Our Union with Christ 

Until Christ Be Formed In You

By Daniel Yordy – March 17, 2011
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The deepest truths of God can be known only by story. Neither mathematicians nor theologians can describe God, no matter how highly human intellect is exalted. God is found in story; He is found in a babe lying in a manger; He is found in a man hanging on a cross.

For this letter, I want you to watch Anthony Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera with Gerald Butler and Emmy Rossum. If you have seen it, watch it again; if you have not, rent it from Netflix and watch it. It is a powerful story, filled with truth, for those who have hearts to hear God speak through the pain of the human experience.

God is the phantom of the opera.

God is partly ugly. He "has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."

The second greatest accusation against God in the world today is that He is a murderer. Christians try to defend Him by claiming He is not, but to do so, they have to find ways to cut all kinds of verses out of the Bible, both New Testament and Old.

I find this reality growing in me. The closer I walk with God, the more highly I regard all that He speaks. And the more highly I regard all that He speaks, the closer I walk with Him.

Too many Christians are focused on what they are doing, where they are going, and how they are being blessed, or what God requires of them. Most Christians simply don't give a damn about God, about His heart, about who He is and what He does, about His dreams and intentions and purposes. (Please forgive my wording; "don't give a hoot" simply does not convey the true meaning that must be conveyed.)  Most have no compassion for God.

The phantom was born with one side of his face normal and handsome and the other side twisted and hideous. He tells Christine that the first piece of clothing his mother placed upon him was a hood to cover his face. She could not bear to look upon her son. The whole world treated him in the same way.

The most important scene in the story is the climax, when Christine has to choose either for Raoul to die and her to escape or for Raoul to live and her to commit herself forever to this one who was despised and rejected by men.

When Christine accused him of being a murderer, the phantom said, "The world had no compassion on me."

Raoul was everything a bride could long for, rich, handsome, winsome. There was nothing wrong with Raoul; he was not the "wrong" choice for Christine.

It's just that God is much more like the phantom than He is like Raoul.

Don't think for one moment that God is insensitive to how people treat Him with contempt.  

When the phantom said, "The world had no compassion on me," he was speaking straight out of God's heart, including all the anger and frustration and hurt. We can find verse after verse through the Bible that says exactly that about God's feelings.

Do not cut out anything God says. Rightly dividing the word of God is critical to understanding the truth, but rightly dividing and cutting out are two entirely different practices. Much of what is called "rightly dividing" is simply "cutting out" in disguise.

To cut anything that God says is to spit upon Christ.

Christ living as us in this world is not a removal of any requirement of God. It is the only possible way God's requirements can be fulfilled in our lives. If Jesus could not carry His own cross, but needed someone else to carry it for Him, how much more we? "Christ as us" is not a turning away from anything God speaks or from any requirement God has set, as some falsely accuse us; it is how we embrace with all joy and confidence the fulfillment of all that God speaks in our lives.

And don't think in any of my mention of the jeopardy in which we stand that I am speaking of something other than Christ living as us in this world. The cross was the greatest conflict in the universe and it came directly out of the greatest time of jeopardy in all history. Jesus was tempted in all points just as we are tempted. If He could not have failed, then God is a jokester. Jesus was capable of sin. For three and a half years the fate of the universe hung in the balance. That is jeopardy. Out of that jeopardy came the conflict of the cross, and out of that cross came the resurrection, the greatest grace that there is. We live in that grace. But we follow the same path as Jesus.

The jeopardy in which Jesus walked for three and one half years is the first witness of Christ upon this earth. God is preparing us to be the second witness of Christ. We are not greater than our Master; we walk in His steps. It is HE living as us in this world.

Without an enemy there is no story. Those who want to cut the enemy out of our picture cut the very heart out of God. In Gladiator, Maximus could be as great as he wanted to be, but without Commodus, there is no story and no one would care. In The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits and Aragorn could be as nice as they want to be, but without Sauron, there is no story, and no purpose, and no one would care.

Why is the Lamb exalted? Because He was slain. Because He defeated sin and death. Yet the story is not finished. Jesus was the first part of the story of God, His time on this earth was not its climax.

The Lamb can be as great as He wants, but without the Beast there is no story, and without story, no one will care, including God.

 "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:14

"And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses . . . and the song of the Lamb." Revelation 15:2-3

There is only one way to sing His song, and that is to defeat the Beast. No Beast, no song. Notice that they also sing the song of Moses, a terrible song, one that we would not dare to sing except we believe all that God speaks, except that being with God means more to us than anything else.

God kills without remorse. I know that many who love grace will cry against such a statement; but I also know that they know all the verses they are cutting out of the Bible in order to create a god who fits modern, humanistic, and egalitarian sensibilities.

"He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Revelation 19:15

These words come to us through the same hand, the same mind and heart, at the same time as the one who said, "For God so loved the world." Both words, both at the same time. Was John dyslexic? Did he suffer from schizophrenia? John, drawing from a lifetime of walking with Jesus, drawing from the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking the final words of Jesus to His church through one of the original apostles, jealous over the full revelation of Jesus Christ, out of the same heart, out of the same breath, at the same time, penned, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," AND "He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

"Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!" Revelation 18:20

God destroys millions. He wipes out the dreams, the hopes, the desires, the lives of millions upon millions of people. (I believe this word in Revelation 18 is speaking primarily about the United States in our day.) And then He gives this command. "You who are with Me, rejoice; get excited at the destruction I have wrought."

(Understand this, most American Christians advocate America executing righteous judgment. They promote the American military in its pursuit of dominating the earth with the power to kill billions. They call that "good"; God calls it evil. Then they turn and call God's wrath "evil," or at least those who believe in God's wrath. This is a very false balance. When America destroys, that is evil. When God destroys, that is Love. But when we call America's killing "evil," we are called "haters." And when we call God's wrath, "Love," we are called "haters." It is a false balance.)

Can we do what God commands? Can we rejoice in the midst of destruction? Do we care enough about the heart and purpose and intentions of this One whom all mankind despises to side with Him?

(I wrote these words before the disaster in Japan. I believe the time of sorrows has begun. The second witness of Christ wears "sackcloth." That means that we rejoice in God and weep in His sorrow, both at the same time.)

Let me share with you a story that happened to people I know. This took place in 1996.

At one of the Christian communities of the fellowship I was a part of, Upsala, in Ontario, Canada, the young people went on an outing with two of the elders in the church and their wives. These couples were the "youth leaders" in the community. There were quite a number of young people with them, more than a dozen. I did not know any of the people on this camping trip personally, but I knew of them and many of their family members were (are) close friends and brethren.

The entire group of young people and the two adult couples with them went canoeing out on a lake. This is something they did regularly. These were seasoned wilderness people who knew what they were doing. That same evening, the church back home had gathered together in a worship service.

A great wind came upon the lake; all the canoes capsized. Those who did survive spent the night in the water clinging to an overturned canoe. The brethren back home in the service knew in their spirits that something terrible was happening. Those who saw visions saw wind and trouble. These were their children. Their worship and prayers mounted to the heavens.

Meanwhile, at the lake, one who was on the shore found the first two bodies washed up. Back home, the prophets saw in a vision that the Lord had taken those two (by name) home with Him. There was no physical communication between the wilderness lake and home. The family at home knew that more were gone, but the Lord showed them only those that had been found.

The two couples, elders in the church, were gone. Many of the young people were gone. The Lord took them home. Only a few survived the long night in the water.

Back home, as their families received the direct news, the song that rose up in their midst, through the agony, the pain, the tears, was, "God is good, all the time."

Only atheism would say that this "just happened," that God had nothing to do with it. No, God holds every element of our lives in His hand. He gives and He takes away. All His ways concerning us are perfect.

We heard the story the next day. Yet through the wrenching sorrow, the greatest thing I remember is the power and anointing upon that song, as we sang it with our brethren, tears streaming down our faces, "God is good, all the time."

Those who died, the Lord took them home; and those who lived, the Lord appointed their times. In all things He is good. This is His beauty; this is His glory. All we can do in our tears and in our loss is say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord."

Yet, we no longer walk as recipients of His directives in the way we once understood. We walk in full union with this One who gives and who takes away, this One who gives life and who kills. This is the One who IS our life.  And all that He does, whether He gives or takes away, whether He blesses or whether He judges, all of it is Love.

To believe that Wrath is not Love is to accuse God falsely. Yet there is no accusation in the judgment of God, not a whiff of it. Those who accuse others do not know God. Whatever sorrow the least one bears, God shares that sorrow fully. He wounds and He heals.

Richard Kiley played Jesus in the movie, Matthew, 1993. I love his portrayal of Jesus. Most who "act" Jesus give a false image of Him, but not Kiley. When Kiley's Jesus heals, he is so excited about the joy in this little one whom he has touched. And when he rebukes the Pharisees in Matthew's terrible soliloquy against them, the great sorrow that he bears out of the deepest love and tender compassion behind those HARSH words is portrayed so clearly on Kiley's face.

Do we love people enough to strike the nations that hold them in chains of bondage? Do we love "Jews" enough to tell them that they are not Jews at all, but Turks, and that all of their imaginings that they are descended from the Israel of the Bible is meaningless? The greatest accusation against God is not that He is a murderer, but that He is anti-Semitic. The thing that the Jews hated the most about Jesus was His anti-Semitism. Jesus destroyed their claim to be something before God by their natural descent.

The New Testament is an illegal book in most nations, including the United States, because of the anti-Semitism that fills its pages.

In our world, most of those who think they are Jews are not even so! Do we love them enough to tell them it all means nothing, that they can go ahead and be the "Gentiles" that they are, since salvation comes to all men? As long as they imagine themselves to be Jews, and therefore the "chosen ones," they will continue to reject Christ.

Do we love Americans enough to tell them that their "country" is false? That it has no covenant with God; that He does not know it? That it does not exist, and therefore it is impossible for Him to bless it? Or will we perpetrate the meaningless nonsense about how God would "bless America?"

Christ saves people. He cannot save something that does not exist.

Will anyone walk with God? Will anyone share His heart? Will anyone speak for Him?

To be one with God is to be one with consuming fire. Love.

Can we sorrow with the people of Japan and rejoice in the judgment of God as this event and others like it shake the whole world and bring Babylon to its knees? Can God be all that He is in us?

Can we justify Him with great tears and great joy when all the world is shaking their fist at Him in rage and accusation? Yet it is not He that we justify, but ourselves, for we are one with Him in all things.

Let us be so filled with the certainty of the determination of God that we cannot know fear. The second most frequent command in the New Testament is, "Do not be afraid." This is a good thing to obey at this moment in time. Yet we do not obey because we are subject to fear, but rather because we share God's heart, His determination and purpose, in all ways.

When we are "tortured, not accepting deliverance." When we are tried and mocked and scourged with "chains and imprisonment." When we "wander about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." When we look for refuge "in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth." Will we sing "God is good, all the time?" Will we carry in our hearts the full certainty of God's determination through us?

To bear in our hearts the very Heart of Almighty God is to be "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." It is to sing, "It is well, it is well, with my soul" over the loss of everything we hold dear in this world.

"These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire." Revelation 11:6

This is the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in our day. Can we bear all that He is?

"My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Paul, Galatians 4:19

For Christ to be formed in us is to be all that He is.

I began this series on Our Union with Christ with a letter titled, "The Conception of Jesus Christ." He was conceived in Mary's womb, yes. But He has also been conceived in us. I want to share some references again that I shared in that earlier article.

"Unlike men, who produce new sperm daily throughout most of their lifetime, women are born with all their eggs in one - okay, two baskets (ovaries). To be more precise, a woman is born with about one to two million immature eggs, or follicles, in her ovaries.

Throughout her life, the vast majority of follicles will die through a process known as atresia. Atresia begins at birth and continues throughout the course of the woman's reproductive life. When a woman reaches puberty and starts to menstruate, only about 400,000 follicles remain. With each menstrual cycle, a thousand follicles are lost and only one lucky little follicle will actually mature into an ovum (egg), which is released into the fallopian tube, kicking off ovulation. That means that of the one to two million follicles, only about 400 will ever mature."

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1639.html

*****

"A woman's eggs are fully formed and stowed away in her ovaries from before birth. Each mature egg contains one copy of each gene in the human genome - half the amount necessary for life. (Each sperm also contains a single copy of each gene in the human genome.)

The maximum number of eggs that a woman will ever have is the number she has when she's a 20-week-old fetus. She'll have about 7 million of them then, 600,000 when she's born, and about 400,000 at puberty. Once a woman hits puberty and menstruation begins, her ovaries release one of those eggs every 28 or so days.

During each cycle, even though multiple eggs start to develop, hormonal signals ensure that only a single egg will be released and the other eggs will regress." Dr. Michael Roizen

http://www.sharecare.com/question/how-many-eggs-born-with

*****

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: "The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come . . . there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'  "For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22: 1-14

To be born again is to hold an invitation to the wedding. To be born again is to possess the right to become a son of God. But God never forces anyone to do anything. Holding an invitation, possessing a right, in the end, means little - unless we respond in kind.

"Of one to two million follicles (eggs, invitations, right to become) only about 400 will ever mature." "Only a single egg will be released and the other eggs will regress."

"Many are called, but few are chosen."

Our western way of thinking comes out of the enlightenment. Central to that way of thinking is the idea of "egalitarianism." "Equality" in America used to mean "equal opportunity" in the same way Jesus meant when He spoke these words. But egalitarianism is not satisfied with an equal chance at fulfilling the purpose and determination of God. No, egalitarianism in Christianity now demands that everyone is always equal in experience. "Everyone (born again) goes to heaven; in heaven, everyone has the same experience with God."

This idea is not found in the Bible.

"To whom much is given, much shall be required." "The stars differ from one another in glory."

In earlier writing, I have described the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The other day, I saw a description of that transformation that was better than anything I had read previously. I want to share the part of that description I was able to write down on the only scrap of paper I had.

"When a butterfly is just an egg, tiny little buds of embryonic tissue break off from the rest of the embryonic development. These little buds, called Imaginal Discs, contain embryo cells to grow the body and wings of the butterfly. These Imaginal Discs will stay inactive inside the caterpillar until the chrysalis is formed.

"Once inside the chrysalis, the body of the caterpillar dissolves and everything except for the Imaginal Discs turns to liquid. Fueled by the nutrient-rich fluid surrounding them, the Imaginal Discs grow the body parts of a butterfly. In essence, the process of birth is beginning all over again.

"The butterfly that emerges from the chrysalis is a completely new organism, as different from the caterpillar on the inside as it is on the outside."

*****

Everyone who is born again has an equal opportunity to become a manifest son of God. But of all the many who are given that opportunity, only a few will be found in that place.

The difference between the many and the few is entirely in how we respond to all that God speaks. No one is forced to believe all that God speaks. Those who do have determined in their hearts to be with Him in all that He is whatever that means.

The formation of Christ in us is identical to this transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. "We are being "metamorphosized" into the image of Christ." (2 Corinthians 3)

When we are born again, the "Imaginal Disc," that is, the description of Christ, His DNA, is planted in our spirits. Yet we continue in this world looking very much like a messy human being, stumbling along upon the ground. That is what we are supposed to be.

In our messy human state, we eat of Him. We eat His word, we walk with Him, we learn His ways. Being a caterpillar is not "bad," it is the appointment of God. Being a Christian is not the end of the road, it is our chance to become a son of God.

Then God sets us aside and we let go of everything. We no longer need to be a self separate from God, trying to bend ourselves to God's will. Now we are just Him, revealed as us in this world. Inside that "nutrient-rich liquid" that we have become, the DNA code of Christ takes all the "stuff" found in us and forms us into the image of Christ.

So we can rephrase that entire piece. Let me do that here.

"When a Christian is first born again, there is inside of his Christian humanity the buds of Christ, the word God speaks. These little buds, called the Image of Christ, contain embryo cells to grow the fullness of Christ in human form. These Imaginal Discs (Christ in you) will stay inactive inside the Christian until the time of being shut away in God.

"Once inside that place of separation from everything except God, the "Christian" dissolves and everything except for all God has spoken, embraced by faith, turns to liquid. Fueled by the nutrient-rich fluid surrounding it, the Image of Christ, the Word God speaks, grows the body parts of a new Man for a new age. In essence, the process of birth is beginning all over again.

"The manifest son of God that emerges from the chrysalis is a completely new organism, as different from the Christian on the inside as he is on the outside."

Every human being, every believer in Christ, is given this one opportunity, their appointed days on this earth, in these mortal bodies, in our dying flesh, to become all the fullness of Christ, to become a manifest son of God. Every believer in Christ has the right to become that son, to be caught up to God and to His throne.

Only a few seize hold of that for which God has seized hold of them.

Whatever God does, it is ALWAYS mutual with us. It will never ever be any other way. God will never, He cannot, force us to become His sons. He will never force us to walk with Him as an equal - He, the One who fills, we, the ones who contain. We must desire it as much as He does.

We become His sons by believing what He says, by contending with the oath of God.

All the rest become happy Christians, whether in the heavens or on the redeemed earth, blessed by God, and enjoying the light and liberty of the sons of God. This also is our joy and our rejoicing.

But only those who believe all that He says will know His humble heart, the great sorrow and the great joy that He bears. They will know Him, because His heart is theirs.

They will place their hands upon His ugly - lovely face and kiss Him with the tenderness of compassion.

This is the One with whom we have to do. Do we insist on just part of Him, the part that is acceptable to us? Or will we insist that He remove His mask and show us all of Himself, the handsome and the ugly, the One who gives and the One who takes.

Do we care enough about Him, to know ALL that He is?

Will we walk with Him side by side, heart to heart, as His equal?

This is the dividing line, and it is holy.

Be blessed in the Lord,
Daniel Yordy