Proclaiming The Perfect Man
We all come
into … the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a Perfect man,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Ephesians 4:13.
Asleep in the
Light.
The
other night I had a
dream. There was a house in the sky, and another on the earth. A friend
of
mine, using a square, was struggling to build a corridor or a partition
to
connect the two, to bring together the above and the below.
Unsuccessful, he
was requesting assistance, but strangely enough, a bowl of fruit was
used to
explain that we did not need to build a bridge, Ephesians 5:14.
To
the children in
spiritual understanding and the "infants in Christ," who still
perceive a gulf between heaven and earth, Christ can be the bridge. In
love,
for their sake we “acknowledge nothing… except Jesus Christ crucified,"
for not in every man is the knowledge (gnosis)
of God. For them are given the
parables, 1 Corinthians 2:1,
1 Corinthians 3:1
, 1 Corinthians 8:7,
Mark 4:11.
However,
we know we cannot
be separated from a God who fills
all things, or from a kingdom that
spreads over all the earth. For us, the chasm no longer exists. To us,
Christ
is so much more than a link. Christ is the All – perfected,
the consummation, the Perfect Man,
and the firstborn
among many brethren, Thomas
51, 113, Ephesians 4:13.
"The
deep things of
God," are for those who have attained to a level of spiritual insight.
And
so, we “speak Wisdom among those who are mature ( teleios);
the hidden Wisdom of God, which God
ordained before the ages or aeons for our glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:6.
The
Mystery
or the Secret
of Christ is that God in this Wisdom
gathers or attracts together all
things into one in the Perfect Man, the Christ, Ephesians 1:10.
Making
the head as the
body, and the body as the head, making the two into one “the above as
the below
… then we enter into the kingdom "in earth as in heaven", Thomas 22,
Matthew 6:10.
“We
all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a Perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ,” Ephesians 4:13.
This
is the fulfillment,
the pleroma, the completion of all things. Within this Christ, the “ Perfect Man,”
dwells all the fullness,
or the pleroma which perfects or completes, and reunites all things, Colossians 2:9.
Since
we also are found in
Him, with this pleroma, the perfecting realm, then we also are
completed in
Christ, Colossians 2:9,
Colossians 3:3.
The Pleroma -
The
Realm of Fulness, Completion and Perfection
This
Christ, the One Body,
the Perfect Man, is the bodily representation of a perfected universe.
In Him
dwells all the “fullness”… bodily, Colossians 2:9,
Ephesians 1:23,
Ephesians 2:16,
Ephesians 4:4.
And
yet, all creation
is groaning, waiting to be made whole. What does this mean? Romans 8:22.
What
does it mean to be
incomplete, lacking, wanting, and partial?
For
the purpose of this
illustration, we speak as mere men, Romans 6:19,
1 Corinthians 3:2,
Hebrews 5:11.
“Having the
understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in
them,
because of the blindness of their heart” the Old Natural Man, unaware
of the
One Body and the One God and Father of All, perceives the universe as
divided
and subdivided into incomplete black and white dichotomies, Ephesians 4:18.
All
the individual blocks of
the universe are perceived as partitioned or segregated one from the
other.
Even the atom, once thought to be indivisible, was later described as a
positive proton and negative electrons. In this worldview, observation
is understood in
dichotomies, light and dark, male and female, upper and lower, inner
and
outer. The building blocks are divided into two, separated
one from the
other, into distinct and unique realms. By subdividing reality, through
the
limited perception of his darkened mind, he separates himself even from
the
divine. This natural man isolates and focuses on one half of this
divided
reality. Heaven and earth become estranged one from another, Galatians
3:28.
For this
reason, everything in his
reality seems lacking or incomplete. This dual reality is not viewed
holistically, but is separation and division. In this realm of
alienation pain,
suffering, and death becomes the common experience. Everything created,
built
or given birth is seemingly lacking, incomplete and immature. In this
divided
false reality everything is constructed with imperfect and deficient
building
blocks, Thomas 72.
If
we were to build a house
made of bricks that were half missing, or whose internal structure was
removed,
then the house would not be strong. With a renewed mind, make the two
into one;
the inner must be joined to the outer. The above must be united with
the below;
the head with the body; the foundation with the structure; the root
with the
branches, John 15:5,
Ephesians 2:20,
Thomas 22.
Christ
is the vine – we are
the branches.
If
every building block was
a piece of fruit, and if we were filling a fruit basket, then we would
be using
pieces of fruit that have been cut in half, bottom from top.
The fruit
basket would not turn out complete. Neither would it be becoming. For
"if
one is divided, one will be filled with darkness... but ... if one is
whole,
one will be filled with light," Thomas 61,
Ephesians 5:8.
Wherefore
he saith, Awake
thou that sleepest,... and Christ shall give thee light, Ephesians 5:14,
Ephesians 2:5.
The Mystery
This
Perfect Christ is the
mystery and the light revealing that all the individual parts and
building
blocks are reunited with their counter-parts, and made complete or
whole. For
in him all things consist and are held together. The two realms – the
positive
proton and the negative ion are reunited – the fruits that had been cut
in half
are reunited. For He will gather together in one all things in Christ, Ephesians 1:9-10,
Colossians 1:17.
The
pleroma or the fullness
or completeness is the realm where there is everything to complement,
and
perfect us as individuals. In Christ dwells this fullness. Therefore,
in him
you are full. The emptiness is filled. That sense of lack that is
perceived in
the natural mind, the incompleteness that you feel, is the alienation
or
separation from your counterpart. You had been divided into two. In
Christ the pleroma
or the fullness completes or fills you
and every other building block in the universe.
When
we seek Christ we are
seeking completeness or wholeness. This is our spiritual journey.
Marriage
is an illustration
of this lack being filled. The mate completes you. Opposites attract
and complete
one another. All the individual parts are gathered together into One,
or
together with their counterparts and made whole in Christ in the one
universal
body. This is the cosmic marriage joining Christ and the Church
together as one
spirit, Ephesians 5:32,
1 Corinthians 6:17,
Ephesians 4:4.
You
are the two halves of
the one whole, incomplete in your own natural mind, but completed and
reunited
in the mind of Christ. You are the body of Christ. You are the bride of
Christ.
Christ and Sophia
(humanity) reunited. You are the
mature, (completed and reunited) Son and sons of the living Father, Thomas 3.
In
this new perfect man,
holding the Head, the entire universal body by joints and bands has
nourishment
from the fullness above. We are strengthened, ministered, completed and
knit
together into one, increasing with the increase
of God. Reconnected
and fitly framed together we grow into a
holy (whole or complete) temple, for Christ is all and in all, Colossians 2:19,
Colossians 3:11,
Thomas 77.
If
this house is to be
built, it must be built on this foundation of the Christ, the Perfect
and
We
are the building blocks
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
being the
chief corner stone of this universal temple, Ephesians 2:20.
This
is the new heaven and
the new earth; the new creation represented by the new man, the Perfect Man
for there is only one body,
the Christ who is all.
We
are not merely building
a bridge or a path or “
the way”
connecting the upper and the
lower. We are pointing out that in Christ there is no difference. There
is no
chasm that divides, no gulf that separates. It is all one in
Christ, Romans 10:12,
Colossians 3:11.
"What
you look forward
to has already come, but you do not recognize it… The kingdom of the
Father is
spread out upon the earth, and men do not see
it." For in Christ the universe has
been made whole. It is in earth as it is in heaven, Thomas 51, 113
Ephesians 1:9.
This
mystery has been hid
from the ages and aons, and rulers and principalities and powers, and
the god
of this world, and from us as individuals. The revelation is that we
are whole.
When the Christ is our shepherd we shall not want. The missing sheep is
reunited with the fold and we are made whole. The right is joined with
the
left, the above with the below, the inner with the outer, the male with
the
female, the slave with the free, and we are all complete, one in
Christ, Ephesians 3:5,
Thomas 107, 22.
The Mind of
Christ
And
yet, those “having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through
the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” are
still
tormented by the perceived emptiness. And we are not made perfect
without them,
Hebrews 11:40.
If
we sense a lack or want
there is an awareness of a realm of incompleteness. This perception can
be
misleading. The perception of the old man in the old creation is of
division,
alienation, separation, want and lack. In the mind of the old man and
the old
world, which is done away in Christ, all creation is still groaning.
And still
"waiting" for the manifestation, and for the full revelation of the
sons of God to come into the fullness – to grow in wisdom and
understanding, to
grow up into maturity (completion) to the measure of the stature of the
fullness (the pleroma) of God, Thomas 67,
Romans 8:19-23,
Luke 2:52.
Nonetheless,
despite this
illusion of the old, you are a new man complete and entire in Christ.
You have
come to the Fullness. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. You
are the
full-grown Son and the Sons of the living Father, Colossians 2:10
Ephesians 1:22
Thomas 3,
Thomas 67,
1 Corinthians 6:17,
Colossians 2:10.
You
are translated into the
These
promises are fulfilled
through revelation of the
perfected Christ.
When
you come to know yourselves
you will be fully
known. A manifestation of the son of God, Thomas 3,
1 Corinthians 13:12.
A
fully grown man or a
mature son can put away childish things. Put off the old man. Put on
this new
man. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 13:10-12,
Ephesians 4:22-24,
1 Corinthians 2:16.
"Whoever
finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.
Let him
who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will
become
troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will
rule
over the All," Thomas 1-2
If any man
offend not in word, the
same is a perfect man,
and able also to
bridle the whole body, James 3:2,
Matthew 18:6.
*******
Mark the
perfect man…
for the end of that man is peace, Psalms 37:37,
Comprehending
the whole,
knowing the matrimonial love of Christ, and able to do,
lead “the way”, Ephesians 3:18-20,
Acts 18:25.
URfriend,
Dean Johnson
Completing
everything, God
is all. Christ is all, and ye are all – One in Christ, Ephesians 1:23,
Colossians 3:11,
1 Corinthians 15:28,
Romans 12:5.
Him we
proclaim “teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every
man
perfect in Christ Jesus," Colossians 1:28.
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Related Writings
The Bridal Chamber: Two Becoming One
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