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Our Oneness in Christ Alone

(Overcomer Wu)

“... for you are all one in Christ Jesus” --Galatians 3:28

I have a burden from the Lord this week to share on the importance of practical oneness. There can be no doubt that the Lord desires that His people live and serve in oneness, and the oneness among His people is so important that there are three mentioning of it in the Lord's High Priestly prayer recorded for us in John chapter 17. However, we must be careful to embrace and practice the kind of oneness the Lord desires and blesses, and not to seek oneness that would in any way detract from the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word. Unfortunately, there may be some dear brothers that seek to implement an outward human form of oneness at almost any cost. For example, they may forge an outward uniformity of practice and other forms of practice based on our own human concept of oneness other than through Christ alone. Such oneness is not the oneness the Lord desires. Instead true oneness is based firmly upon Christ and His Word.

While it is noble when men, especially Christians, seek peace and oneness with one another, it is very sad that many do not recognize that true oneness can be achieved only in Christ. There are many good worldly people who said that the wish for “world peace.” The United Nations was formed also for world peace among other reasons. Worldly people and even Christians have tried many human ways of achieving this world peace, yet they only succeed in creating more factions, strife, war, and sectarianism among the various groups of people. That's because they do not realize the Christ is the key to our oneness: "For He (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…thus making peace…to reconcile both of them to God through the cross…” (Eph 2:14-17). In Christ, all barriers, such as racial and social barriers, can be broken: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ” (Gal 3:28). In practice, this does not however mean that we have to all be in one place to show our oneness. In short, oneness does not necessitate togetherness or uniformity. What it is saying is that those who formerly hate each other due to their racial or cultural differences are now one Body in Christ, and they now love one another as true brothers and sisters in Christ.

In many cases, being in one place is simply not possible for we may live distant from each other. Hence, some of the church localities even have more than one meeting hall to accommodate the meeting of the saints. Yet just because they meet in separate buildings does not mean that they are not one at all... as long as they are not meeting separately due to their uplifting a certain person like Luther, or that they are meeting separately because they want to practice something that is not Scriptural, or to form a sect based on their racial makeup, or for the sake of gathering around a certain gifted person's ministry. In reality, they are one in Christ for they fellowship closely with each other and they meet together for conferences whenever they can.

Neither does the abolition of the racial distinction “There is neither Jew nor Greek” or Chinese, American, Philippino, Indian, Italian, or any races, mean that we can no longer minister in one church to the different languages in different groups. For we see in God's own Word that the apostle Paul clearly stated in Galatians 2:7-8 say, “But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised (The Gentiles) had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised (the Jews) was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised (Jew) also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles).” Yes, in spite of the fact that Christ has abolished in the one New Man the distinction of the Jews and Gentiles, yet the Lord continues to commission Paul to minister to the Gentiles while Peter to the Jews. Yet they are still one in Christ and part of the one New Man without being together and having one language minister ministering to all the different groups or races. This is by no means showing that they are not in one accord, for when later there was a trouble that arose with the Jews enforcing the Gentile believers to be circumcised, Paul went to Jerusalem to fellowship with apostle Peter and James to resolve this matter in Acts chapter 15.

Christ alone is the Head of the Body (Col 1:18) and "so in Christ we who are many form one Body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Rom 12:5). In Christ "all things hold together” (Col 1:17); thus, Christ is our holding center. It is also not wrong to say that our oneness is of the Spirit, for we do have such verse as Ephesians 4:3 which gives us the term: “the oneness of the Spirit.” Well, we know that the Lord Jesus came back as the Spirit to dwell in us (1 Cor 6:17, 15:45b). Romans 15:5 also use the term “spirit of oneness” So, Christ and the Spirit can be used synonymously today pretty much as it relates to the matter of our oneness. Nothing else and no one else can unite except Christ Himself. Therefore, we have a song that has this line in it: “Our oneness is of Christ alone.”

Our true oneness is also firmly grounded in our growth in faith in Christ, which will lead to the expression of His fullness: "until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Only those who live in Christ or in the Spirit can experience true oneness: "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of oneness among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus…” (Rom 15:5).

I would like to point out one of the main points for which our Lord Jesus Christ prayed passionately before He went to the cross, that is, "May they be one." It seems to me that Jesus is most passionate about this request because He mentioned it at least 3 times in this chapter alone. It is this part of the prayer that seems to identify the believer most with both Father and Son. The practical, living-out of our oneness in the Body of Christ is literally the most powerful apologetic to the world that God had sent Jesus into the world and demonstrated for all eternity the Father’s great love for mankind.

The oneness mentioned here in John chapter 17 is not a oneness achieved by uniformity,legislation, or togetherness in one place. It is a oneness of nature because it is comparable to that of the Son and the Father. We thank the Lord that we the genuine, born-again Christians have indeed been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). The oneness of the Church must spring from the common Life that is imparted to all believers by the new birth (1 Jn 5:12); and it is manifested in their common love for Christ and for one another as they face a perverse and hostile world. Besides their co-inhering (meaning the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father as we're told in various verses such as Jn 17:21) each other, the oneness of the Son and the Father was manifested in the deep love that each sustained for the other and by the perfect obedience of the Son to the Father and the perfect response of the Father to the Son.

We see that dwelling in Christ in true oneness is so amazing that it literally declares to a watching world that God truly did send Jesus into the world (Jn 17:21). We long to see the day when the world wakes up to the realization of our heavenly Father's great and awesome love that prompted Him to send Jesus into the world. Just as the Father and the Son are one, the Father in Him and the Son in the Father -- “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (Jn 17:21). Later in verse 23, the Lord's prayer continued: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” Father, we thank You that Your Spirit in us (Rom 8:9) operating in us makes us one with You and Your Son. And if we are one with You and Your Son, then we certainly are one with each other.

Tragically, some Christians are willing to compromise the truth of the God’s Word in the name of oneness. When this happens the truth in God's Word is watered down and even manipulated to make it fit their own concept of oneness. As a result, the opposite of oneness is achieved and loss of saints is accepted and even tolerated. True oneness, however, is never at the expense of truth. Of course, we find the truths of God in the Word of God. Hence, in His prayer for oneness as recorded in John 17, Jesus also asked His Father, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth” (v.17). The Lord desires oneness that is marked by truth and holiness. It is in praying according to the Word of God and allowing the Word of God to operate in us (Heb 4:12) that we most line up with His thoughts and eternal purpose, at the same time, we are also being sanctified by His Word (Jn 15:3, 17:17).

The early Church described in the Book of Acts illustrates how oneness in Christ, truth and holiness go hand in hand. These believers "were one in heart and mind” (Acts 4:32) and of course one in spirit. This oneness was deep and genuine because it was centered in the Lord and deeply entrenched in His Word. They repented of their sin (Acts 2:38-41) and continued to live their lives in holy fear of the Lord (Acts 9:31). They were "devoted to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42) which is what's now compiled and canonized into the Bible, and were united around the testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33). They prayed for and received the ability to speak the Lord’s Word with great boldness (Acts 4:29-31, 6:8-10). The Word of God was given the utmost priority and preeminence even as the Lord Himself “have magnified(or exalted) Your (His) word above all Your(His) Name” (Psa 138:2), and it continued to increase and spread (Acts 6:7,19:20). When they scattered because of persecution, they "preached the Word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4). Therefore, we see that as the Christians uphold God's Word above their own concepts and spread the Word of God, they spontaneously also displayed their oneness and holiness, the Lord graciously added to their numbers (Acts 2:47; 4:4, 9:31, 17:4). We thank the Lord that He has gradually increased the number of English-speaking saints meeting with us by 50% in the past 2 years. I say this not in a boasting way – ALL the glory be to God! -- but to point out that we are in line with God's purpose and God's Word.

The Outcome and Signs of True Oneness

In addition to numerical growth in the Church as we have seen in the last paragraph, many other wonderful things happen when God’s people live and serve in true oneness. Here is a listing of some of the many benefits that accompany oneness.

• Our Heavenly Father is glorified. "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of oneness among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 15:5-6).

• Believers meet each other’s practical needs. "Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common…. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked;…” (Acts 4:32-34).

• Having the same love for all believers and esteeming others better than themselves: “... being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

• The Spirit is poured out and believers are filled with boldness to speak the Word of God. "…they raised their voice to God in one accord…. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:24-31).

• Believers are encouraged and develop more spiritual understanding and come to know Christ more fully. "that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, ....” (Col 2:2-3).

• The furtherance of the Gospel is inevitable. "Only let you conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ…I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel” (Phi 1:27).

• A good witness is given to the world regarding the Father’s love in sending His Son. "…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…. May they be brought to complete oneness to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me” (Jn 17:20-23).

• The Lord pours out His blessings and His life. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in oneness! …For there the Lord bestows His blessing, even life forevermore” (Psa 133:1-3).