And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
What does it mean to be one in Christ? Is it a mere confession like the body of Christ loves to do? Much more than that, to be united with Christ in oneness we must be ready to submit ourselves to God like Jesus surrendered his will to that of His Father.
Jesus achieved oneness with God by submitting Himself in all essence without reservations to the will of the Father. Alluding to His oneness with God Jesus said, “I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:29).
If we only confess our oneness with Christ but continue to practice the habits that displeases God then we are only deceiving ourselves and most dangerously making ourselves vulnerable to Satan.
Jesus’ oneness with God withstood satanic visitation and triumphed and Jesus boldly declared: “For the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me…”. (John 14:30).
Are we able to say the same like Jesus having searched the closet of our hearts?
David, an antitype of Jesus in the Bible as King understood that the effectiveness of his reign depended on the total submission of his will to God.
David had said “ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”. ( Psalm 40: 6-8).
David had a deep revelation that beyond the appointed sacrifices oneness with God would require a sacrifice of our stubborn will to God and a desire to pursue His interest above our own selfish desires.
Speaking as the Messiah whom is the fulfillment of all of God’s demands, Jesus echoed the prophetic words of David: “Lo, I am come to do Your will, O God”.
To indeed understand Christ and his eternal work of salvation for all men is to fully comprehend and do the will of the Father through a surrendered life.
Doing the will of the Father comes with the understanding that as long as we remain on earth we are already in a union with Christ, dead with him, buried and now living a resurrected life.
What does this mean? It means we have come to a place where we own nothing, where we are nothing, and where we have abandoned ourselves to the mercies of God without a claim to our own lives but only a claim to the grace of God.
The Apostle Paul was able to declare the following words of grace because he had arrived at that place of oneness with Christ when he said:
“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace”. (1 Corinthians 15:10).
What does this mean for us as well? It means we are not attached to anything other than to Jesus, so much so that even the divine blessings of God are no longer an obstacle for us as we prioritize the doing of His will above all else.
In the pursuit of oneness with Christ and with His Father we will ultimately arrive at a place where we have exchanged our lives with that of Jesus, where He becomes our strength to the point that we have nothing to fear. (Isaiah 12:2).
This level of revelation was where Apostle Paul lived when he said -“ I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me”. (Galatians 2:20).
It is a level of oneness with his death and with His new life: nothing short of this will please the Lord.
Are we ready to embark on a journey of total surrender to Jesus?
To find the true unadulterated grace and favor of God we must be willing to embark on this journey of oneness only made possible through the surrender of our will to God.
Reading
John 7: 16-21; 28-40.
