The Mystery of Christian Unity

The Mystery of Christian Unity - A Mystery of the Unity of the Holy Trinity and Jesus coming to us in the Spirit.

In this world of turmoil and chaos, where can we find true hope? The answer is Christ Jesus in us.

[Col 1:27 NKJV] To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Hope is found in Christ Jesus and His promises to those that believe and trust in Him. It is a hope of obtaining righteousness. It is a hope of salvation and eternal life. It is a hope of His calling. It is a hope of a new world and a new life. It is a hope of the Lord coming for both the living and the dead at the end of this current age. It is a hope of exultation in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming. It is the hope that He will help us through the tough times in life. It is the promises that He is our protector and our hiding place in times of trouble. It is the Lord and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace. We have hope because we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is Jesus in us that is hope.

The mystery is how is it that Christ Jesus, the second person in the Holy Trinity, can actually be in us? We start with a basic understanding of the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity is officially defined in several Christian Creeds and articles of faith.  From the Calvary Memorial Church Articles of Faith, we read:

“We believe in one living and true God who is the Creator of heaven and earth; who is eternal, almighty, unchangeable, infinitely powerful, wise, just, and holy.

We believe that the one God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, co-equal and co-eternal, having precisely the same nature and attributes, and worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience. Matthew 3:16, 17; Matthew 28:19, 20; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3, 4; II Corinthians 13:14.”

In the mystery of the Trinity, God eternally exists in three distinct Persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and “these three are one”.

[1Jo 5:7 NKJV] For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

[Deu 6:4 NKJV] "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD [is] one!

From the scriptures, we know that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are “born again” by the Spirit of God. Also, it is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to be Jesus’ witnesses. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and leads us in the task of leading people to Jesus and discipling them.

If it is the person of the Holy Spirit by which we are born again and who comes upon us to empower us and be our Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby, and is within us, how is it that we can say that it is Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity that is in us?

[Jhn 14:26 AMPC] ²⁶ But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.

[Jhn 1:12 NKJV] But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

[Jhn 1:13 NKJV] who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[Jhn 3:5 NKJV] Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

[Jhn 3:6 NKJV] "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

[Jhn 3:8 NKJV] "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

[Act 1:8 NIV] But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

[Jhn 14:17 NKJV] "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

"This mystery is revealed in The Mystery of the Unity of the Spirit.

Jesus said, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). The Creeds say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This says tells us that the commonality in the Trinity is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. I believe that we can say in the sense of this commonality that Jesus is in us because the Holy Spirit is in us.

Jesus said that He was sending the person of the Holy Spirit to be in us. Yet in the next verse, Jesus says that I will come to you. It seems Jesus is identifying himself in unity or as one with the Holy Spirit.

[Jhn 14:16 NKJV] "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--

[Jhn 14:17 NKJV] "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

[Jhn 14:18 NKJV] "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Further, Jesus also tells us that He will be in us.

[Jhn 14:20 NKJV] "At that day you will know that I [am] in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

[Rom 8:10 NKJV] And if Christ [is] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin, but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.

Because of this unity of the Spirit, Jesus even takes this further and says that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him and they will come and make their home with the believer.

[Jhn 14:10 NKJV] "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own [authority]; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

[Jhn 14:23 NKJV] Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Then Jesus takes this even further relating this unity to the unity of all believers.

[Jhn 17:21 NKJV] "that they all may be one, as You, Father, [are] in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

[Jhn 17:22 NKJV] "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

[Jhn 17:23 NKJV] "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

This is why we can say that Jesus is in us because He is in us in the person of the Holy Spirit which is His Spirit. This explains the mystery of Jesus coming to us in the Spirit to be with us always “even to the end of the age”.

[Mat 28:18 NKJV] And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

[Mat 28:19 NKJV] "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

[Mat 28:20 NKJV] "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, [even] to the end of the age." Amen.

God is Spirit ([Jhn 4:24 NKJV] "God [is] Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."). The Spirit of God is the Spirit of the Father, the Son, and is the Holy Spirit. It is the commonality of the Holy Spirit that makes the Trinity one. And it is the indwelling Holy Spirit that makes believers one with one another and one with God. Having the same spirit, the Holy Spirit is what makes the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and all born again believers one. What a beautiful mystery, this unity of the Spirit.