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.