John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (ESV)
What happened in the Garden of Eden was tragic in so many ways. The root was the fruit. The consumption of the fruit of the tree so messed up our psyche that we lost touch with the divine reality. The knowledge of good and evil set up shop as our master and has continued as the motivation for every aspect of our lives. The fallen fruit brought alive an internal judgment mechanism that has ruled our lives. I like to call this internal broken judger problem the “good-bad” for short. The good-bad encompasses the whole enchilada of fallen thinking and motivation. Our good-bad had us running for the bushes from a loving God. In the darkness of the bushes we found the darkness of understanding. We hid in irrational fear from the only one who loves us as our Father. We chose to paint our Abba with the distorted image of ourselves. We confined an infinite God to the g.o.d. box of anger and vengeance and hatred and separation and exclusion and punishment. We completely lost sight of who God really was to mankind. We lost sight of our origins in Jesus. We created a monster g.o.d. of our own image and dug a giant chasm in our minds to keep us from Him. Did you catch that? We wanted the chasm. We were never separated from Him but we chose to be separated from Him in our minds.
Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (ESV)
Jesus has to come to save us. He comes to save us from us. He saves us from our fallen understanding of our triune family. He saves us from the dark images of an angry God by bringing the light of life into all men.
John 1:3-5 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made. That was made had His life in it, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (ESV LLT modified)
The Holy Spirit reveals to us this union we have in Jesus. In the incarnation we are joined to Jesus in a mysterious way. It was always His plan to include us and has always been His plan for us to know our adoption. In the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus we were with Him. He took all of mankind that He holds together into the grave and brought us up in His resurrection as a born from above new creation in Him. So now we can know what He knows. We can experience what He experiences.
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (ESV)
The first part of that verse is Jesus dealing with the “chasm” in our minds. He makes it very clear that we are in Him and He is in the Father. We are seating in the heavenly places in Jesus while Jesus is in communion with His Father. We are experiencing and enjoying the love that the Father and Son have for one another. We are accepted as Jesus is accepted. We are included as Jesus is included. We are loved as Jesus is loved. Listen, the created cannot know the creator in our own effort. We can’t know the Father like the Son. Jesus made it very clear that no one had known or seen the Father except Him. Now in Jesus we can know the Father through the only one who really knows the Father. What chasm? How stupid is that. We can’t get any closer than inside, right?
OK, for the last part of the verse I have been seeking wisdom from Jesus on the meaning. Of course there are obvious sorts of things but I want to know what He has to say. I think I am getting a glimpse. Want to share one with me?
The “chasm” concept (which is not true, no way no how no matter what not even for sin) is an external “picture” of our fallen understanding of God, right? Could it be that inside we have a similar “chasm” of sorts? I like to refer to this “split” or “separation” as a “schism.” Here is the Webster’s of Schism:
Schism:a split or division between strongly opposed sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief. Synonyms: division, split, rift, breach, rupture, break, separation, severance.
Imagine for a moment since our good-bad painted God as something He isn’t; is it possible that our good-bad has us believing something very wrong about ourselves? Could it be that the separation we perceived (wrongly) between us and God is like the separation we perceive between the person we think we are and the person God made us to be? Could it be that the “fear” that has us hiding in the bushes from God has us hiding in the bushes from ourselves? Could it be that what Jesus is telling us in John 14:20 is that “Him in us” will reveal ourselves in Him just like “us in Him” revealed “Jesus in His Father?” Too deep? OK, check out where Jesus uses this “schism” word.
Matt 9:16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. (ESV)
Remember we are a new creation in Him. We are a new kind in Him. We were born again in Him. We are joined to Him in such a way that we are one in spirit. He shares everything with us and we share with Him. His life is our life. He killed the Adam of us to give us the Him of Him. His faith is our faith. His love is our love. His joy is our joy. His peace is our peace. Even His repentance is our repentance in the Baptism of Repentance by John. Check it out…here is another use of schism:
Mark 1:10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. (ESV)
When God creates a separation it is for us to “know that we know” that He is with us and loves us and adores us and provides for us and keeps nothing from us. Come on! When we perceive a schism, it is like us trying to sew something together that doesn’t belong together. It doesn’t work. It makes tears. It makes schisms when we join an old with a new. Our new is who we are in Jesus. Our new is who we have always been in Jesus. His union with us in His incarnation is our opportunity to discover the truth of us. That fallen-Adam, good-bad person is dead and still in the grave. It is an old piece of cloth.
Remember the good-bad is trying to keep you from you. The same walls and divisions and exclusions your good-bad creates between you and God and you and others…is at work creating division between a false you (based on good-bad evaluations and lists and rules and opinions) and the real you in Jesus. He made you and formed you and knew you from before you knew there was a you.
You have to get past your good-bad to find you. Shame and guilt and condemnation have to go. The protective measures of false pride and self-righteousness and indifference all have to go. Jesus takes all that away in His relationship with the Father and your relationship with Him. If God FORGETS THE SIN (junk) then shouldn’t you?
Behind all your good and bad is the real you in Jesus. The light shines in the darkness. You ARE NOT an evil and good person shoved together. You are just you. You will manifest in many ways based on circumstance and lies and deceptions and experience and wrong thinking and so much more. Still the real you is in there, down deep with Jesus and in Jesus. He is the WORD that speaks you into existence. He is the WORD that speaks truth into your identity. Check this out:
James 1:22-25 Give the word your undivided attention; do not underestimate yourself. Make the calculation. There can only be one logical conclusion: your authentic origin is mirrored in the word. You are God’s poem; let his voice make poetry of your life! The difference between a mere spectator and a participator is that both of them hear the same voice and perceive in its message the face of their own genesis reflected as in a mirror; they realize that they are looking at themselves, but for the one it seems just too good to be true, he departs (back to his old way of seeing himself) and immediately forgets what manner of person he is; never giving another thought to the one he saw there in the mirror. The other one is mesmerized by what he sees; he is captivated by the effect of a law that frees man from the obligation to the old written code that restricted him to his own efforts and willpower. No distraction or contradiction can dim the impact of what he sees in that mirror concerning the law of perfect liberty (the law of faith) that now frees him to get on with the act of living the life (of his original design.) He finds a new spontaneous lifestyle; the poetry of practical living. (Mirror Bible)
And if that wasn’t enough motivation:
Col 3:11 The revelation of Christ in us gives identity to the individual beyond anything anyone could ever be as a Greek or a Jew, American or African, foreigner or famous, male or female, king or pawn. From now on everyone is defined by Christ; everyone is represented in Christ. (In seeing him not just recorded in history but revealed in us, we discover the face of our birth as in a mirror!) (Mirror Bible)
Go ahead and find the real you. You are in Jesus so it is safe to go looking. You will discover “the why” of some of your junk and the healing that comes from knowing the great physician. Don’t be afraid. Perfect love casts out fear. You are in good hands. Don’t let religion or any other good-bad amplifier steal your resolve. I can’t imagine the beauty and majesty and power and goodness and joy and peace and unearthly assurance that is available when we get rid of the Schism within. It isn’t real. It is a product of good-bad. It is what Jesus came to set us free from. We are in Him and HE IS IN US. Wow!
Yay God!
Lance
alancetotheheart 