MARKS OF THE CHURCH:  UNITY

JOHN 17:20-23

Part I

JUNE 8, 1997

 

From every corner of the breadth of Christendom, there are cries for unity. Virtually every denomination has some plan or strategy for developing unity.  Many people are expending great energies trying to bring about a unity of the various strands of Christianity.  I think we would all agree, none of this has worked!  By the same token, we would all agree that the church stands in desperate need of unity.

 

The basic problem stems from a misunderstanding of unity.  Most think of unity in terms of an organizational unity.  The idea is that if we can just forget our doctrine for a while and concentrate on some issues together, we can have unity.  Certainly, most all Christian bodies have some areas of agreement.  So we are told to agree upon what we can, then basically, not make an issue of the rest.  This means that the various Christian bodies would be able to come together, have fellowship, lay aside their distinctives, and join hand-in-hand for a variety of projects.  As for their doctrine, that is not to be mentioned.  

 

A serious rift has occurred among evangelicals in the past few years as some well-known evangelicals and Catholics have sought to establish an ecclesiastical unity.  A document was drafted that outlined common beliefs and common interests, urging a coming-together by all branches of Christianity for the sake of an outward display of unity.  The problem is that in the process, the heart of the gospel--justification by faith alone in Christ alone--has been ripped out!  While I would not deny that the leaders of this movement have good intentions, I would insist that they are trying to establish a unity that is never taught in Scripture.

 

The Bible teaches an organic unity.  This refers to a certain mystical dynamic that unites people spiritually rather than organizationally.  It is a unity of the Spirit, a unity of faith, and a unity rooted in our sanctification [cf. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Growing in the Spirit, 144].  Believers may still maintain some of their distinctives, yet enjoy the richness of unity in their spirits.  Understanding how this unity exists becomes the first task for the church to truly stand in unity.  

 

Jesus Christ both prays for and provides unity for those He redeems.  How can we experience this unity?  In understanding the experience of unity, how is it fostered within the church?  What is its true purpose?  Our text addresses these questions so that we might truly know the unity of the Spirit among the redeemed of the Lord.  We will focus on how we can experience unity in this study of God's Word.

 

I.  Conditions for unity

 

If unity is based on organization, then what is necessary is for the most skilled administrative minds to craft a plan for bringing people together.  If unity is simply bringing people together for a common task, then we can dispense with the whole matter of doctrine, conversion, and Christian practice.  If unity is merely an outward perception, then we need not give time to addressing the inner life.  But if unity is the oneness of the redeemed in relationship, belief, and purpose, then we must seek to get to its foundation.  

 

Our Lord identifies precisely what is necessary for unity in the church.  If unity is the great need of the hour, as many declare, then we must have a firm grasp of its conditions.  More so, we must be assured that we are personally and corporately fulfilling the conditions for unity.

 

1.  Faith in Christ

 

The first condition for unity is faith in Christ.  Our Lord prayed, "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one."  We realize that our Lord is praying specifically for all believers who follow after that first group of apostles.  We have already noted in earlier studies, that our Lord prays concerning Himself in verses 1-5, then in verses 6-19, He prays specifically for all of His apostles.  Now, in verse 20, we see Christ's reference to other believers.  It is essential that we understand how He identifies the other believers.

 

The whole idea of being Christian has been rolled into an outward affiliation with a congregation of some sort.  In many circles it does not matter what the congregation teaches or follows, just as long as it calls itself 'Christian'.  Those who join such congregations need not have any kind of 'subjective religious experience'; they need only to identify with the organization of the church.  Thus you have multitudes of people in our nation--and throughout the world--who claim to be a Christian simply because they have identified with a church organization.  I would affirm that these individuals can possibly experience an organizational unity.  But it is impossible for them to experience the kind of oneness that our Lord spoke of in this chapter.  

 

Jesus stated that it is those "who believe in Me through their word" that will have unity.  We must first notice that those who believe or exercise faith in Christ do so "through their word."  "Their" refers to the apostles, while "their word" refers to the apostolic preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  When we put this together we understand that proper faith must have its roots in the same gospel that the apostles proclaimed in the first century.  We are not referring to an updated model of the gospel, one that is modified for the 21st century, but the gospel which transformed those first believers and became the foundation for the church. 

 

Paul addressed this same truth when dealing with the unity of believers in Ephesians 2:19-20.  "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone."  It is that foundation of the apostles and prophets, not their lives, but their preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, upon which we are to stand.  Apart from this foundation there is no means of unity for believers.

 

But what did they preach?  They preached God as Creator, Sovereign, Judge, and the Giver of Life (Acts 17:23-31).  They preached man's responsibility before God and accountability as those who have broken His written Law and the law of conscience (Rom. 1-3).  They preached Jesus Christ as God Incarnate, the Son of God with power, as the Revealer of God to man, as the righteousness of God (John 1:1-4, Rom. 1:4; John 1:18; II Cor. 5:21).  They preached the gospel as "the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16).  They preached that in the gospel "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith" (Rom. 1:17).  They preached "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" as the satisfaction of God to fulfill the just demands of His righteousness, that He might save sinners (I Cor. 2:2; Rom. 3:21-26).  They preached Jesus Christ risen from the dead, as the conqueror of sin, death, and Satan (I Cor. 15).  They preached that no man can be made right with God by his own adherence to the Law of God; that man has no room for personal boasting of merit before God (Rom. 3:19-20; 10:4; Eph. 2:8; I Cor. 1:26-31).  They preached the necessity of the new birth and the work of regeneration and that this salvation is wholly a work of God's grace (John 3:1-8; Eph. 2:1-10; Titus 3:5).  They preached justification by faith alone in Christ alone for salvation (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8-9).  They preached repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).  They preached Christ as Lord, the ongoing work of sanctification, and the assurance of salvation (II Cor. 4:5; I Cor. 1:30; John 17:17-19; Phil. 2:13; II Tim. 1:12; Phil 1:6).

 

That's our foundation for faith and unity!  It is these undeniable and non-negotiable truths that the apostles proclaimed and upon which countless sinners bowed the knee and embraced Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King.  You never find any of the "feel-good" Christianity in apostolic preaching that is so prevalent in our day.  Their gospel had no man-centeredness.  Everything, from start to finish, was to the glory of God.  I believe that this is at least a thumb-nail sketch of what our Lord meant when He referred to "their word."

 

It is important for us to see that Christ stated faith in Him through the apostolic gospel as the necessary condition for unity.  To believe in Christ must never be thought of as simply acknowledging some facts, albeit wonderful facts.  All too many have the idea that since they have given mental credence to the claims of Christianity that they are Christians.  This is one of the major roots of disunity in our churches.  Multitudes have agreed on some truths about Christ without experiencing saving faith in Christ.

 

The desperate spiritual condition of man requires a supernatural work of God's Spirit for him to believe in Christ.  We know that even the demons believe in Christ with trembling, but their kind of faith is not a saving faith (James 2:19).  They know the truths of the gospel but there is no faith in them to embrace the gospel.  Consider what Jesus told the renowned Jewish scholar and leader, Nicodemus.  "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Apart from the supernatural work of the new birth, that regenerating power of the Spirit applied to our spiritually dead minds and affections, we cannot experience the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

 

The great revival preacher of the First Great Awakening, George Whitefield, preached often on the subject of the new birth.  As a matter of fact, this subject was common in all of the biblical preaching during the Awakening.  Whitefield explained that being truly saved was not simply a matter of making a decision or an outward profession.  It was a matter of being born of God.  It was a supernatural work of which the man himself was not capable.  He wrote,

It is true, men for the most part are orthodox in the common articles of their Creed; they believe "there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and men, even the man Christ Jesus"; and that there is no other name given under heaven, whereby they can be saved, besides his: but then, tell them they must be regenerated, they must be born again, they must be renewed in the very spirit, in the inmost faculties of their minds, ere they can truly call Christ "Lord, Lord," or have an evidence that they have any share in the merits of his precious blood; and they are ready to cry out with Nicodemus, "How can these things be?" or with the Athenians, on another occasion, "What will this babbler say?"  He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange doctrines, because we preach unto them Christ, and the new birth [George Whitefield--Sermons, vol. III, 107-108].


Whitefield met with plenty of opposition in preaching the new birth.  Simply put, he preached that same doctrine which the apostles preached, that regeneration is a divine work of God's Spirit; that you do not simply 'decide' to be born again, but you are born again so that you might truly repent of your sin and turn to Christ alone in faith.  The emphasis on the new birth points to the God-centeredness of salvation.  It is indeed a work of God's grace, period.  We have no merit to offer.  We do not even desire such a work apart from God's gracious intervention in our lives.

 

If we are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-3) and do not even have a desire to seek God (Rom. 3:10-12), then unless God does something within us to awaken us or quicken us (Eph. 1:7) to life, we will not truly trust Christ alone for our salvation.  Yes, we can easily be manipulated by society, circumstances, or other people to 'make a decision for Christ' in outward fashion.  But only the Spirit of God can make us a new creation (II Cor. 5:17).  It is in response to this invisible, hidden, inner work of the Spirit--a work the sinner likely does not understand or even realize--that a person turns to Christ in faith and embraces Jesus Christ and Him crucified, raised from the dead, and reigning as Lord.  He trusts in the merit of Christ on his behalf before God and His demands for righteousness.  He rests wholly in the sufficiency of the atoning death of Christ.  The faith that he exercises is a gift from God that rests upon the foundation of an apostolic gospel.

 

The biggest problem of disunity in the church is found right here:  multitudes of unregenerate church members.  I talked with a man recently who said that the reason churches do not grow is due to conflict.  If we could just stem the conflict, this man implied, churches would have rapid growth.  While I agree that conflict is a major problem, I pointed out to him that conflict was simply a fruit of an even greater problem.  It is the fruit of the neglect in preaching the whole gospel of Jesus Christ--the apostolic gospel--and a dependence upon the Spirit to regenerate sinners.  Instead, the church has relied on 'easy-believism' in which a person thinks that being a Christian might help him out with the troubles of his life, so he prays a little prayer and joins the church.  Before long he becomes an active church member who has never been born again.  He stays in the church for a few years and becomes a leader in the church, still he is not born again.  Then when he is confronted by the Word of God, he resists and recoils.  In self-righteousness he battles against the Word and against biblical Christianity because it reveals his plight before God.  His pride stands between him and humbling himself in repentance before the cross of Christ, admitting his lack of merit before God, and trusting Christ alone to justify him before God.  He clings to his long tenure in the church, his service, his good deeds, his many religious activities.  But in his heart he refuses to bow the knee before King Jesus.  

 

While there are certainly times when true believers disobey the Lord and cause conflict, the greatest cause of disunity in the church today comes from the multitudes of unregenerate people filling the church rolls.  Our Lord's prayer for unity is not for the unregenerate.  It is for "those who believe in [Christ] through [the apostle's] word."  The kind of oneness Jesus speaks of can be found only in those who truly have faith in Him.  Where is your faith?  Is it in your profession or in your merit or in your works or in your service or in your baptism...or is it in Christ alone as the One who has justified you before God?

 

2.  Union with the Godhead

 

Faith in Christ alone leads to union with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus prayed, "...even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me."  In many ways this passage is like unwrapping a mysterious package.  You know there are good contents within the package but to get to the contents--the unity--you must make your way through the magnificent wrapping, layer by layer.  Every layer of the wrapping is essential and foundational for the contents of unity.

 

The whole idea of union with God is not a new idea in John's gospel.  Our Lord had already spoken of this union in the bread of life metaphor (John 6:22-59), the rivers of living water metaphor (John 7:37-39), the Good Shepherd metaphor (John 10:1-30), and chiefly in the Vine and branches metaphor (John 15:1-11).  Each shows the remarkable identity that Christians have with God through Christ.

 

Explaining our union with God is not easily done.  That is apparent in the way Jesus introduces the whole idea.  "Even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us," gives us the foundation for union.  Can anyone fully explain the mysterious union between the Father and the Son?  Neither can we fully explain the union between the child of God and the Godhead.

 

In regard to the Divine union, we know that there is absolute oneness in the Godhead.  We do not have three Gods, but one God.  He is one in essence, being, substance.  Yet we have three distinct members of the Godhead.  Each member holds particular responsibilities in the divine economy.  For instance, we speak of the Father electing, the Son redeeming, and the Holy Spirit regenerating sinners in the work of salvation.  There is no disunity among the members of the Trinity, but a perfect union and symmetry in exercising the divine will.  Our Lord means for us to see our unity rooted in this union.

 

We must see that what is stated in verse 20 is a repetition from previous verses.  In verse 5, we see the union between the Father and Son so that the essential glory of God belongs to both.  "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."  The tenth verse points to their union expressing common divine ownership of all things:  "and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine...."  Our Lord's first prayer for unity among the redeemed is found in the next verse; again, it is grounded in this divine union:  "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are."  In this we see that the nature of oneness among Christians should reflect in some measure the union of the Father and Son.  Later, in verse 22, our Lord repeats, "...that they may be one, just as We are one." 

 

So we must ask what kind of union does the Father and the Son maintain?  We can state that it is an organic union, that is the union of a living being, rather than a mechanical or organizational union.  It is a union of purpose and will, so that there was never a conflict in the divine economy about what constitutes God's will.  It is an affectionate union in that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father.  This perfect love faithfully maintains the divine glory in every action, purpose, and decree.  It is a union that expresses itself in purity, holiness, and righteousness.

 

All of this may be somewhat overwhelming, especially when we think that our union is to mirror the divine union.  Obviously, we must realize the infinite perfections of our God so that every characteristic of union express our God's infinite ability and infinitely full character.  I believe that we are to recognize that our unity as believers is a redemption gift through Christ.  It is a gift that is to be fully realized in sanctification as we grow in our understanding of the divine union.  As much as is possible within the scope of our finite minds, understanding, and abilities through the grace of God, we are to live in unity as a reflection of the union of our God.

 

Perhaps we need to consider what this unity through union does not imply.  Our unity as a reflection of the divine union is not a loss of our distinctiveness as individuals.  We are never to think of the church as a conglomerate of clones, each having the same personality, same functions, and same interests.  We maintain our distinctive personalities and functions even as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit maintain their own distinctions and functions.  First Corinthians twelve gives an extensive treatment of the necessity of our distinctions and different functions.  Nor does our unity imply that we are somehow being deified.  God is God.  Man is man.  We do not mix and mingle with the divine essence so that we are somehow incorporated into godhood.  That is the heresy of Mormonism (among their many).  Nor does our unity imply that we are incorporated into the cosmos so that we have a unity with nature, the heavens, and all the creation.  That is the pantheistic idea of many adherents in the New Age movement.  Occasionally, I read of someone who eloquently defends the idea of our needing to be one with nature, like the bumper sticker that reads, "Be good to your Motherearth."  

 

What does our union with the Godhead imply?  First, it means that we have an identity of relationship with the Godhead.  Jesus explained this in the passages on union I noted earlier.  Jesus is the 'bread of life' that sustains us and is our sufficiency before God.  He is the 'living waters' that dwells within us, gushing forth in constant refreshing of divine provision.  He is 'the Good Shepherd' who lays down His life for us, whose voice we hear, and who we gladly follow.  He is 'the Vine' in whom we are united as branches.  His life gives us life.  His joy has become our joy.  His love has become our love.

 

Second, our union also implies the sphere of our existence is in vital, living relationship to God through Christ.  Paul testified in numerous places that Jesus Christ was his life (Col. 3:3-4; Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20).  That kind of statement cuts across the grain of so much religious life, in which a person goes to church, but has no vital, living Christianity.  To be in Christ is to know Him as your life.  He is the reason you exist and you are conscious of that.  All of life is lived with a consciousness of giving Him glory.  Think of the many times in the Epistles we find a phrase like "in Christ" or "in Him."  Both of these express the idea that we live in the sphere of Jesus Christ as our life.  Indeed, "in Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  In Him we find our greatest delights.  In Him we have hope for facing the uncertainties of this life.  In Him we know a strength and power that is not natural to us.  In Him we find our deepest satisfactions.

 

Third, our union with the Godhead implies living in dependence upon God and the provisions of His grace by the Holy Spirit.  A Christian never gets away from faith; or else he is not a Christian.  We come to Christ by faith.  But we also walk with Christ by faith (Col. 2:6-7).  Faith brings us to an awareness of our helplessness and God's great sufficiency.  It puts us in the position of dependence upon what God has provided for us out of the richness of His grace.  We go to the Word of God and find food for our souls.  We are strengthened and within our being is a greater consciousness of resting in dependence upon the Lord.  We face trials and adversities which bring us to our knees in humble trust and dependence upon our great Sovereign.  We never get away from this God-dependence.  Really, a Christian is a person who is living in dependence upon the provision of God in Christ for life and eternity.

 

Conclusion (part I)

 

We have no need to form a committee to come up with a plan for unity.  Unity has conditions.  Any attempt to manufacture unity apart from these conditions is foolhardy and unbiblical.  Oh, but we must not treat lightly these conditions! 

 

We have unity because of a faith in Christ through the revelation of God in His gospel (John 17:6-8).  It is a gospel that was proclaimed by our Lord Himself, by His apostles, and faithfully by others through the ages.  It is a gospel that is consistent with the written revelation of God which we have in the Bible.  It is not a gospel that accommodates culture and societal trends.  Its is the gospel preached by the apostles and prophets upon which we are founded, with Christ Himself being the cornerstone.  But we are not just believing a teaching.  No, indeed, we are believing a living Person, Jesus Christ the Lord--God of very God, Man of very man, perfect in obedience to the Law on our behalf, crucified bearing our sins and the curse of God on our behalf, raised from the dead to reign as Lord over all.  Through Him and Him alone, we are freely justified by faith, without any mixture of personal merit.  Are you resting wholly in the work of Christ for your justification before God?  There is no unity without a firm faith in Christ alone.

 

Our unity reflects the reality of our union with the Godhead.  It is mysterious, indeed.  But it is a union that is more than a mere acknowledgment of a creed or system of beliefs.  It is a union with God in Christ through the regenerating and engrafting work of the Holy Spirit.  It is a union that identifies you in a relationship of dependence, joy, and life in Christ.  Do you know this union in the depths of your soul?  Where there is no union with the Godhead, there can be no unity.

 

[Part II

II. Perfecting of unity

 

            1.  Gift of Christ's glory

 

            2.  Gift of God's Spirit

 

III. Reasons for unity

 

            1.  To know the Oneness of the Godhead

 

            2.  As a testimony to the world]

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