Jesus and His Ekklesia — Course Lesson Synopsis

Made in His Image A Course on High Christology, the Incarnation, and the Church as the Extension of the Incarnation of Christ

Nine video lessons, arranged according to the manual's four Parts. Each lesson builds on the one before it — moving from the beauty and full deity of Jesus, to the church as new creation, to the household and governmental witness of the ekklesia, and finally to the new wine of His present-tense presence.

PART ONE — High Christology and the Incarnation

The Word Made Flesh and the Transformation of Humanity

Lesson 1 — The Cross-Shaped Lens and the Exact Imprint

Before we can talk about the ekklesia, any ministry function, or any theological viewpoint, it must come through a cross-shaped lens — because every page of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks of Jesus. This first lesson establishes high Christology: reading His earthly life from the height of His eternal, fully divine identity downward, and confessing Him as fully God and fully man in one person. We learn the language the church has always used to guard this mystery — hypostasis, homoousios, the hypostatic union — and see that Jesus is the exact imprint of the Father's nature. Big Idea: the ekklesia is the extension of who Jesus is in His incarnation; we cannot understand the church until we first behold her Lord.

Lesson 2 — The Transformative Power of the Incarnation

The incarnation is not merely illustrative but transformative. When God became human, He changed forever what it means to be human. Drawing on the Christ-hymn of Philippians 2 and the witness of the early Fathers, this lesson shows that kenosis — Christ "emptying himself" — is not the subtracting of His deity but the pouring out of His fullness, an unveiling of His glory rather than a hiding of it. Big Idea: nothing happens to God, but God happens to everything; everything He touches, He changes.

PART TWO — The Ekklesia as New Creation and the Work of God

Workmanship, the Divine Economy, and the Fellowship of the Spirit

Lesson 3 — Finished Work, New Creation, and the Work of God

Beginning with the finished work of creation in Genesis 2 and the Sabbath rest of God, this lesson reveals the ekklesia as new creation — God's workmanship, His poiema, His masterpiece. We do not work our way into standing with God; He is at work in us, producing good works as the fruit of His own creating. We are dispatched as ambassadors of a finished work, learning to distinguish the work of God from the works of the flesh. Big Idea: who I am is what I produce — identity in Christ is not asserted by declaration but revealed in what God produces through us.

Lesson 4 — The Divine Economy and the Fellowship of the Spirit

Oikonomia — the divine economy — is oikos (house) joined to nomos (revelation): the managing of the treasures inside God's household, entrusted to stewards for the good of the whole house. This lesson opens the mystery revealed in Ephesians 3 — that Jew and Gentile are fellow heirs, members of one body — and the fellowship of the Spirit that the one Spirit creates by being poured out on all alike, joining many members into one body and displaying God's wisdom through it. Big Idea: Jesus is the telos of the ekklesia — the image that defines its purpose.

PART THREE — House, Temple, and Governmental Witness

The Rock, the Gates, and the Father's House

Lesson 5 — The Rock in the Darkest Place and the Gates

The word ekklesia is first spoken by Jesus at Caesarea Philippi — one of the most idolatrous places imaginable — and where He speaks it matters. In the midst of the darkest place, the Father reveals that Jesus is the Christ, and upon that rock He builds His church. This lesson unfolds the keys of the kingdom as authority and interpretation, and the gates of the enemy as the object of an offensive strike. Big Idea: when the Lord places His body in a geographical location, it is an offensive act against the gates of the enemy.

Lesson 6 — The Lamb Ruling from the Cross and the Father's House

The keys unlock not only who the Messiah is, but what He actually looks like — a King who rules with a crown of thorns and reigns from a cross. This lesson moves through the divine dance and the rule of the King to the Father's house, showing that houses are built on sons. Big Idea: the word "build" derives from ben, son — so to build a house is to raise up sons; houses are built on sons.

Lesson 7 — The Tomb Becomes a Womb and the Spirit of Truth

Jesus goes to prepare a house — and the place He goes to prepare is His own body, going to the cross to cleanse the sacred space of humanity so that we can dwell with Him and the Father can dwell within us. This lesson carries the great patristic exchange — He became what we are so that we might become what He is — into the coming of the Spirit of Truth, who makes His home in us. Big Idea: the tomb becomes a womb; the incarnation continues in a flesh-and-blood witness that He is no longer in the grave.

PART FOUR — New Wine, Lambskin, and the Virgin Church

The Bridegroom's Presence and the Ongoing Incarnation

Lesson 8 — Fasting, Feasting, and the Feasts as Wedding Rehearsals

Everything hinges on what Jesus actually says about new wine and new wineskins, and how it correlates to the ekklesia. The disciples did not fast because the Bridegroom was present — they were feasting on every word coming out of Jesus. This lesson reads the question of fasting and feasting from within the biblical narrative, and sees the feasts as wedding rehearsals pointing to the Bridegroom's presence. Big Idea: are we living in the posture of mourning for an absent Messiah, or feasting at the table because He is here?

Lesson 9 — New Wine, the Lamb King, and the Virgin Church

In Revelation 5, the Lion of the tribe of Judah conquers — yet when John looks, he sees a Lamb standing as though slain, ruling from the midst of the throne. This closing lesson gathers the whole narrative: Jesus as the new wine, the ekklesia as the lambskin that alone can contain it, the Lamb King ruling from the cross, and the virgin church who continually bears Christ into the world. The lambskin bears the marks of Christ; if we are made in His image, we bear His marks. Big Idea: the new wineskin is not a structure but an organism — the ekklesia — and only lambskin, a people bearing the marks of the crucified and risen Lord, can contain the new wine.

The aim of this course is not information but transformation — to be with Jesus, so that you become like Jesus, and so that what is already true of Him becomes true of you, His ekklesia.

Welcome To Cross-Shaped Living!

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