In the last chapter, we saw that we need to be those living a life according to God’s heart and will. In this chapter, we want to see the organic oneness of the Body of Christ. In order to see this oneness, which is organic, we must study John 17:20-23.
The prayer of the Lord in John 17 shows that the organic oneness of the Body of Christ is the organic oneness in the Triune God. Verse 20 says, “And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe in Me through their word.” This verse tells us that the Lord’s prayer here includes us, all the ones who believe in Him. Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in you...” This shows that the oneness of all the believers should be like the oneness in the Triune God. The Triune God is three yet one. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. The oneness in the Godhead is not a mere unification. That is the oneness of men. The oneness of the Three of the Godhead is that They mutually indwell one another. What is the oneness among the believers? No word can adequately explain it, but there is the example of the divine oneness among the Three in the Godhead.
Our God is the Three-one God. There is not such a number “three-one” in man’s mathematics. Our God is three-one because the Three indwell each other. The Father is in the Son and in the Spirit; the Son is in the Father and in the Spirit; and the Spirit is in the Father and in the Son. They are three, yet They are mingled together as one. This is coinherence. The Three of the Godhead not only coexist but also coinhere. Coinherence is a mutual indwelling or a mingling.
Verse 21 goes on to say, “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.” As the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, we also are in the Father and the Son. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were separate from the coinhering Triune God, but now we are in the Triune God. God the Father’s being in the Son, God the Son’s being in the Father, the Father and the Son’s being in the Spirit, and the Spirit’s being in the Father and the Son has an issue, an outcome. This issue, this outcome, is that all the believers may also be in the Three of the Godhead. In the entire universe there is such a oneness, and this oneness is that the believers are mingled and wrapped up with the Triune God.
Now we have to ask how we could be in the Three of the Godhead. We have seen that the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, the Father and Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and the Son. Because all Three are mingled together, the believers may be in all of Them. If we are in one of the Three, we are in all of Them because They are mingled together as one. We are in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit at the same time because the Three of the Godhead mutually indwell one another. We are in the divine “Us,” in the Triune God. We are in the Three who are one. This is the oneness of the believers.
We need to see what the real Christian oneness is. The real Christian oneness is a coinherence. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coinhere, which means that They are mutually within one another. By coinhering, the Three are one. Because the Three are one, we believers can be in the Three. When we are in one of the Three, we are in all Three. By being in the Three, we join the divine oneness. The divine oneness was once only among the Three of the Godhead, but now we the believers have joined this oneness.
In verse 21 the Lord prays that we would be one so that the world may believe that the Father has sent the Son. Suppose that we are meeting together in the wonderful way of being not only one with one another but also one with the Triune God. Then there will be a manifestation that God the Father has sent the Son. The people in the world will be able to see this. In other words, if we are really one in the Triune God, this is a strong testimony to prove to the world that God the Father has sent God the Son. Now that we believe in God the Son, we have become not only one with one another but also one with the Triune God. There is a oneness on the earth today, not only among human beings but also between human beings and the Triune God.
Verse 22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” What is the glory in this verse? The Father has given His divine life to the Son that the Son may express the Father. This expression is the glory. Now the Son has given us His life by which we can express Him. This expression is also glory. This indicates that the oneness we have with the Triune God is the divine life, and by this divine life we can express the Triune God. The divine life has been given to us and is within us. When we express the Triune God by this divine life, that is the oneness. The oneness is the very expression of the Triune God in and by His divine life.
We all have received this divine life. When we live the divine life, there will be an expression, and this expression is the oneness. The oneness is the expression of the divine life of the Triune God. If we all live by our natural life, there will be no oneness. Instead, there will be division and separation. How can we have the practical oneness? We can have the practical oneness by living the divine life. When we live the divine life, our expression is the divine life. When the Son was on this earth, He lived the Father’s life and this living was the Father’s life expressed. We may also say that His living was the oneness of the Triune God expressed. Now that we have the divine life within us, what is needed is for us to live by this life, not by our natural life. If we live by our natural life, what is expressed will be division. If we live by the divine life, what is expressed will be the oneness of the Triune God.
Verse 23 says, “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.” The Son is in the believers, the Father is in the Son, and by this the believers may be perfected into one. On the one hand, we are in the divine oneness. On the other hand, we still need to be perfected. This means that we may be in the oneness only to a small degree. This is why we need to be perfected into one. To be perfected is for us to have the growth in the divine life every day. The divine life has been given to us, and we need to live by this divine life. Then our expression will be the divine oneness. At the start of our Christian life, we have just a little of the divine life, so we need to be perfected. This means that the divine life within us is continually increasing, and that we are growing in this increasing of the divine life. The more we grow in the increasing of the divine life, the more we are perfected and the more oneness we live out. I hope that we all can realize that the very Christian oneness is the mingling of the Triune God with the believers in an increasing way. Last year the divine oneness expressed among us might have only been fifty percent. This year our expression of the divine oneness may increase to sixty percent. Later we may go up to seventy percent. This increasing of the divine life and its expression is our being perfected into one.
The prayer of the Lord in John 17 is a unique prayer made by the Son to the Father. We may be accustomed to calling the prayer in Matthew 6 the Lord’s prayer, but the prayer in John 17 is also the Lord’s prayer. Actually, the prayer in John 17 is much higher than the one in Matthew 6. As we have seen, the Lord’s prayer in John 17 is that we, all the believers in the Son, may be one, even as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, that we also may be in the Triune God (v. 21). The oneness among us is a oneness of coinherence. The Three of the Godhead mutually indwell each other as one, we are one with the Triune God, mutually indwelling each other as one, and we believers all are one in the coinhering Triune God. We believers and the Triune God are all one. Although the believers in Christ come from many different countries and cultures, they all have the same unique divine life. The same life that is in you is also in me. Through this life we are one with each other and with the Triune God.
As an illustration of this oneness, let us consider the lights in the ceiling of a room. These lights in the ceiling are separate from one another until the switch is turned on and the electricity begins to flow in them. In all the lights there is one current of electricity. By the current of electricity, all the lights are one. According to themselves, the lights are separate, but according to the electricity within them, they are one. They are not only one with one another but also one with the power plant. We all need to remain in the “current” of the divine life. When we live in this divine life, we are one with each other and with God. When we do not live in this divine life, but in our own life, we are separate. The Son is in us, and the Father is in the Son, that we may be perfected into one in the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son came into us, so the Son with the Father is in us. By their being in us, we can be perfected into one, not in ourselves but in the Triune God.