“… when He is revealed …” (1 John 3:2, NKJV)
The reader should remember that we are currently attempting to gain a better understanding of the characteristic nature of the cherubs. In the last paragraph of that teaching we quoted 1Cor. 2:7, which speaks about the “wisdom of God”, which is the Christ (1Cor. 1:24), or the cherubs who exist “in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory”. Then we noted that we’ll next try and unfold this shibboleth. Let this be our next step into aforetime, or the other reality, even if we only get to the gist of it in the next teaching.
Our readers will remember that last week’s teaching dealt with, amongst other things, the tension between IMRI and INRI. These two words coincidentally (!) reflect one another. Obviously, I was seduced by the similar sound of the two words, and how their meanings might intermingle.
Let’s start this discussion by thinking about the dynamics of the process that involves the hidden God and His mysteries on the one hand, and the searching man on the other. This process is directed by language, where we are using the term language in the widest possible sense. For instance: nature has/is a language; events of which we form part, even at a distance, can be a language; dreams are/have a language; the subconscious is/has a language; people are language texts; the Bible is obviously a text which can communicate on various levels, including in untapped and hidden ways. We can continue like this, there are many more. But each language must be read, interpreted; each text must be uncovered, regardless what the intention of the creator/Creator originally was, or what the possible ability of the ‘reader’ of the text may be. If we remember that the entire process of communication is directed by the Spirit of God, we need not have reservations about communication failing because of our own ineptitude. It is very important to never forget this.
Any approach is thus strictly speaking a gross simplification, but it helps us to catch the general drift. Incompleteness is sadly part of man’s universal condition throughout the ages, and despite this he still strives towards full understanding, perfection, the totality of knowledge. Yet we know that this process is one we always keep approaching, but never quite reaches. We know and prophesy in part. In this current dispensation we unfortunately always see through a mirror in a riddle (1Cor. 13:9 & 12).
By now we should realise that for the Bride of Christ the dynamic core of this process is the epos-word. The epos or epic-word is an intimate connection point between Logos and rhema, between the hidden, playful God and the seeking, called believer tracing His steps; it is largely a cont(r)act point between God and man, “a word to speak through”, “a coded utterance”; it becomes the heart of the endeavour, the bloody remains of a butchering process in which the essential is uncovered (and life is in the blood), but also a heartbeat of the collective of Head and Body. All of this becomes the epos-word, the substance of the cherubs, the parallel message in different language, as on the Rosetta stone. It becomes a rubric through which you and I master the unknown, it gives structure to the chaos and incomprehension that constantly threatens to overwhelm us. The epos-word is that which translates between entities in the spiritual realm and the physical realm, but also between spirit and spirit. It is thus also a space in which meaning, wisdom, insight, knowledge, sense, and more, is hidden, cordoned off, impossible to see; but simultaneously also a space in which is capable of growth, division towards new life.
God and man are thus caught up in this unfolding manner in a Body of Meaning. That which separated us from God before time is what gets resolved, removed in this space that is also a Godly process of unfolding. Selah.
1John 3:2 remains the core Scripture of this prospect: “it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”. The Greek word for revealed here is phaneroō, which Thayer defines as “to make manifest or visible or known what has been hidden or unknown, to manifest, whether by words, or deeds, or in any other way”. It seems as if this specific word for revealing or manifestation can be directly linked to the epos-word, as it now establishes a connection with the process through which we are able to know God.
This word ‘reveal’ is often absolutely misunderstood as pointing to the so-called second coming of Jesus. However, it doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with Jesus, and even less with his so-called second coming, or then, his Parousia (or revelation). If we then read the text in context, from verse 1 onwards, it becomes very clear that it is concerned with God and HIS REVELATION: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” Then follows verse 2, where the “children of God” are again explicitly mentioned, and where we find four pronouns that refer to God, and His being revealed. In verse 3 we find another two references to God. And then if you read verse 5, it is almost as if your brain automatically reads Jesus within it, but it consistently refers to God, even if it is an action that we only connect with Jesus: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” In verse 6 this important declaration is made: “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.” Also verse 7 is concerned with God and the righteousness of His sons.
It is only in verse 8 where we find the first mention of the manifestation of Jesus: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Here the word manifested is interestingly enough also phaneroō! For the first time the Father and Son are juxtaposed in terms of their particular manifestations or phaneroō. But in the following verses, 9 and 10, the focus is again placed on the revealing of God and how His manifestation takes place in His sons: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”
There is an emerging consciousness that has the potential to completely change you and I, when we grasp the revealing of God, which will bring about that we will be equal to Him, because we will see Him as He is. Note that consciousness implies “enlightened eyes of the understanding”, a particular way of thinking.
• Selah: Why would there be two distinct manifestations of God and Jesus?
• Read: 1 Kings 10-15
• Memorise: 1 Kings 10:4-5
• For a more in-depth understanding: What is the typological meaning of this? It is of great
importance.
