Unity and Union
Table of Contents
Unity and Union: Part 1
WE think it may be useful to our readers, by the Lord's gracious help, to briefly develop from scripture itself the difference between unity and union. These terms, though springing from the same root, and in one sense running into one another, have not exactly the same meaning, nor can they be used interchangeably. To use them indiscriminately, at least, without defining by the context, the real difference of thought they represent, is a very real loss to souls, and hinders the intelligent communion of saints in the distinctive blessings that these terms respectively represent. We believe a very little sober reflection will make this plain.
We have no wish to dogmatize, but merely to put our thoughts before our readers, leaving them to decide from scripture how far they are in accordance with truth; our aim being edification and not controversy. The desire to build one another up in our most holy faith, fruit of the love that seeks to edify, carried into action will, we are quite sure, bear the marks of the infirmity and limitation that the earthen vessel ever displays, and where what God does by it is all His own, the imperfection and weakness being all the vessel's, plainly enough, too, there to keep it humble, and were it not that mercy were tasted in its ministry, would cause it to faint.
The difference between unity and union will, we think, at once strike the mind, if we exemplify them in connection with the common relationships of life. We speak of the unity of a family, and of the union between a man and his wife. It would not do to speak of the union of a father with his children, nor would it convey the full truth if we said a man and his wife lived in unity. In the first case there is community of life and nature, and there may or may not be family unity. In the second case it is not a question of community of life and nature, but of a bond between two distinct persons by which they are united the one to the other; a unionwhich cannot be broken, and yet they may not be living together in unity.
Applying, now, these distinctions to divine things-to the family of God; and the church of Christ—we shall find that in those scriptures where the saints are looked at in their individual relationships as children of God there is unity, but not union; while in those scriptures in which the corporate relationship of saints as the church, the body of Christ, is unfolded there is union, and unity is enjoined. That is to say, there is the unity of the family of God, where Christ is " the first born among many brethren;" and the unity of the church, where Christ is " the head of the body."
John unfolds the former, Paul the latter. John speaks of the family of God, but never of the church, and consequently we find unity in John, but no union. Paul speaks of the family of God as well as of the church, but specially of the latter; hence, while recognizing the unity of saints as children of God, he dwells chiefly on the union of saints with Christ as members of His body, the church. We shall see this plainly enough if we turn to the scriptures themselves.
In John we have the Father and His Son revealed, and believers brought into relation with God as the Father, and with Christ as His brethren. " As many as received him to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name." (Chapter 1:12.) "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God." (Chapter 20:17.)
Then as to unity we read, " And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one The children' of God that were scattered abroad." (Chapter 11:49-52.) From this scripture we learn that not only are the national salvation and unity of Israel secured by the cross, but that, in addition to individual salvation through the death of Jesus, the cross is the foundation on which the unity of the children of God as a family rests. This blessed effect of the cross in respect of unity must not be confounded with that spoken of in Eph. 2:16, " That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Here Jews and Gentiles are in question, and the cross is the basis of union and unity in the church, but to this we will refer again in its place.
The unity of the family is largely the subject of the intercourse and intercession of Jesus with His Father in chapter 17., and He speaks of it in three distinct ways: 1st, He prays that the disciples, whom the Father had already given Him, might be so kept by the Father in His own name (as the Father) " that they may be one, as we " (ver. 11); this unity was to be of the same character as that which subsisted between the Father and the Son-" as we "-one thought, one purpose. 2ndly, He prays for " them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (Vers. 20, 21.) Here He desires that the unity of all believers as one family, in fellowship with the Father and the Son-" in us "-might be so displayed on earth that the world might believe that the Father had sent Him. 3rdly, He tells His Father, " The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and bast loved them as thou hast loved me." (Vers. 22, 23.) The unity here is that of the saints as one family in heavenly glory, "perfect in one." The Father displayed in the Son, and the Son displayed in the many sons conformed to His image in glory. (Compare Rom. 8:19,29.) Through this unity the world will know that the Father has sent the Son, and that those who had believed on Him were, as children, loved with the same love as Himself.
It is the unity of the family that is expressed in that first gathering together of believers after the Lord's resurrection. (John 20:19.) They were assembled together as His brethren for the first time, redemption having been accomplished, and doubtless consequent upon the revelation of this relationship given them through the lips of Mary. He appears in their midst, fulfilling the prophetically announced desire of His own heart in Psa. 22, " I will declare thy name unto my brethren," and it is as from the bosom of the family, so to speak, He sends them forth into the world on their mission of grace to sinners when He says, " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
The assembling together of the disciples " with one accord" (Acts 1:14), subsequent to the Lord's ascension, but before the descent of the Holy Ghost, was also of this character, and the unity and communion so sweetly disclosed there is that of the family of God. It is all on the individual footing of saints before God as children " through faith in Christ Jesus."
Before turning to the second part of our subject, and passing from the writings of John to those of Paul, we think it will help to clear our ground if we look a little at what the Lord tells the disciples in John 14 with reference to the mutual indwelling of Himself and the Father, and of Himself and them, the latter being consequent upon the coming of the Holy Ghost. In the minds of many this mutual indwelling of Christ and His saints is confounded with union, and no little loss to souls is the consequence, both in their communion, and their power for testimony. Now we believe a little quiet weighing in the mind of what is said on this subject in the chapter before us will show the difference between the two, and, with this, the importance of realizing the distinction. In verse 8 Philip asks the Lord to show
them the Father; to this the Lord rejoins " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me he doeth the work. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me: or else believe for the very work's sake." Here we have the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son, and so manifested that in seeing the Son the Father was seen too; there was the most perfect identity of nature and being; an identity displayed in word and action. But would it be correct to say that the Father was united to the Son, or that the One was in union with the Other, as of two distinct persons united the one to the other, and acting in unity?
In verse 20, speaking of the Spirit of truth, the other Comforter, whom the Father should give them, and who should dwell in them, He says, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." That is to say, that in the same manner as He dwelt in the Father and the Father in Him, so, when they possessed the Holy Ghost, they would know that they dwelt in Him, and He in them. As in the case of the Father Himself, so there would be in theirs and Himself (as the Son dwelling in them and they in Him) the same identity of nature and being, and there ought to be the same display of it before the world, so that those who saw them should see Christ in them, as they saw the Father in the Son.
Now to speak of believers being united to, or in union with, the Son of God is just as out of place as to speak of the Son being united to the Father. It is a totally different thought, goes deeper, and is a more precious thought than union, unspeakably blessed as that is. -Union, as we shall see, is with Christ, as a man in heavenly glory; indwelling is connected with God in His nature and being, and this is distinctly developed by John in his
first epistle, where he says (chap.4. 12, 13), "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit," and (verse 16), " God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in. God, and God in him." God's nature is love; and because the believer partakes of that nature, and has it shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, is he united or in union with God? To ask the question is enough to show how wrong and unscriptural the thought is.
John gives the individual relationships of the saints with the Father and the Son, with whom they have fellowship; and according to these relationships they have this fellowship with one another, in the light in which God dwells, in unity, but there is no union in. John. c. W.
(To be continued.)
Unity and Union: Part 2
WE will turn now to the writings of the apostle Paul, where alone the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ is unfolded, and hence where, in addition to the thought of unity, we read of that of union. But before taking up the doctrine of the church, as Paul unfolds it, we will just note the fact that the church began with the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, consequent upon the ascension to glory of the Lord Jesus. This is given us in Acts 2, and where we read (ver. 47), " the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
Another thing we would note, is, that it is against the church, as taking the place of Judaism, that Paul, before his conversion, was so bitter an opponent; and it is this fact that gives its peculiar significance to the manner of his conversion, and which colored his entire life and service subsequently. He speaks thus of himself in Gal. 1:13,14: " Ye have heard of my conversation in times past, in the Jews' religion, how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it; and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." It is, too, in this connection he calls himself " the chief of sinners," and says he is not worthy " to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." The thing that weighed so heavily on Paul's conscience was not the breach of the law, or his lost condition as a sinner in rebellion against God, where he could be on common ground with other sinners, but the special sin of persecuting the church of Christ. The gravity of this sin was consequent upon the intimate relation in which the church stood to Christ, and this Paul learned at the moment of his conversion, and indeed it was in direct connection with this truth that his conversion took place. It is of all moment, in order to understand the special nature of Paul's ministry, to clearly apprehend this.
It was on his sanguinary mission to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9), that Paul saw that "light above the brightness of the sun," and heard from heaven those wondrous words that brought him to God and changed the entire course of his life, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and to which, in answer to his inquiry, " Who art thou, Lord?" was added that touching and pregnant statement, " I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It was here, at the very beginning of his christian career, that Paul learned that never-to-be-forgotten lesson, which entered into every subsequent thought and feeling of the apostle's heart, that the poor disciples of the rejected and crucified, but now risen, exalted, and glorious Jesus, were so one with Himself, that in touching them on earth, he touched Him in heaven. In that one short statement, the marvelous and weighty truth of the union of the church with Christ as its Head in heaven, was set,' once and forever, before the soul of Saul of Tarsus. His life and teachings are but the unfolding of this divine and blessed mystery, and his writings we will now. briefly take up.
The essential difference between the writings of Paul and those of John, flows from this; that while John knew Jesus as a divine Person come to earth-" that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1 John 1:2), through the knowledge of whom he had entered into life and relationship with God as the Father-Paul knew Him as a Man in heavenly glory. It was there Paul knew Him as his Savior; there he learned the glories of His Person; there his heart had entered into that " love of Christ which passeth knowledge;" and there he learned the blessings, and the place of blessing, into which the believer in Jesus is brought. The kernel of John's doctrine is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God; the kernel of Paul's is Jesus, the risen Man in heavenly glory. For John, believers are children of the Father; for Paul, believers are members of Christ. Not that John did not know and own what Paul taught, or that Paul did not delight in and give full place to all that John loved to dwell upon, but John's heart was full of the one, and Paul's of the other. The fountain was one, and Christ's fullness the source of both, but the channels were different, and each divinely fitted for the special ministry it was specially given to sustain; like the colors of the rainbow, distinct in themselves, but blending in beauteous harmony to form one arc of divine and heavenly radiancy.
John breaks out in holy ecstasy with, " Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" (1 John 3:1.)
The anthem of Paul's heart is, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!" And then, in deep and sober words, he tells us what and where we once were, and how we reached our present state of blessedness: " God," says he, " who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (E ph. 2: 4-6.)
The prayer of the apostle for believers, in the first chapter of this epistle, is based upon the fact, that saints are actually in possession of these blessings, and he asks, " The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," that they may intelligently enter into them, as well as know the exceeding greatness of the power that is in exercise towards them as believers in Christ, that power being the same by which God " wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies," and where He "gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body."
Christ, a Man exalted above everything in heavenly glory, with believers united to Him by the Holy Ghost to form His body, was that which specially occupied the heart, and called out the energies of the apostle Paul. The Jewish system, by which men had been previously in relationship with God, and of which he had, previous to his conversion, been so zealous an upholder, had, in the ways of God, and now in his own faith, given place to the church. That whole system, which shut Gentiles out from all blessing, and made Jews and Gentiles enemies one of another, had been abolished by Christ, who had died that He might destroy this enmity, and thus "make in himself of twain one new man," reconciling " both unto God in one body by the cross." It is in this corporate relationship of believers to Christ, as the church which is His body, that the thought of union comes in.
Thinking of himself as an individual, Paul can speak of " the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20); but when his thoughts are engaged with the relationship that subsists between Christ and all believers, he says, " Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it," and that He " nourisheth and cherisheth" those that compose it as "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;" comparing this to the union of a man with his wife, and quoting the words of Gen. 2, where, in connection with the original institution of marriage, it is said, " For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh," adding, " This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church." (Eph. 5)
In this epistle Paul develops the thought of union on the side of what the church is to Christ as His body, and of what He is towards it as the object of His own care; hut we have another side of this blessed subject presented to us (1 Cor. 12), where, in addition to the thought of the union between Christ and His saints as members of His body, we have that of the union between saints, and one another, as members of one body. The simile that he uses here is not that of the union between a man and his wife, but that of the connection subsisting between the various parts of the human body. He says, " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." He then develops, under this figure, the interdependence and mutual relationships in which believers stand one to another as members of this one body, and tells us that God has so formed the body, that there can be no schism in it, and " that the members should have the same care one of another," adding-so real is this union, and ever-acting is this interdependence -that " if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it."
In this view of union all believers are one body by the one Spirit; He animates and unites them one to another; but, as such, they are, says the apostle, " the body of Christ, and members in particular." The conduct, then, of Christians one towards another, in all its bearings, is to be regulated by this blessed, living union, formed and sustained by that " one and selfsame Spirit." This union of saints as one body underlies all the apostle's exhortations as to their walk and conduct, and this comes out remarkably in the Epistle of Romans, where we should scarcely have looked for it, the subject set before us there being the position of man in his individual responsibility before God. He says, in chapter xii., verses 4, 5, when speaking of the relative duties of believers, " For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."
Very strikingly, too, does the apostle carry this thought of our union with Christ, as members of His body, into what is purely individual in its effects, where, when correcting the abuses to which believers can put their bodies, he says to the Corinthians (1 Con 6.), "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" stating, as the ground of this, " He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."
The union of believers with Christ, as the risen and exalted Man in heaven, Head of all principalities and power, is the subject of the Epistle to the Colossians, being brought forward there, to save saints from falling back under Judaism combined with human philosophy. He states, that all such retrograde steps flowed from " not holding the Head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together. increaseth with the increase of God." (Chapter 2:19.)
Brief and imperfect as our sketch of what Paul says on this subject has been, we think we have adduced enough from his writings to show that union always carries with it the thought of the corporate relationship of saints to Christ as His body and His bride, and that to confound this with indwelling and with simple unity, which enter alone into our individual relationships as believers in Christ, is a very real hindrance to the soul's apprehension of divine truth. C.W.
(Concluded from page 258.)