The way for the many grains to become one Body, one bread, is found in John 17, where the Lord prayed that all the believers would be one. Verses 21 through 23 say, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”
Believers are not merely individuals. Although we may appear to be complete persons, we are not individuals but members. To be a member is different from being an individual. An individual person is a complete unit, but a member is not complete. We may have thought that as far as being a Christian is concerned, it is all right to do everything by ourselves. We can sing hymns, we can pray, we can read the Scriptures, and we can preach the gospel independently of others. We can even help people and wage war with the enemy by ourselves. We think we can do everything because we consider that in ourselves we are complete Christians. Even though we do not declare this openly, we may have this thought deep within. One day the Lord will open our eyes and cause us to realize that we are nothing but members; we are not complete units.
As humans, we are individuals, complete units, but as Christians, we are not complete units but members. Without the brothers and sisters we cannot live, we cannot move, and we cannot do anything. We are merely members. Our hand is a member of our body. Without the body how could our hand be living and active to do many things? We should not regard ourselves as individual grains but as one loaf, one Body. The many grains have to be mingled together and blended into one loaf. None of us as Christians, reborn ones, are complete in ourselves. We can never be complete in ourselves because every one of us is a member of the Body. Hence, if we realize this, we will feel the need to be one with all the members of the Body. We will realize that without the Body we cannot live and do things.
We may have read the Gospel of John, but we may not have seen the important things revealed in this book. We have seen that the Lord came to give us life. But we may not have seen that we have the divine life in order that Christ may have an increase or that those who possess the Lord’s life become His one Body as a bride to the Bridegroom. All of those who believe in the Lord and who have received the same divine life should be one. As Christians, we are not complete units; we are all members. We should have such a deep sense that we can never be complete in ourselves. Because we are members of the Body, we truly need the Body. The Body is our perfection. Without the Body, we are neither perfect nor complete.
We may say that we need the Body, but do we have the Body in practicality? We may say that we are in the Body, but are we in the Body in doctrine or in reality? If you tell me that you are in the Body in reality, I will check with you further. If you look at my arm and hand, you can easily perceive that they are members of my body in reality. If you ask my hand to whom it is joined, it will say it is joined to my arm, and if you ask my arm, it will say it is joined to the shoulder. In many places where I visit, the believers say that they are in the Body in reality, but when I ask them to whom they are joined, they tell me that they are joined to the Head, Christ. According to their understanding, they are like a hand which is directly joined to the head. To them it seems that all the members of the body should be attached directly to the head. This is awful; it is a monster rather than a body. However, this is the real situation today among believers. Many Christians claim that they belong to the Head and are joined to Christ, but we need to realize that we are only one of many members comprising the Body. We need to maintain a proper relationship with the members of this Body.
According to the Lord’s words in John 17:21-23, we can be one only when we are in the Triune God. Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” To be in “Us” in this verse is to be in the Triune God, that is, in the Son and in the Father. We can be one only in Christ, not in anything else. Praise the Lord that we are in Christ! As long as we are in Christ, we are one. Regrettably, however, Christians make many other things their center. Some believers make the practice of baptism by immersion the center of their oneness, and based on this they set up a Baptist Church. Other Christian groups consider the presbytery the best system of church administration. They are one in the presbytery, so they establish a Presbyterian Church. Still another group calls themselves Methodists based upon the teachings of John Wesley. They also form their own church and hold as their center and focus the best methods by which to live a holy life. Therefore, Christians are divided over the practice of baptism, the systems of church government, and the methods of holiness. Although I would say that baptism is right and the presbytery is also right, I dare not say that all methods of holiness are right; they need to be checked against the Scriptures. However, we need to remember that we are one in Christ alone, not in these foregoing matters. May we all abandon our insistence on matters such as baptism, the presbytery, and methods of holiness and not make them our centers. We are one in Christ alone.
Regardless of our views on the above practices, we need to realize that we are the saved ones, the regenerated ones. We are those who believe in the Son of God and who have received Him as our life. Thus, we are all one in Christ Himself. Because the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, and we believers are in Christ, we can be one even as They are one. How wonderful this is!
In verse 22 of John 17 the Lord goes on to say, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The glory mentioned here, simply speaking, is the expression of the divine life. The Son has the divine life of the Father because the Father has given this life to the Son. Now that the Son in turn has given this life to us, we also have the life of the Son, which is the very life of the Father. Just as the Son and the Father are one in the divine life, we are one in the Son because we possess the same life. Since you have the life of Christ, I have the life of Christ, and others have the life of Christ, we are all one in this same life. Whether or not we believe in baptism by immersion or the presbytery, every one of us has the same life of Christ. Whether you call yourself a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, an Anglican, or a Congregationalist, regardless of all of these differences, we are one in that we all have the life of Christ. It is the life of Christ that makes us one. We should all be one because we have the same divine life.
John 17:23 says, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” Here the Lord says that He, the Son of God, is in the believers, and the Father is in Him that the believers may be perfected into one. How glorious this is! It is not only that we are in Christ, but that Christ is in us. Because we have received Christ as our life and are filled with Christ, we are one in Christ. This is the factor that enables us to be one. Are we willing to give up all the things that divide the Body of Christ? Can we say, “Lord, I do not want to focus on anything else. I have Your life, I am in You, and You are in Me. Therefore, I am one with all the dear ones who have the same life that I do.” This is sufficient. As long as we are in Christ and we have Christ in us as our life, we are all members of His one Body. We need to have such a realization of the oneness of the Lord’s Body. This is what the Lord prayed for in John 17.