In order to have the genuine oneness, we need to be separated from worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. In the past not many of us realized that we need to be sanctified to have the genuine oneness. Sanctification has a great deal to do with oneness.
In this message we shall again consider chapters fourteen through seventeen of the Gospel of John. Although Christians have read these chapters again and again, not many know the real meaning of them. Chapters fourteen through sixteen are the last words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion. After uttering the words recorded in these chapters, He offered the prayer found in chapter seventeen. This prayer is actually a conclusion to His speaking in the previous three chapters.
In John 14:2 the Lord Jesus says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” If you read this verse in the light of the whole New Testament, you will see that the house here refers to the church, not to the so-called heavenly mansions. In chapter two of John the house refers firstly to the temple and secondly to the body of the Lord Jesus. Just as the temple was the house of God, so the Lord’s physical body was the house of God when the Lord was on earth. After Christ’s resurrection, His physical body became the mystical Body, which is the house of God today. This mystical Body, the Body of Christ, is the church. When the Lord Jesus was about to die, He told His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them in the house of God. This means that He was about to prepare a place for us in the church. Therefore, in the beginning of this section of the Gospel of John, the Lord said clearly that His going was for the purpose of accomplishing one thing: to prepare a place for us in the house of God, the church, and to pave the way for us to be brought into this place.
John 14:3 says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that where I am you also may be.” The Lord was in the Father, and He wanted His disciples to be in the Father also. In this verse the Lord seemed to be saying, “I am in the Father, but you are not. By My crucifixion and resurrection, I shall bring you into the Father. Then where I am, you will be also.” The Lord prayed for this very thing in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world.” According to this verse, eventually we shall be not only in the Father, but also in the glory. Firstly, the Lord brings us into the Father and then into the glory.
When we are with the Lord in the Father and in the glory, we are one. But when we are in ourselves, we cannot be one with others. In ourselves we are one only with ourselves, not with anyone else. If we desire to be one with others, we need to move out of the self and into God the Father. No one can make this move for us; we are responsible to do it ourselves. When we move out of ourselves and into the Father and into the Father’s glory, we are one and are even perfected into one.
The way to make this move is by being sanctified. To be sanctified is to make the move out of ourselves and into the Father. If we remain in ourselves, we are not sanctified and thus we cannot be one with others. In ourselves we have worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. It is impossible for us to eradicate these things from our being. Do you realize that the world is actually yourself? The same is true of ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. This is the reason we cannot escape from these four things if we stay in the self. Paul told the Corinthians that among them there was envy, strife, and division (1 Cor. 3:3). These are some of the characteristics of those who are in the self. The church life, however, is a building, and the real building is the genuine oneness. In this genuine oneness there is no room for worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or opinion.
How can we remove these four things from us? In ourselves, it is impossible. There is no way for us to eliminate them. As fallen people we are constituted with worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. Even little children know how to exalt themselves; at an early age they also become ambitious. Furthermore, children do not need to be taught worldliness, for they are worldly by nature. As long as we are alive, we are subject to worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. Although some of us are gentle and meek because of our natural disposition, this does not mean that we are not ambitious or opinionated. With some, ambition is expressed in an outward way and is quite obvious, whereas with others, ambition is a hidden matter concealed in the heart. But everyone is ambitious; ambition is a constituent of our being.
The Lord Jesus knows our problem. In John 15:5 He said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” He is the vine, and we are the branches. We must remain in Him, that is, abide in Him. To remain in Christ as the vine means that we move out of ourselves and into Him. Since the Lord is in the Father, we also may be in the Father by being in Him. In John 17:21 the Lord prayed, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” This is the oneness in the Triune God. In order to be in the Triune God, we must move out of ourselves. John 17:22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” When we move out of ourselves and remain in the Triune God, Christ lives in us. In this way we are perfected into one.
Only by our being sanctified can we abide in Christ and can Christ live in us. Again I say, to be sanctified is to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God and to allow Christ to live in us. According to chapters fourteen through seventeen of John, this is the proper concept of sanctification. The more we are sanctified, the more we are out of ourselves and in the Triune God.