ONE IN THE TRIUNE GOD

When we are in the Triune God, we are one. When we are in ourselves, however, we are divided. Outward teachings concerning oneness do not make us one. The more today’s Christians talk about oneness, the more divided they are. Like the Corinthians, they are still in themselves; hence, they are through with the genuine oneness.

We have pointed out that in John 14 the Lord Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us. This place is God the Father Himself, and the way there is the Lord Jesus. In John 14:6 the Lord said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Christ, the Son, is the way, and the Father is the place. Although unbelievers can lodge only in themselves, we have a choice between dwelling in ourselves and dwelling in the Triune God. We do not need to remain in ourselves; we can move into the Triune God. A place has been prepared for us, and a choice is presented to us. The Lord said that after He prepared a place for us in the Father’s house, He would come to receive us into that place. Therefore, where He is, we may be also. The Lord is in the Father, and He desires that we too be in the Father. Now that the place has been prepared for us in the Father, we can move into Him by being sanctified through the truth. This involves both the Word and the Spirit. If we continually touch the Word and allow the Spirit to touch us day by day, we will be sanctified; that is, we will move out of ourselves, our old lodging place, and into the Triune God, our new lodging place. By making this move, worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion are left behind.

PERFECTED INTO ONE

John 17:23 says, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” Not only have we moved into the Triune God, but the Lord is also in us. His being in us is a matter of living. We move out of ourselves in order to be in the Triune God. When we are in the Triune God, Christ can live in us. When we remain in the Triune God and when Christ lives in us, we are perfected into one.

If we come together for the church service in ourselves, it will be impossible for us to be one. In order to serve in oneness, we must move out of ourselves. We serve by moving into the Triune God. However, as we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, we need to let Christ live in us. His living in us perfects us into one. By moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God, we have oneness. However, this is not yet the perfected oneness. Only when Christ lives in us do we sense the reality of the genuine oneness. The more the Lord lives in us, the more His living perfects us with others into the genuine oneness.

Genuine oneness is not merely a matter of meeting together. To have the genuine oneness, we must first move out of ourselves and into the Triune God; second, we must allow the Lord to live in us. Then we are not only one but also perfected into one. Here in this genuine oneness there is no worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or opinions. Instead, there is just the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

REAL BUILDING

This perfected oneness is the real building. In 1954 I first began to speak of the building. I told the saints in Manila that they had to know who was above them, under them, and beside them. Later, I learned by experience that this concept of building is not accurate, for it applies only to a building with lifeless material that does not move from place to place, not to us as living ones who may move from one city to another. I asked the Lord to show me what the practical building was. Gradually, mainly from Ephesians 4, I saw that real building is the proper growth in life. When we grow in life normally, we get out of ourselves and into the Triune God, and Christ lives in us. When this is our experience, we have the genuine oneness, and we are perfected into one. When we are perfected into one, there is no problem with building. Wherever we go, we are one with the saints. But if we remain in ourselves, we will have problems no matter where we may be.

Real oneness is not merely relatedness, nor is it merely coordination. It is the growth in life. To grow in life means that we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God and allow Christ to live in us. If we move into the Triune God and allow Christ to live in us, we can be one with the saints in any locality. If you have problems in the church, do not blame your environment or the saints. Instead, blame yourself for not moving out of yourself and into the Triune God and for not allowing Christ to live in you.

ONE IN THE FATHER’S GLORY

In John 17:22 the Lord Jesus said, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The glory which the Father has given the Son is the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (5:26) to express the Father in His fullness (1:18; 14:9; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3). The Son has given this glory to His believers so that they also may have the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (John 17:2; 2 Pet. 1:4) to express the Father in the Son in His fullness (John 1:16). This is the glory which the Father gave to the Son and which the Son has given to us. In such a glory there is no worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or opinion. Instead, there is the Father’s life and nature for His expression in His fullness. Here in the glory we have the genuine oneness.

Through His death and resurrection the Lord prepared a place for us in the Father and opened the way for us to come into this place. After His resurrection He began to bring us into the Father, that is, to move us out of ourselves and into the Father. Furthermore, He lives in us to bring us into the glory, which is the expression of the Father. Here in the glory we live by the Father’s life and by His nature to express the Father in His fullness. In this glory there is room for nothing but the Father’s life and nature for His expression. This is where the Lord Jesus is today and where we should be also. Here in the Father’s glory we have the genuine oneness.

In the past we did not see the truth concerning oneness in as deep a way as we see it today. If we allow the Spirit of reality to work this truth, this reality, into our being, we will have the genuine oneness, a oneness where there is no worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or opinion but only the Father’s life, nature, and holiness for us to express Him. This is the truth of oneness through sanctification. We all need to experience this sanctification through the Word and the Spirit so that we may enter into the Father and into His glory.