In the same place that I found the issue concerning baggage added to salvation for my previous post, there was a discussion concerning whether the Father was in or with Christ as he experienced the process of the crucifixion. At times it went so far as to suggest that they were still there together as one when Jesus died on the cross, though that was backed away from fairly quickly in favor of a unity that only lasted until the 9th hour when it is recorded that Jesus said, “why have you forsaken me?” (And even there someone suggested that the “God” part of Jesus separated from the body which died and remained together with the Father and Spirit.)
The verse that was provided to establish the unity of the Father and the Son was John 14:10 which says:
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Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
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What followed was a short paragraph saying things like “. . . [it] is clear that the Father and the Son indwelt one another . . .” and “. . . where is the verse that indicates the essential bond was broken in the Godhead?”
In John 17, Jesus uses the in-the-Father-and-the-Father-in-me terminology again. Here he says
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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.
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What stands out to me is that while Jesus again says “
. . . as you are in me an I am in you . . . ,” he implies that we are in the Father and the Son in the same way that they are in each other (
just as . . . may they also be in us . . . ).
Since the unity (or “une” of “triune”) is more than just this one stated aspect of the oneness of the Godhead, I do not believe that I would diminish it by suggesting that we have overstated the impact of this one aspect of their unity. Why overstated? Because it is likened to how we are in unity with God and with each other. If it is the only aspect of the unity of the Godhead and we can be one with the Godhead (and therefore with each other) in the exact same manner, then the unity of the Godhead is not as significant as we like to think. I know that my unity with each of you, though significant because it is unity in Christ and not in doctrine, does not in any way suggest that I am you or you are me. In other words, if “I in you and you in me” can be applied to the unity between humans who are believers in Christ, then it cannot in any way be used to imply that the Father and the Son are “simply” the same (with or without the word “person” attached).
If it seems that I have diminished some cherished doctrine of the oneness of the Godhead, do not fear. The unity of God does not rely on a single construct of terms. But the implication on unity among believers is significant. We are connected through this same “I in you and you in me” kind of unity as the Father and Son are. The wording in John 17 does not clearly say it is directly between you and me, but because of our unity with Christ and the Father in this manner.
Because of this, I can safely say that the unity of believers is NOT:
- The right position on the permanence of salvation (Calvinism v Arminianism)
- The right mode of baptism
- A unified lexicon of terms
- The right sign (or no sign) outside a meeting place
- Whether we speak in tongues or recite a liturgy
- The teacher, book writer, or publisher that we follow
- Our “taste” with respect to any of the above
While there is surely a kind of unity among those who hold to one particular item in this list (among other possibilities), it is not Christian unity, but a unity of preference. Anyone who includes or excludes from the household of faith based on these does not understand Christian unity.