by Roel Velema
Basic 1: A Christian lives in two-oneness with Christ
The union of the believer with Christ through the Holy Spirit is described in 1 Corinthians 6:17: “And he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (Young’s Literal Translation).
When we are born again, we become one spirit with God’s Spirit, and we become partakers of the divine nature. The word ‘joined” in 1 Corinthians 6:17 is a translation of a Greek verb which is related to the word kolla which means ‘glue’. So God’s Spirit and my spirit are ‘glued’ like two sheets of paper. We are one, yet to be distinguished. We live in two-oneness. To be one spirit implies God’s Spirit AS my spirit. Christ is the light of the world and so are we the light of the world (John 8:12; Matt. 5:14), because we as one spirit.
Christ lived in two-oneness with His Father. He was not the Father, yet He was one with the Father. The Father sent Him (John 14:24), so He distinguished Himself from the Father. Yet Jesus said: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9). So Christ expressed the essence of the Father, in two-oneness, but NEVER as an independent self:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do NOTHING of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19), and that “… I do NOTHING on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (John 8:28).
What is true of the Father and Christ, is also true of Christ and me:
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, JUST AS YOU, Father, are in me, and I in you, that THEY ALSO may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20,21).
It was through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that believers became one, just as the Father and Christ are one. This is not a high aim to be aspired, but it’s God’s standard, our point of departure. Do you believe that? Do you believe that who has seen you, has seen Christ? Do you believe that your spirit and God’s spirit are “one spirit”?
In resurrection I am raised in “union” with Christ. The TWO of us, Christ and me, are ONE spirit. One does not swallow up the other. I am in the foreground, and Christ is the life that lives in me, AS me. Christ wasn’t the Father, but He expressed the essence of the Father AS Christ. Christ lives in me, and I express Christ AS me. Christ and I live as one. Two AS one is the key to union, not merely Christ in me, but Christ AS me. God’s Spirit AS my spirit implies Christ AS me.
{to be continued}
