Oneness: God's invitation to Believers

(Excerpt from Term Paper)

While each member of the Godhead is distinct in person and role, yet they are also each perfect representatives of each other because they are in perfect unity with each other. Not only that but it can be argued that without three distinct persons of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that God would not exist because “God is love” (I John 4:16, New International Version) and love requires both a giver and a receiver.

Even more amazing and mysterious than the unity between the members of the Godhead is Jesus’ request to the Father in John 17:20-23 that we as believers be granted access into that oneness relationship. He prays this not only as a sign to the world that Jesus was sent by the Father, but as a testimony to the love that the Father has for his children which, according to Jesus, is the same love the Father has for his Son. Jesus’ words are,

“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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (NIV).

This prayer is also a reiteration of the promise the Jesus has already given his disciples in John 14:20, 23, ““On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (NIV). Along with the promise that God will remain in the disciples is the command to remain in Christ (John 15:4) and remain in His love through obedience to His commands (John 14:23, 15:9). We should understand here that Jesus is describing the relationship we are to have with him, not a list of regulations, lest we reduce these verses to another form of legalism. Jesus’ primary command is to love each other (John 15:12, 17). In the same way that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit co-exist in love (I John 4:16) we partake of the unity of God through love. Our love for God is expressed through our submission and dependence on Him and overflows into love for each other. Whereas the nation of Israel had the law to set them apart from the other nations on earth, what will set Christians apart is the love they have for each other. Jesus’ discourse in John 14-17 was proceeded by a demonstration of what it means to love when Jesus washes his disciples feet at the last supper. After this humbling act of service he says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (NIV).

John 15:1-8 depicts this relationship of submission to God overflowing in love for each other in the imagery of a vineyard. Verse four describes a mutual abiding wherein we are abiding in Christ and him in us. This verse implies that the choice of where one will abide is a personal one. As we choose to abide in Christ, he chooses to abide in us. While some read this verse as a conditional promise, the Greek suggests that it could be read as a comparison: in the same way that I remain in you, you should remain in me. This would be consistent with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that “just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us” (NIV). Jesus’ desire is that believers experience the same oneness that he experiences with God and with us. Paul echoes this as a promise in 1 Corinthians 13:12 when he says, “then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (NIV). The result of Christ remaining in us is that we are fully known by him and his desire is to be fully known by us thus experiencing the perfect union that he, the Father and the Holy Spirit share.

In light of the understanding of God’s ultimate desire and plan for us, Jesus asks that we would choose to remain in him. This means that although we still only “know in part” that through the Holy Spirit revealing the Father and Son to us we grow in our knowledge of who God is. While some regard eternal life as merely the joy of an afterlife with God, Jesus definition of eternal life is, “this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (NIV). Eternal life is to be experienced presently as we grow in our understanding and experience of God. This understanding is not merely an intellectual pursuit, although doctrine is important, rather it surpasses knowledge because in its essence is the experience of the love of the Father. Paul’s prayer for believers in Ephesians 3:14-19 is akin to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (NIV).

The doctrine of the Trinity will always contain mystery because to truly understand the relationship within the Godhead it must be experienced by believers as they encounter this unsurpassed love which welcomes us into union with the living God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Nature of God and the Image of God

More excerpts from my paper on the Christian Worldview & Culture...

What our culture teaches about the nature of God fills a wide spectrum of belief from God is nonexistent or unknowable, to god is in all and we are all gods. What someone believes about the nature of God has a direct impact on what they believe about themselves and the nature of humanity. For example, if God is non-existent or unknowable, is an individual person of any real value compared with the mass of humanity? In this instance what gives value to a human being are the material possessions they accumulate or what they contribute to society. Those without a contribution may be neglected or disposed of. These kinds of ideologies have cheapened the value of human life in our culture and have made options such as abortion and euthanasia acceptable and even preferable for some.

Unlike our culture, the Christian worldview presents a very definitive answer to who God is and what he is like. Perhaps the strongest emphasis is placed on the truth that “God is love” (I John 4:16, New International Version). In fact, the very cohesion of the God-head, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is a result of their love for each other. In addition to God’s love nature is the attribute of his holiness. God’s holiness is often seen as being in tension with his love because his holiness demands that we also be holy if we are to approach him. Peter writes, “just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (I Peter 1:15, NIV). Because of the uncomfortable and seemingly impossible nature of this command, some Christian circles are reluctant to emphasize holiness. However, we must reconcile God’s love with his holiness, seeing these two aspects of his nature as complementary, not contradictory, if we are to understand the nature of humanity in the original design of God.

In the original design of God it was not a list of rules, religion or laws that governed the interaction between God and humanity or between Adam and Eve. Just as the character of God governs the relationship within the Godhead, it governed the relationship between God and mankind. It was the natural inclination of Adam and Eve to manage their choices in a way that allowed them to remain connected with God and fulfill the responsibilities he had given them. It is because of the loving and holy nature of God that he did not just give the command to be holy, but created in Adam and Eve’s nature the capacity for holiness. God’s desire was for relationship with mankind and he created them in his own likeness so that Adam and Eve could have communion with their creator. This impartation of the divine nature of God to Adam and Eve is what made them, and all those created in God’s likeness, valuable and deserving of life.

Culture & Christianity: Relevance or Reformation?

Following is an excerpt from a paper I wrote for a class I am taking on the Christian Worldview. Enjoy!

At the heart of Evangelical Christianity is the desire to bring the message of the gospel to our culture and the world, as Jesus instructed in Acts 1:8 “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (New International Version). Many Christian leaders and theologians have attempted to lay out a strategy for accomplishing this directive based on the example of the early church in the book of Acts. One such strategy has been to structure church ministry in a way that is relevant to the culture, such as using contemporary music styles, dressing more casually for church services and using translations of the Bible that are written in a common vernacular. This strategy echoes that of the apostle Paul who said, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (I Corinthians 9:22, NIV).

However, in our desire to be relatable to the culture we must not forget what it is that makes us distinct from the culture. It was the distinctiveness of the early church that led to persecution but also eventually to the reformation of their culture and the transformation of the Roman Empire. If we are truly to follow the example of the early church we must in some ways remain counter-cultural. The issue is that with our focus on being relevant “we have in many areas blindly and unknowingly embraced values and ideas that are common in our culture but are antithetical to the gospel” (Platt, 19). We cannot afford to compromise the truth of the gospel or the core of our Christian beliefs, but neither can we withdraw from society. Rather, as a counter-cultural movement with the love and holiness of God as the foundation, we must influence our culture towards alignment with the truth of Scripture and the Kingdom of God.

Our response to the Gospel, as those who have been “bought at a price” and our responsibility as citizens of the Kingdom of God is to wholeheartedly give ourselves to revealing the character, authority and will of God to a fallen culture. This is how the Kingdom of God will come to earth. Our purpose is to influence and ultimately reform our culture by “spending ourselves for a cause that we firmly believe will win in the end” (Plantinga, 120.) We must not let our Christian worldview be compromised by our culture’s ideologies, but we must passionately be about our Father’s business of revealing himself to the world no matter the personal cost. In doing so “we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what our culture deems most important but in radical abandonment to Jesus” (Platt, 3). We must never forget that it is the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God as revealed in the lives of believers that shows the unbelieving world we are distinct and we have the answers they seek.


Plantinga, Cornelius, Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2002.

Platt, David, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2010.

After His Heart

“…the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people…” I Samuel 13:14 New International Version

How do you stir your passion for God? Sometimes there are seasons where it is so easy. The worship flows and it doesn’t matter if anyone is watching or not. You are just caught up in love – caught up in worship. And there are seasons of constant distractions or dryness or exhaustion. How do you maintain passion in those seasons? How do you keep from becoming like the Laodiceans who were neither hot nor cold?

August 2005 – at a conference in Southern California. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. People were running and dancing and jumping during the worship. People were breaking out in laughter and yelling during the sermons. Even waiting in line to get into a session people were falling down on the ground and yelling out what were suppose to be prophesies. I was hungry for God but this was too much. This chaos couldn’t be God.

The speaker for that session was Heidi Baker – whom I had never heard of. As she came onto the stage, before she even spoke, I was suddenly and powerfully struck with the conviction that I did not love the Lord Jesus. It made no sense to me. I thought I loved the Lord. I had given everything and risked everything to be obedient to the call on my life. Time and again I had surrendered to the Holy Spirit. But even though my mind couldn’t wrap around it the conviction was real and powerful. As Heidi knelt on the stage to worship God as if no one else was in the room, I knew it was true. She loved Jesus above all else. I had gotten so caught up in ministry and what I thought was God or wasn’t I had lost my first love. That evening Heidi spoke on the Spirit of Adoption and I realized I had been working for God as an orphan, trying to earn my way into the favor I already possessed as his child. When I arrived home from the conference I went to my bedroom, put on worship music. I knew if it was Jesus I wanted it – no matter what it looked like. I said out loud, “Holy Spirit, I surrender” and within a minute I was on my face at the beginning of what would be a three day encounter with God that would change me for the rest of my life. Those three days led into a season of almost daily encounters with God.

What I've learned is that when I hold onto the revelation that my first calling in life is to be a kid, His daughter, I never have to go a day without hearing His voice and feeling His presence. No matter what the season of my life, if I make my one ambition to seek after his heart I will remain in encounter with Him and from that place of encounter passion flows. I don’t have to beg for the crumbs that fall from my master’s table, as an orphan or slave would. I am a daughter of the most high God and anytime that I want to I can turn my heart towards him, connect with his heart and encounter His presence.

Jesus, we are after your heart. We want to know what you are thinking and feeling, what moves you with joy and what brings a tear to your eye. Teach us to live in a continuous encounter with you. Amen.