Episode 12: Oneness
There is this remarkable passage in John 17 and I get tingly whenever I read it. Jesus is praying, just before He is to be arrested. From verse 20 He begins to pray for every person who will come to believe in Him. But He says something so mysterious. He says:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
He desires oneness. That we are one with Him and each other. And He continues to repeat this idea a few times in the passage. Furthermore, the scriptures imply this quality to our relationship with God regularly. It is a very significant concept that could change the way we comprehend our relationship with Jesus.
So what exactly is Oneness?
In John 6, Jesus makes this wildly provocative statement that at the time had some of his followers leaving Him and some of the Pharisees ready to kill Him. He calls himself the bread of life, the living bread that came down from heaven. It is this idea that He came from heaven that particularly perturbs the Pharisees. But He doesn’t end it there. He goes on to say:
“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.”
This is not the only time He says something along these lines. When He is having the last supper with his disciples, he says the classic statements that are recited during almost every communion message. It says:
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.
In both instances, it is implied that union with Christ is to consume Him. Now that is a really strange concept. It’s not enough that they were eating with Him.
You know when we talk about sharing, we presume eating with someone is to share with them. But this is saying that union with Christ is not just being with. It’s not enough to have a memento or ritual that reminds us of Him either...communion with Christ is to consume Him. His very being. His very nature. What a strange idea right? When we take communion, it's as though we are partaking His personhood and His sacrifice. Not just his teachings, which we would usually call spiritual food. No, in this passage He is the food, we eat Him. Now I have to admit that when I initially considered these ideas, whilst reading scripture, it sounded a bit ‘vampire’-like. You know, this is not what I would be telling New Christians, or people who don’t know Jesus. I’d be a little embarrassed to say that I believe in a God that tells me to eat his body, and drink his blood. Because I know exactly what they’d be thinking - CULT. Yeah they would think I was a part of a cult. Like if people freak out over hands being raised in a service, imagine how freaked out about possible cannibalism.
But this was important to Jesus. He used this language deliberately, because He was trying to demonstrate something about the nature of our relationship with Him. He was trying to demonstrate something about the level of intimacy required to follow Jesus and live out the life of a disciple.
And the scriptures continue to affirm this idea, that is not simply talking about walking with Christ, or eating with Christ, or living with Christ. The word scripture frequently uses the word ‘in’. To be ‘in’ Christ. It's a much more intimate idea than simply being around Him, or being in His presence. In:
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is IN Christ he is a new creation. It doesn’t say of or with or following, or even believe in. It just says IN.
Romans 8:1 - There is therefore no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created IN Christ Jesus for good works
There are times when this word ‘in’ is used interchangeably with ‘belong’. Which I think is a little easier to understand.
So in addition to all of the ‘in’ Christ passages, and the prayer that Jesus says in John 17...we have scriptures like:
John 14:20 where Jesus says “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” So we are in Christ, who is in us, and He is also in the Father...what? That sounds a little scary right? It’s almost getting blasphemous. And you would be right to feel a little uncomfortable.
What about 1 Corinthians 6:17? It says:
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him
It doesn’t say, you receive His spirit, which is obviously true also. It says we become ONE spirit with Him. All of us who chose Him. One spirit WITH Him.
And then we have the Apostle Paul make this incredible statement that outside of this topic of oneness, is still unbelievably inspiring...but in the context of oneness the statement becomes a deeply shaking idea.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul is saying that though He lives, His old life and the person who He was is dead. He is now so united in Christ as a new Creation that He identifies only with Christ, and not at all with the old life. All He knows now is this new life where Christ lives in Him.
This is such an astonishing display of oneness.
Point is...we are IN Christ. We belong to Him, and He is in us. We have this mutual belonging when we receive Christ. It sounds kind of sacrilegious right?...And that’s because we usually associate belonging with a possession that we own. And of course we can’t own God. But belonging is about inclusion, and God displays that kind of inclusion more purely and perfectly than any other being could express.
We aren’t able to get into this too much, but you need to know that belonging is a basic human need. I’ve heard many a preacher refer to the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs in messages that point to our basic human need for love. What is frequently left out though, is that Maslow's Hierarchy also included belonging as equal in value to love. Yes, belonging is a basic human need, as critical as LOVE. Google it, if you don’t believe me. Humans will go to great lengths to feel a sense of belonging. The research is out there. The more we belong, the better we do at school, at work. The better our self-esteem. Alternatively, the less we belong, the more depressed we are, the more we consider suicide, the more likely we underperform in school and life...and I could go on. Our choices are so influenced by how much we belong.
And here we have scripture telling us in such intimate detail, that we belong in Him and He has chosen to belong in us via His Holy Spirit. Jesus perfectly provides a framework for belonging through the nature of His relationship with us, and the family of God.
The first indication of this extreme inclusion is that He allows us to receive His Holy Spirit, in the most influential and vulnerable of places. In our hearts. As much as we can love our fellow man and they love us, there is a barrier to what kind of residence they can inhabit in our hearts. We can have their words in our hearts. We can have memories in our hearts. But they can’t have their entire being reside within our hearts. If we could, that’s some genie in the lamp level control.
And in our hearts, the Holy Spirit has no limitations on intimacy, and the degree to which He offers Himself to our whole being. He is fully immersed in us. Without masks, without any self-imposed barriers. From this place, where He shares His very spirit with us...there can be no hiding. You must know this. By nature, the spirit of God cannot hide from you when He resides in your heart. He has expressed the utmost of authenticity and transparency when He takes residence here. Consequently, you can’t really hide yourself from Him, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to. Nor does it stop us from failing to acknowledge or be aware of the depths to which God has gone to enhance your feeling of connection, intimacy and inclusivity with Him through the Spirits abiding in you.
Now that’s level one. And I gotta be honest with you - it already trumps every other kind of intimacy and belonging that can be obtained.
Level 2 is that from the beginning of humankind's creation, we have shared in God's image right? Now that’s all of us. This is the most precious truth. God in all His beauty and sanctity, first shared himself with all of us, by design. No other creation has been given this honour. Not even the angels. So when Paul comes along and declares that we are a new creation, He is meaning that we now are both spirit and flesh. We have become both. We still have a choice in how much we adhere to the spirit, but the potential is there for those who believe to share in His nature. Imagine that! We are able to see what He sees, love as He loves, give as He gives. The potential resides in us always. Now the Spirit still operates on permission. And often we aren’t experiencing all of what God promises via the presence of the Holy Spirit because we have limited that permission. But it doesn’t change the fact that the potential is there.
All those things we have judged in ourselves, that we have condemned. That we’ve said would never change...all of that shows that we don’t comprehend the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us. We put more confidence in the flesh, than we do in the Spirit. Forgetting that we are also now Spirit beings.
Our fundamental nature has changed...even though we may still have much to do to renew our minds and see our behaviours align with the spirit. Who we are has now changed, and we can choose to keep taking on His nature. When God calls us His children, it's incredibly special. But what I find even more special, is that He has basically called us kin. Do you know what kin means? It’s where we get the word kindred from. We are now one with Him. His family. Sharing in His likeness, and not only by our design...
Does this not shed such a different light on the instance when Jesus appears before Paul and says “Why are you persecuting me?”
Because we so share in belonging and oneness, we are so included and identified with Christ and He has identified with us, that He takes it personally when the early church was being persecuted. And again in Matthew 25:40, Jesus says the following in the parable of the Sheep and Goats:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
What does that mean for us? It means every hurt you have gone through, He considers it His pain. Every way in which humankind has harmed one of us, is as though He felt it too. And in Isaiah 53:4 we see this when the prophet says:
“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,”
This is the height of inclusivity again. As much as we might be able to compassionately understand and empathise with each other's suffering, Jesus understands even more because He bore it all on the cross.
I have taken some time to paint this picture of oneness. And I hope you are sort of getting the idea. We are no longer separate from God. Not even a little. We don’t just have access to God. We are one with Him. He allows this oneness. And He is certainly not the barrier to experiencing it.
Even when we do our daily tasks, talking, eating, studying...none of these activities are done apart from this oneness with Him. We are one with Him even when we don’t realise it. It’s the kind of intimacy that is so close that our thoughts can become His thoughts and we can feel as He does.
It is so special.
It is so difficult to find an analogy that really exemplifies this oneness. The closest I can think of is that of twins. Twins have this rare and unique relationship. They can sense what the other is thinking or feeling. I’ve heard twins say that they never feel completely alone. They have been known to invent their own language. They will often be able to feel that the other is in pain, even if they are not geographically close.
I think this is a great way of understanding what we can begin to experience with God, when we understand the level of belonging and oneness that we can have with Him. We are not separate. We are always inherently connected and one.
Why is this so important? I would say a good chunk of you have never heard this idea before. I have never heard it preached in my entire life. Not in the Presbyterian church, not in the Pentecostal church. Never once. I was 35 years old when I discovered this and by that time I had been a believer for 27 years.
Something that could revolutionise the way we interpret our relationship to God...and I did not hear about it for 27 years?
We know we can have a relationship with God. That we can talk to Him and approach Him. That we might even be able to hear from Him too. But to relate to Him like this? How could something so central, like the way in which we relate to God, be missing?
We have been taught to spend time with Him. Open our Bibles each morning, and study His word. We ask ourselves how to apply what we’ve read. We pray. We have our prayer list. You know, the things we are believing God for. And once we are done we mostly go about our day. Mostly. There isn’t really anything in scripture that has told us that this is how a relationship with God is done. Although it is wise. But if you go deeper, THIS is what you find out: God doesn’t compartmentalise the time we spend with Him. He shares with us, ministers to us, resides in us 24/7. Routines might help us be intentional in engaging with Him, but they aren’t what typifies our relationship with God. We haven’t gone deep enough. We have a constant and active bond with the Spirit. You are connected to the realm of the Spirit, as equally as you are to this physical realm. It’s hard for us to imagine this, but it’s true. We just aren’t always acknowledging or desiring to tap into that spirit realm...sometimes because our tendency to look only at the physical realm, and this life, distracts us.
Knowing this changes everything. We never stop spending time with Him. We are never separate. We belong in Him everyday and at every moment. Our God time isn’t isolated to the morning devotional. He could minister to me throughout the day at any moment. Whenever I am feeling alone, I could pause and remind myself of my status of being IN Him, and Him in me. When I pray for someone, I can remember that I am one with Him. One Spirit.
So what are the possible ramifications of such a revelation? Well I haven’t even fully comprehended, but here are just a few that I can think of.
A Cure for loneliness
There are millions of people everyday, living in loneliness. And they have no idea that we could live like this with Jesus. Now I still think we need other people in our lives. But imagine the feelings of loneliness that could be reduced because of knowing Jesus like this. I’m not gonna lie. I have felt so lonely in my life, as a believer. Sometimes you can have hundreds of people in your life, including a spouse, including children...and you can still feel lonely. And I think belonging is a part of that. Because we want our kin. We want people to understand, hear and be there for us...in a way that only Jesus can actually perfectly achieve.
A Different Response to Rejection
Sadly, we are all too familiar with rejection. And every human being knows what it's like at some time in their life, to be excluded. It’s painful! And there is research to show that we experience rejection and exclusion the same way we experience physical pain. Our body actually responds to rejection as though it were physical pain.
This kind of inclusion that Jesus offers...would equip us to be able to handle the rejection of other human beings. Because when we are a part of a relationship that is perfectly inclusive, whilst it might hurt to be rejected by others...but we would know that we still belong. The anxiety that needing to please others, and desiring safe relationships would not be nearly as overbearing...because we know we always have Him and the oneness we experience with Him.
We ALL would have more respect for the Body of Christ
If we are one with Him, then we are one with each other. That might produce some discomfort to consider, especially if you’ve ever been hurt in Christian community. But scripture tells us that this is true. So those times we have slandered, that we have gossiped, criticised, spoken harshly, judged any other believer or denomination...has ultimately been done against God and ourselves. Similarly, whenever anyone has slandered you, gossiped about you, criticised you, spoken harshly to you, manipulated you for selfish gain, judged you...it has also been done against God and the family. We are one. It really matters how we treat each other. You know the Bible says to be DEVOTED to one another? DEVOTED is a strong word. I have a Hindu relative who calls herself a devotee to this particular guru, and she is ridiculously committed. She listens to all his messages, reads them, visits his ashram, gives money, and of course follows his teachings. This is what we are supposed to do for each other. Loving and serving each other is at the heart of every believer, whether you like them or not...and whether you get developed to be a leader or not. It’s sad to me that even service can become a place where we are geared toward personal gain. But we do. I know, because I did. Pastors even have to do that “What's in it for me” jargon to get us to participate...what an oxymoron!
A More Satisfied Soul
When we realise how deeply bonded we are to Jesus in this oneness, there would be more chance of experiencing that nourishment to our souls. No self-care strategy, no boundaries concepts can compare to what Jesus can do within us. Don’t get me wrong self-care matters, boundaries matter. But Jesus is able to care even better for our souls, than we are. And the Holy Spirit is positioned in the perfect place to do that. Jesus IS rest for our weary souls.
He would be able to show us how staying aware of how connected we are, opens the soul for Him to meet our inner needs. You know what I mean by inner needs right? It’s those things that we often are really trying to meet when we pursue those external objectives. Like the desire for financial security, is probably more often driven by our desire for peace. Or the desire for a great lifestyle, can be driven by our underlying desire for joy. We have these inner needs that the world has always tried to tell us how to meet, but the truth is they are found in the person of Jesus, who has given you the Holy Spirit, who can minister those things to you right now...if you let Him.
As a Christian community, I know some of us find it uncomfortable to think of God in this way. We have been told to revere Him, and rightfully so, but sometimes this reverence can diminish the intimate kind of connection we truly desire in our inner being. We don’t want to think of sharing such closeness and intimacy, because we think it might take away from His sovereignty. And let’s be honest, we also feel unworthy. To those of you in that category, let me remind you...that this was Jesus’ prayer for us. Oneness was what HE prayed for. He could have prayed for a million different things. He could have prayed for the church, but He didn't. Not even once does He mention the Ekklesia (the word for church) in the entire chapter of John 17. He didn’t pray that we would work out how to engage non-believers. He doesn’t even pray that the disciples would be able to spread the gospel. Of course, I’m not saying that He didn’t care about those who don’t know about Him. I’m simply saying that this oneness was really important to Him. Important enough that He prayed for it at length, and John included it in the gospel.
And you’re right we are unworthy of it, but it doesn’t change that it is HIS desire. None of this has ever been about our worthiness anyway! It is about Him. His worthiness to ask us to pursue oneness with Him.
I encourage you to take some time to simply sit, quiet your thoughts and ask God to help you become aware of the oneness you have with Him. Allow this deep bond to nourish you.