaching of Augustine who got his foundation from pagan Greek philosophy and religion.  I’m not judging or accusing.  God has used it for good in ways I don’t understand.  The facts are still the facts.  The idea of a god separate from mankind is an Aristotle cosmological concept.  It is not Biblical.  The idea that this god is an antiseptic and impersonal judge of morality and is pleased by successful human asceticism  is Greek cosmology not Christocentric theology.  This wrong way of seeing God has so distorted our own perceptions that to entertain a different perspective is “heresy or blasphemy.”  Oh well.  Rejection of the truth as revealed by Jesus is not a new thing.  Mankind killed God when He showed up in person.  We didn’t recognize the light from within our darkness:

John 1:9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. (ESV)

Still Jesus came.  Still He joined Himself to mankind.  Still He killed fallen Adam on the cross (you and me).  Still He was raised again and raised us all an a new creation.  Still He made the adoption complete in Him.  Still He is in union with us so we can know the Father as He knows the Father:

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (ESV)

When I talk about inclusion and union and adoption I often get a “gut” reaction from people.  Their first response is as expected.  Sometimes it is born out of deep woundedness or  offense.  Sometimes the negative reaction is born out of unforgiveness.  I expect some level of rejection of the truth based on the fallen desire to see “judgment” on another that we have deemed “unworthy” and in need of “justice.”  That is darkness from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It is still present in our thinking.  Jesus will deal with those issues from the inside out.  In His intimate relationship with us He knows our hurts.  He knows our unforgiveness.  He knows our desire for “judgment” based on fallen thinking and darkness.  Still He finds us in our pain and shows us how much He loves us and how much He loves the one we have an offense against.

Sometimes I get a reaction that says “well if God is in us then why does all the bad stuff still happen?”  That is a question founded in darkness also.  It assumes that God is an antiseptic god of purity that can’t be in the presence of evil or evil has to flee His presence. That way of thinking is a produce of the Greek cosmology god.  The God Jesus reveals is relationship.  Everything of God is expressed in and through His triune nature.  He is uniquely three and absolutely one.  His value and worth and identity are found in each other.  His glory is in their unity.  His holiness is their other-centerdness that is like no other.  His righteousness is His humility and Kenosis emptying of Himself for each other.  He doesn’t have an ego.  He doesn’t need an ego boost.  He isn’t disgusted by sin but jumps in the middle of it to save His children.  His relationship is the backdrop for every one of those Biblical concepts that have been twisted by pagan understanding.

So when we see “Christ in us the hope of glory” it is the beauty of His sharing the divine dance of intimacy with us.  We get to know the Father like Jesus knows the Father.  We get to know the Son (us) as God knows the Son.

Matt 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (ESV)

We have to see this.  The union we have with Jesus is way bigger and more awesome than we can imagine.

Because we are so driven by our separation understanding it is hard for us to “see” what we are included in.  The Holy Spirit is revealing Christ in us so we can “see” what is going on.  When we see Father, Son and Holy Spirit sitting in a circle we likely see three “people” in a conversation.  In a real way that is true.  Each has their own “personality” and “unique expression” but it goes beyond that image.

The Father finds His identity and worth in the Son.  The Son finds His worth and identity in the Father.  The Holy Spirit is the agent of fellowship between them all.  Each completely humbles themselves  to the other.  It is like a competition to see who can go lower in the circle but there is no winner.  They each empty themselves completely of their desire for recognition over another.  They find joy in praising one another.  They find joy in glorifying one another.  They brag about each other.  They are completely vulnerable and open to each other.  They have nothing hidden from each other.  They are completely exposed.  This is a level of intimacy that we can’t comprehend.

Still there is more.  They are joined to one another.  They share each others emotions and experiences.  They share each others thoughts and desires.  They are of like mind and thought but individual in their expression.  They can read each others minds.  They share space and nature.  There is no separation between them whatsoever.  You can’t see where one ends and the other begins.  They are in perfect union and harmony.  This is what makes them one and God.  A marriage is a shadow of what they have.  The intimacy between a man and a woman, even in the “one flesh” expression, pales in comparison to the “one flesh” experience they have with each other.  This is the deepest intimacy.  This is the source of intimacy.

This triune relationship is perfect.  It is set apart from any other (Holy).  It is absolutely right as an expression (righteous).  It is so unconditionally giving that we fall under the weight of its manifestation (glorious).  It is so perfect that darkness flees, fear evaporates, guilt is vaporized (Love).

This is what we have in our union with Jesus.  Can you even imagine for a moment how magnificent?  It blows me away to get just a glimpse of our inclusion in this Family.  We are so interwoven in Jesus that we have access to this family dynamic.  We can experience His emotions, His acceptance, His inclusion, His oneness, His union, His sonship…WOW! He is so joined to us that He experiences our emotions, and hurts and hangups and offenses and “need for justice.”  He understands all of our darkness and instead of rejecting us He shines His true light from within our darkness.

Are you beginning to “see.”  We have been so blind for so long.  Years and years of wrong turns throughout history has done us no favors but has shown us what God is not.  I like the idea that many have paved roads to dead ends so I don’t have to.  Now we can being to “see” just a little of the true light shining in the darkness.  Now we are beginning to embrace the Jesus who is in us and filled with the Godhead.  We are just now tasting the glory of Christ in us.  I don’t know about you but I am beside myself and completely undone in the thought of my interwoven dance of intimacy.  Imagine what will happen tomorrow in the revelation of today!?!?!

Yay God!

Lance