371. (c) Our partnership with the Lord is reciprocal: the Lord is in us and we are in the Lord. The partnership is reciprocal. Scripture teaches this and reason sees it. The Lord teaches that his partnership with his Father is reciprocal. He said to Philip, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me" (John 14:10-11).

So that you know and believe that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. (John 10:38)

Jesus said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son will also glorify you. " (John 17:1)

Father, all that is mine is yours and all that is yours is mine. (John 17:10)

The Lord says something similar about his partnership with us, specifying that it is reciprocal. He says,

Live in me and I [shall live] in you. Those who live in me and I in them bear much fruit. (John 15:4-5)

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me and I in them. (John 6:56)

On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you. (John 14:20)

Those who do the commandments of Christ live in him, and he lives in them. (1 John 3:24; 4:13)

If any confess that Christ is the Son of God, God lives in them, and they live in God. (1 John 4:15)

If any hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and will dine with them and they with me. (Revelation 3:20)

[2] The very clear passages just quoted make it evident that the partnership between the Lord and us is reciprocal. Because the partnership is reciprocal, it obviously follows that we have to unite ourselves to the Lord so that the Lord will unite himself to us. Otherwise there will be a parting and a separation rather than a partnership - not on the Lord's initiative but on our own.

To allow the partnership to be reciprocal, we have been given free choice. With it we can travel the road to heaven or the road to hell. Our ability to act reciprocally is a result of the freedom we have been given to unite ourselves to the Lord or unite ourselves to the Devil. (The nature of this freedom and the reasons we possess it will be illustrated later on in the text when we come to free choice [463-508], repentance [509-570], reformation and regeneration [571-625], and the assignment of spiritual credit or blame [626-666].)

[3] It is a lamentable thing that the reciprocal partnership between the Lord and us, even though it stands out so clearly in the Word, is still unknown to the Christian church. It is unknown because of theories about faith and free choice. The theory about faith holds that faith is granted without our contributing anything to acquiring it - we do not adjust ourselves to receive it or work on receiving it any more than would a log. The theory about free choice holds that we do not have even a speck of free choice about spiritual things.

The salvation of the human race depends on the reciprocal partnership between the Lord and the individual. Therefore, to prevent this partnership from remaining unknown any longer, it is a necessity that it be disclosed. The most effective way to accomplish this is through examples, because they illustrate the partnership.

[4] There are two types of reciprocal partnership: one is alternating; the other is mutual. An alternating reciprocal cycle that results in a partnership can be illustrated by the lungs filling with air. We take in air, which expands our chest. Soon afterward we release the air we inhaled, which contracts our chest. This inhalation and consequent expansion are rendered possible by the air pressure in this column of air. The releasing and contracting is accomplished by our own ribs as driven by our muscles. This shows the reciprocal partnership of the air and the lungs. The life of all our physical sensations and movements depends on this partnership, as we can tell from the fact that we lose both sensation and movement when we stop breathing.

[5] A reciprocal partnership that comes about through alternating cycles can also be illustrated by the partnership of the heart with the lungs and of the lungs with the heart. The heart moves blood from its right chamber into the lungs. The lungs return the blood to the left chamber of the heart. This is how the partnership on which the life of the whole body depends becomes reciprocal.

There is a similar partnership between the blood and the heart, and the reverse. Blood from the whole body flows through the veins into the heart, and flows out of the heart through the arteries to the whole body. Action and reaction forge this partnership.

A similar action and reaction between an embryo and its mother's womb allow their partnership to continue.

[6] The reciprocal partnership between the Lord and us, however, is not like this. It is a mutual partnership that is brought about by cooperation rather than action and reaction. The Lord acts. We receive the Lord's action. We then function as if we were on our own. In fact, we function on our own from the Lord. The things we do that are inspired by the Lord are credited to us as our own, since the Lord continually keeps us in free choice. The free choice we receive is an ability to will and think from the Lord, that is, from the Word, and also an ability to will and think from the Devil, that is, against the Lord and the Word. The Lord gives us this freedom so that we can forge a reciprocal partnership and be granted life and eternal blessedness as a result - something that would be impossible without a reciprocal partnership.

[7] A reciprocal partnership that is mutual can be illustrated by various things in us and in the world. The partnership between the soul and the body in everyone is this type of partnership. The partnership of our will and our action is of this type, as is the partnership of our thought and our speech. Other partnerships that work like this are the partnership of two eyes working together, and two ears, and two nostrils.

The optic nerve shows that our two eyes have this type of reciprocal partnership between them. In the optic nerve, fibers from both brains are intertwined, and they travel intertwined to each eye. The same is true for our two ears and our two nostrils.

[8] There is a similar mutual reciprocal partnership between light and the eyes, sound and the ears, odors and the nose, tastes and the tongue, and tactile sensations and the body. The eye is in light and light is in the eye. Sound is in the ear and the ear is in sound. Smells are in the nose, and the nose is in smells. Tastes are in the tongue and the tongue is in tastes. Tactile sensation is in the body and the body is in tactile sensation.

This kind of reciprocal partnership can also be compared to the partnership between a horse and a carriage; between an ox and a plow; between wheels and an engine; between sails and the wind; between a flute and the air. To sum up, the purpose and the means have this type of reciprocal partnership, as do the means and the result. But there is no room to explain the above examples one by one, because the explanation would fill many volumes.