Book 2 of Musings One With the Son and the Father

To become one with the Lord Jesus is to become one with the Father.

All that Jesus possesses He gives to the Father.

The following passage from the Gospel of John is one of the most incredible passages in the entire Scriptures. It is the prayer of the Lord Jesus:

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. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:21-23)

AA That the saints may be one, just as the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father.

AA That the saints may be in the Father and the Son.

AA That the Glory God has given Christ may be given to the saints that they may be one as the Father and the Son are One.

AA That Christ may be in the saints and the Father in Christ.

AA That the saints may be brought to complete unity.

AA That the world may know that the Father has sent the Son and has loved the saints as He loves Christ.

It appears to me Christ is praying that the Father, the Son, and the saints become one entity, one family. Do you interpret the passage in this manner?

I remember when I first came to the Lord. I guess I always had believed in God, though I knew little about Him. I was nineteen years of age before I heard the Gospel.

I could see that in order to serve God I had to serve Christ. This set me back for a little bit. It is one matter to worship God. It is another matter to worship a Man!

But if I was to please God I had to transfer my worship to the Man, Jesus Christ. This I did. Fifty-eight years later I am still serving Christ.

And yet I am worshiping God. Why is this? It is because all that Christ is and possesses He gives to the Father. When we worship Christ we are worshiping the Father (although They are not the same Person).

I think it is safe to say that God is enlarging Himself and making Himself visible to His creation.

We know that Christ is God manifest in the flesh. Perhaps we should say that God manifests Himself in Christ. We don't want people to get the idea that Christ and God are the same Person. If They were, the passage above would not make sense.

Personally, I believe Satan does everything in his power to keep us humans from becoming one in the Father and the Son. One of his devices is to confuse the Nature of the Godhead. By picturing the Father and the Son as one Person, then there is no way in which we could become a part of this great Entity. Are we to be the brothers of God the Father? Are we to be the bride of God the Father? No, this is not scriptural.

If we saints are to be one, just as the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father, as the prayer of Christ states, then the Father and the Son are not the same Person. Neither do all the saints become one person.

This is a mystery, and yet it is simple. The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Father and the Son are One in Nature and Substance. We have been called to be an integral part of this Oneness. It is as simple and straightforward as that.

But can man become part of God? Most certainly. We do not become the Father. We do not become the Son. But we become an intrinsic part of Them, according to the prayer Christ uttered.

What about the transition from flesh and blood to Divinity? There is no problem here. Christ is born in us. Divinity is born in us. Christ grows in us. Divinity grows in us. We always have known this, but perhaps have not thought about the meaning of being born again.

God's Israel, His elect, are all who are of Christ, of the one Seed of Abraham. They have been called to this special relationship to God from the beginning of the world.

This is why Christ did not pray for the world but for those whom God has given to Him. These are the members of the governing priesthood. They have been called out of the world in order to know God and be part of God in a special way.

They are the family of God.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, From whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. (Ephesians 3:14-15)

We notice in the passage above that God is enlarging the expression of Himself so the world will believe that it is God who has sent Christ, and that God has loved the saints as He loves Christ. Think about this.

Christ is giving to us the Glory that God has given Him so the saints may be one as the Father and the Son are One.

We are being made one with each other in Christ in God:

So the world will believe that it is God who has sent Christ.

So the world will know that God loves the saints as He loves Christ.

The final expression of this total Oneness is the holy city, the new Jerusalem. The nations of the world will walk in its light. I think this means in the light that is the eternal moral law of God, and perhaps also in its radiance, similar to the light that illuminated the world during the first three days of creation.

The utter Oneness that is described in this prayer is so beyond any kind of oneness, or unity, we can conceive that all we can do is accept what is written. It is a oneness achieved by a dispensation of Divine Glory that we have not experienced as yet. We can look forward to it in the future.

We can see from this that the Christian Church as a whole is far removed from the oneness prayed for here. Will it be another thousand years, or hundred years, before the Lord returns? It doesn't seem possible that all the groups that term themselves Christian will suddenly be made one as the Father and the Son are One.

Probably what will take place is that over the next several years there will be unprecedented revival until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached for a witness to all nations. Then will come the rise of Antichrist and fiery persecution.

The result of the persecution will be the separation of the true saints from the babylonish systems, which will be organized into one huge religious institution.

The saints will be hidden away in the wilderness areas of the earth. The elect of the Jews will gather together with them. Then the Glory of Christ will be poured out on them until they achieve the perfect Oneness that exists in the Godhead.

Then will be fulfilled the words of Isaiah: "at the time spiritual darkness covers the earth the light of Divine Glory will rise on the saints." The nations of the earth will come to that light and know that God has sent Christ, and that God loves the saints as He loves Christ.

There is nothing whatever the wicked can do about this. They will stare in horror as the bodies of the saints come from the ground as tremendous lights, and then are caught up to meet the Commander in Chief in the air. Then the wrath of God will fall on wicked armies that seek to resist the advent of Christ.

Down from the sky will charge the shining warriors, ready to drive all sin from the earth and install the Kingdom of God.

We must remember that God will never give His Glory to another. We cannot receive such terrible Glory until we have become absolutely one with the Father and the Son.

Because Christ gives all He is and possesses to the Father, the Father gives all He is and possesses to Christ. Thus when we worship Christ we also are worshiping the Father.

The same is true of us. If we will give all we are and possess to Christ, Christ will give all He is and possesses to us. Thus when people come to us for assistance they actually are coming to Christ. This is all our desire, isn't it, that people will see Jesus and not us? Of ourselves we have nothing to give the multitudes of the earth. But Christ in us can feed the hungry. Isn't it so?

Let it be true of us always, that we have been crucified with Christ, and now it is not we who are living but Christ who is living in us. Through us, then, the hand of God is stretched forth to bless His creatures. This is the Divine plan.

Our task in the present hour is to confess our sins, denounce them, and renounce them, in preparation for the marvels that lie ahead of us. We are in the time of the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish Day of Atonement. This is the next step after the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the next act of redemption on the path toward oneness with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. (John 17:10)