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All in All
By John W. Ritenbaugh
June 4, 1994
Tape 132
This sermon is an outgrowth (and I feel, indeed, a natural outgrowth) of the sermon that I gave last week when it is combined with the sermon that I gave on Pentecost.
To refresh your memory about the thought that was especially at the tail end of the sermon that I gave on Pentecost, I want you to turn to 1st Corinthians 15. The overall theme of that sermon was to magnify God, because it is He who saves us. Sometimes in the difficult, sometimes painful, very tiring efforts that we have to make in order to overcome, God kind of gets lost in the shuffle. And we begin to think that, somehow or other, we are the ones that are carrying the load—that if we did not do what we do, there would not be any salvation at all. I wanted to dispel that idea. I know I will not dispel it once and for all, because we are going to forget.
But He showed us—and I hope that you are convinced from all the scriptures that I showed you—that God got them out of Egypt. All Israel had to do was walk. Do you see the comparison between what God did and what Israel had to do? I mean, the magnitude of what God did, compared to the minimal effort that the Israelites had to do, is what the issue is here. Yet the little bit that we do seems so difficult, so hard, so fearful for us to do. But it is God who saves us; and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is dedicated to that. This sermon carries on in that theme
I Corinthians 15:25-28 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under his feet." But when He says, "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who puts all things under Him is excepted. [That is, the Father.] Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
Now the phrase "all in all" has to do with oneness. It has to do with unity. It has to do with family. In this case, it has to do with looking forward to the time when all things will be reconciled to God. And I mean everything will be reconciled to God. Everything will be in total harmony and agreement—not only with Him, but with each other as well. It will be the completion of the restitution of all things. It will be the conclusion of the work of Jesus Christ, and the conclusion of the new creation (the spiritual creation that was begun in Jesus Christ).
Now juxtaposed, positioned right in the middle, as the focus—the center—of all this "oneness" is God the Father. And Jesus turning over all things to Him is the exclamation point that draws our attention to the Father. Everything concludes at that point in the plan of God.
Our acceptance of Jesus Christ, our repentance from dead works, the receiving of God's Holy Spirit are the first major steps towards our becoming "one" with the Father. This 'all in all' is the very end-point of the gospel, of which the return of Jesus Christ and our being born into the Kingdom of God is the next major step.
It is very interesting, though, the way the Bible deals with this situation of which we just read in I Corinthians 15:28. Although this situation may appear to be very far in the future (very distant), yet this process has already begun in you and me. I feel that it is very important to our mental well-being that we understand this as a reality. In Philippians 3:20-21, Paul makes a significant statement in regards to this.
Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
One of the things that I do not want to ever get too far from our minds, as we go through this sermon, is the involvement of God on a daily (we might say, moment by moment) way in our lives. We tend to think of Him as off somewhere. But I hope that, by the end of this sermon, you do not think of Him as being off somewhere; that He is deeply involved in the things that are going on in your life.
Though He may not have designed them, He is indeed going to use them. God does not design everything that occurs. He has given us free moral agency. But He knows how to use what we permit to occur in our lives. And, of course, there are times when He does bring things to happen in our lives. But in every single one of them, He is there; and He is involved!
"According to the working by which He is able to subdue"—connect that with what we read in I Corinthians 15:28—"subject all things to Himself." What these two verses do—at least in terms of the theme of this sermon—is bring us back to the present. From that which seems to be far in the future (I Corinthians 15:28) to Philippians 3:20, when we are dealing with the present. The teaching here in Philippians 3 is basically the same as what Paul said in I Corinthians 15, where he was talking about the resurrection.
The word "citizenship" is important to this concept because it can be used as government, administration, or state. It indicates a fellowship or a society of persons all living in the same place, under the same rules or laws. So you can see that it indicates a unity, a oneness. So, our citizenship is in heaven.
What Paul is doing here, at the end of this chapter, is showing a contrast between one group of people and another. The characteristics of the one group are shown in verses 18 and 19.
Philippians 3: 18-19 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, [The people in verses 20 and 21 were certainly not "the enemies of the cross of Christ."] whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
The difference between the two [groups] is clearly seen by the way they live. The inference is, when comparing these two, that those who are citizens of the heavenly city are in a fellowship, whose characteristics are the opposite of those indicated in verses 18 and 19. They are people who have their flesh under control and whose lives, rather than being focused on earthly things, are focused on heavenly things.
I am sure that Paul must have used the word "heaven" to indicate how wide the difference is between these two groups. "Heaven" represents that which seems to be unreachable to those whose minds are fixed on goals that are limited to gratification of the flesh (gratification of the senses). Doing that—that is, gratifying the senses—is much easier; but God says that that way is going to lead to destruction.
Living by faith might be seen by "those who mind the flesh" as betting one's life on the unreachable, on a daydream, on a fantasy—because one is reaching for something that one cannot see, cannot smell, cannot taste, cannot touch, cannot hear. But right within the verses, God hastens to reassure that He has the energy (That is what the word means. "According to the energy, the power") to bring us into this "oneness" that is illustrated by the word "heaven". He is even indicating, in something like this that may appear to be somewhat abstract and vague, that He is the One who saves. He has the energy. He has the power. He is doing the working that brings this to pass.
We are going to come back to Philippians in just a little bit; but I want you now to turn to Ephesians 3, and we will amplify this aspect of what God is doing. Here we have something that is a praise, a doxology.
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to [the energy, or] the power [the "dunamis"] that works in us.
That first phrase means that God can do immeasurably more than we can even begin to imagine. That His capacity to meet our spiritual needs far exceeds anything that we can request in prayer, or conceive, or dream up in our wildest imagination. His power is so awesome, so great. We do not even have the capacity to think up something that is greater than He can do, in terms of His purpose.
These last several verses of Ephesians 3 are the climax of Paul's insistence (which he began at the very beginning of this epistle) that the conclusion of redemption is the very glory of God. So the real thought of this verse is one that looks beyond the grave. Did you get what I said? When it says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think"—Paul's real thought is not about us in our situations now while we are in the flesh; but, rather, he is looking beyond that into the Kingdom of God. And he is saying, "It is going to be so great, so challenging, to be successful all of the time. And living will be so great then! We can't even begin to imagine how great it is!"
It is greater than anything you could imagine—even if you have watched "Star Trek," "The Next Generation," or "Deep Space Nine" or whatever it was. It is far greater than that. Because all of this challenge, all of this adventure, and all of the progress that is going to take place when everything is "at one" with God is all going to be done within the relationship of a loving Family added to it, that is totally and completely "at one". Everybody moving in the same direction to carry out the purposes that God is already planning He is going to do when that time occurs.
Let us go back to Ephesians 1, and we are going to jump right through Ephesians 1, 2, and 3; and I want you to see how much emphasis is put on what God has done and what God is doing.
Ephesians 1:5-7 Having predestined us [God did this] to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted [notice, He made us accepted] in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
How much have we done so far? Think about it.
Ephesians 1:12 That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened [Who did that? God did it!]; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:10 To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 3:16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
Paul has repeatedly touched upon (in this same area) the abundance of "the gifts" that God has given and "the powers" that are given to us.
Ephesians 1:16-19 [Paul says that in his prayers he] do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.
In Ephesians 3:17, again Paul is telling people what he prays about.
Ephesians 3:17-19 That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; and that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
When is that going to happen? It is not going to happen in this life!
There is one more thing that is important to this sermon, which appears in these first 3 chapters of Ephesians. That is, the indissoluble link that there is between Christ and the church. In other words, a link—a forging of a tie between Christ and the church—that cannot be broken, because Christ is the One who is holding on to the other end. He will not let go. Do you understand? That is our salvation! Now, how close is that link?
Ephesians 1:22-23 And He put all things under His [Christ's] feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. [There is that phrase again.]
He is the head of a body. Tell me, brethren: Is your head disconnected from your body? You know that is a dumb question. Your head is just as attached to your body as it can possibly be; and if you become decapitated, you die! Do you get the point? Christ is the Head. He is attached to you and me. If we become detached from Him, we die spiritually. But as long as we stay attached to Him, we live. As long as we are attached to Him, we will be saved. Is that important to your salvation? What does your head do for your body? Think about it.
Ephesians 3:10 To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Everything we are, we owe to the Head. So Christ and the church are complimentary parts of one organism. Can you see that the "oneness" has already begun? We are part of the same body. As Head and body together, we form the sphere (or the area) in which God's glory is now manifested.
You will recall Jesus' prayer in John 17:4. He said in that prayer, to God, "I have glorified You on the earth." Now that the Son has returned to the Father in heaven and the church has been formed and joined to the Son as one organism, it is now the church's responsibility to glorify the Father, as the Son did. How? By becoming "one" with Him, as the Son was "one" with Him—by the power of God's Spirit given to us.
Christ glorified the Father by successfully completing the work the Father gave Him to do and that was to qualify to be our Savior, our Redeemer, and our High Priest. Along the way, He preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God to others. Our responsibility is to yield to Him, to grow, and to overcome—and by this He will be glorified. That essential unity has already begun; but it has to be polished. It has to be completed. Now, in Philippians 3:20 we are going to look at that phrase "subdue all things to Himself." Remember the theme of this sermon. I will keep reminding you from time to time. It is to focus on what God does.
Philippians 3:20 He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
That already begins to tell you who is doing what. He is the One doing the subduing. This carries the picture of "oneness" one step further than I Corinthians 15:28 and makes it more practicable and applicable for us today.
The word translated "subdue" here is transliterated "hupotasso" and it means "to place in order." It means, "to place under in an orderly fashion." It gives the picture of objects that are scattered about in confusion; and they are being neatly arranged according to a pattern. In terms of what we are speaking of, in this sermon, the objects are not merely things. They are people, who have free moral agency. They are in disorder. They are scattered. And they are confused as the result of their own actions.
Now, they have become confused and scattered because of the exercise of their own free will, because of the deception of Satan, and because of an enmity against God. We find in this verse that the "rearranging", the "subduing in order", is intended to bring these people into a "oneness" that goes far beyond the mere change of bodies. That is all that is mentioned here. But even there we can see that the "oneness" is carried to the place where it is not merely something that is of the mind. It is not merely something that is of character; but God injects this—even our body is going to be "one" with His.
Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.
I think that if you will look in your Bible, it is very likely that this verse is actually attached to the end of chapter 3 because it really concludes the thought. And then, in my Bible, there is a paragraph break; and then chapter 4 actually begins with verse 2.
What we see here (putting together chapter 3 with the first verse of chapter 4) is the apostle Paul, as it were, standing there at a crossroads. He is able to look in two different directions. The one direction began in verse 20, when he is able to look off into the future and be able to see the conclusion—when we are "at one" with God, even where our bodies are conformed to God's body, just like His. That is the one direction Paul is able to look. On the other hand, he can look in the other direction; and he can see where we began. That is interesting. Let us look at that briefly.
Philippians 3:1-3 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. [Then he warns them.] Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilations! For we are the circumcision [We are the true sons of God.], who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Then Paul reflects on his own beginnings. When Christ struck him down, he was a man of proud heritage. He was a man who had much in the way of material things, achievements, academic achievements, honors that he received, position within the community. He had the approbation of those who were his equals. And that is what he talks about—his pedigree (that begins in chapter 3, verse 4). Yet he says in verse 7. . .
Philippians 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
Paul is doing this to encourage us to reflect, even as he was reflecting. On the one hand, we can look forward to a time when we are going to be "at one" with God. On the other hand, we are not there yet. And, from time to time, we have to reflect back to our roots and be reinforced in the understanding (the knowledge) that anything that we had to give up in order to come out of the world—and anything that we had to give up in order to have the knowledge of Christ—all of that was nothing! It was rubbish compared to what lies ahead, compared to the "oneness" that God is drawing us into with Him. And what lies ahead?
Philippians 3:11-12, 14-15 If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. [Then Paul quickly comes back to the thought again.] Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. . . I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
Do you need anything to make it? God will give it. Who is going to save us? Everywhere the New Testament writers keep coming back to this. They want us to realize that our part is, indeed, difficult for us; but they always want us to be reminded that we are not going to save ourselves. Thus he says then, in chapter 4 and verse 1, "considering these things, don't let yourself slip."
I John 3:1-2 is another scripture with which we are quite familiar; but it fits right here on this theme of the "oneness" that God is drawing us toward.
I John 3:1-2 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God [We are already in the Family!]; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be [We do not know yet exactly what we are being drawn towards. A little bit more of that later.], but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
God says that He is going to be all in all. We have already seen that He considers us part of the same organism as Christ. Christ is God. And we have already seen that we are going to have bodies that are conformed to His glorious body. And now we see that we are going to be like Him. There is only one thing that we can be, and that is God! (I can hardly understand how anybody could fail to see that and drop it as a doctrine.)
If I can say this without offending anyone, there yet remains a fly in the ointment, and that is, we are not there yet. Our preparation to be "one" with God is not complete. But even that is not really too bad because, you see, we are not ready yet to have eternal life. If we were to receive eternal life the way we are right now, we would be just as we are right now forever! I think it would be a terrible burden for us to be encompassed for eternity with what we are right now. So, in God's wisdom, the fly in the ointment yet remains. But God is going to get rid of that fly. He knows how to get it out.
You see there remains yet much overcoming yet to be done. So those of us who think about these things, because we reflect on what we are, we wonder, "How in the world is this ever going to be accomplished?" Do you know that God even has that figured out! Answer this—Who brought the plagues on Egypt? Who got Israel out of Egypt? Who divided the Read Sea? Who supplied the manna and the water? Who divided the Jordan? Who brought down the walls of Jericho? We could go on and on; but the answer is the same in every case. God did!
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Let us understand this. I just asked these questions that had a very obvious answer, because I wanted you to admit to the reality, to the truth, that is contained in the answer to those questions. That is, that it is God who saves. God saved Israel from their Egyptian slavery. Now, Jesus Christ is our Savior. We cannot save ourselves from the penalty of death. When we accept Jesus Christ as Savior, it obligates us to obey Him.
When God broke the power of Egypt to enable Israel to be free, if Israel wanted to be free, what did they have to do? They walked out of Egypt. When God saved them by opening up the Red Sea, if Israel wanted to save their skin and to be free of Egypt, it obligated them to do what? Walk through the Red Sea. When God said, "I'm going to bring you into the land and I'm going to provide for you along the way," if Israel wanted those things, it obligated them to do what? To obey Him and to walk all the way into the Promised Land.
Now let us feed that principle into this verse, so that we understand at least part of how the fly is going to get out of the ointment. When it says there in Philippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation," it cannot possibly mean that we are going to save ourselves. Impossible.
You see, what confronted the Israelites was that when God opened the way to saving them, they then had to respond by doing something. In other words (I am going to change the words here.), when God opens the way to save us, then we had better be ready to make that salvation practical and operational!
The way that Israel made it practical and operational was they walked. Thus you see that that metaphor comes into the New Testament in terms of our life being compared with a "walk." Our Christian life is a walk. That is where it came from—from Israel walking out when God provided salvation. They did the practical thing. They walked.
When God provides salvation through Jesus Christ and we believe that He is our Savior, then it remains for you and me to take practical steps to make that obligation operational, to put it into practice. He is not saying then, in Philippians 2:12 that we must work for salvation. He has provided salvation in Jesus Christ. He has saved us from death. That is salvation. (Not entirely, but it is what we need at first.)
We need to be assured that the death penalty for our sins no longer hangs over us, or there is no reason to move. Absolutely no reason to make Christianity practical and operational as long as that death penalty is there. So God provides salvation from death. That is the first thing we normally recognize.
When he is saying here to "work out your own salvation," he is not saying that we are to be working for salvation, because God has provided that. Rather he is saying to carry the salvation out to its conclusion, that is, to do our part. Our part is to yield.
Now, he says here to "work out." It is so interesting. This is so simple in its application to the English language. "Work out" is used here in exactly the same way as if you were a teacher of a class, and you tell a student in your class to "work out" an arithmetic problem. What would the student do? He would begin to make his knowledge operational—[that is,] how to add and how to subtract. And for what reason? To work the problem out to its conclusion. To make it operational and work it out to a conclusion.
The conclusion (in Philippians 2:12) is for us to "work out" to Christ's likeness, to move toward "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The salvation that he is talking about here is, in another word, "sanctification." It is victory over sin in a practical way in our lives. It is making operational our knowledge of Christ in order that we might become holy.
Let us try to make it even plainer. If we want to become "one" with Him, we had better get moving in the direction He is pointing! With Israel in Egypt, they accepted the blood of Jesus Christ; and then that night He slew the firstborn; and He pointed them in what direction? He pointed them to the city of Rameses. Then, the next night, where did He point them? He pointed them to leave Egypt. Then, seven days later, which direction did He point them? He pointed them to go through the Red Sea. Then, after that was done, He pointed them where? He pointed them to Mt. Sinai. Then, he pointed them towards the Promised Land.
Now, for you and me, in the analogy—He points us to Christ! We have to begin to take steps in that direction, because that is the conclusion. That is the answer to the problem—the "working out" of it. So then the direction that He is pointing is the direction of His standards of behavior.
Each person's "walk" is not exactly the same, because each person's experience and makeup is somewhat different. So, we cannot really look at one another. There are generalities that we can deal in. There is enough similarity in everybody's walk. The similarity is in principle, rather than actual things that we have to overcome, or to go through, or to grow in. But there is enough similarity that it enables the Bible, and the instruction contained therein, always to be relevant.
The same principles that are involved in overcoming lying are also involved in overcoming stealing. So, the Bible is always relevant in principle, though each person's walk may have slight shades of difference within it. The person who is trying to overcome lying is having just as much difficulty as the person who is trying to overcome stealing, or the person who is trying to overcome adultery, or lust, or whatever. In most cases, all of us are an amalgamation of all of the problems; and we have all of them to overcome in one degree or another.
So the Bible, and its instruction, is always relevant and it is always moving us in the same general direction—and that is to be "one" with Christ and "one" with the Father. And so the big job right now is the formation of character. It is the formation and the growth in the godly attitude.
The beautiful thing about this is that each person's walk is exactly right for him; and, lo and behold, the same verses tell us that God gives us both the will (that is, the desire) and the power (the energy) to do it. Brethren, is there anything we really do? He saves us. He gives us the will to walk in the right direction. And He gives us the power to overcome. It is mind-boggling. Let us read this again and you will see it.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling [There is our responsibility]; for it is God who works in you both to will [or, to desire] and to do for His good pleasure. [There is the empowerment to do it!]
This working together with God, I think, can be seen in simple illustrations from the physical realm. For instance, you may build a sailboat and launch it upon the water; but it goes nowhere unless God supplies the wind. Otherwise, it does not move. You may go out into your garden and plant vegetables. They will not do a thing unless God supplies nature with the power for those things to spring forth from the ground.
You may go out and jump in your automobile and you start it up. It runs because (We will just use one element.) of electricity. If God did not supply electricity —something that existed long before you and I came along—that automobile would not run. Okay. You see we do something in this mix; but it would not be done at all unless God did what He does.
In each case, we add a little something to what God has already supplied. So our salvation is something that is already given—something God has already supplied. On the other hand, we must do something to make it practical by applying ourselves to salvation's demands. But even in this, it is God who enables us to do it!
We are never going to know where the dividing line is between what God does and what we do. There is a reason for this. It keeps us trusting Him by faith—and that is good for us. Another reason is because it must be different because each person is different. God is preparing us for different responsibilities within His Family.
Everything in God's purpose is aimed towards the Kingdom. Eventually and ultimately, everything is aimed in that direction; and God works it out. I do not know how He does it. By His great power, He always works it out so that it will be difficult enough for us, so that it is really challenging; and yet it always builds. It is never so difficult that it destroys.
Even here, we can use the analogy of Israel in the wilderness—because from whence did Israel's energy come to walk across the wilderness into the Promised Land? It came from the manna and the water which God supplied, as well as the vision and the hope that He gave them in the message that motivated them to keep on moving towards their inheritance in the Promised Land. But Israel walked. (A very simple task.) God even made it so that their shoes did not wear out, or their clothing did not wear out.
Do you ever get the feeling that God has left you alone? Yes, you do. But when we look at this according to His Word, has He really? Tell me something—was there ever a time in Israel's journey through the wilderness that the cloud disappeared? It was always there. Was there ever a time during the night (when a person would tend to be afraid) that the pillar of fire was not there? It was always there. Now, we might begin to think that the journey across the wilderness (and thinking of 40 years of this) as being rather intimidating. But yet there is encouragement all through His Word. I mean, it is everywhere!
Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.
Do you need anything? It is going to be there. Compare this to Ephesians 3:20 where Paul said God is able to supply "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." We cannot even dream of things that He is able to supply.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness.
It is easy for us to fall into covetousness, because we begin to feel ourselves as being put upon. We look out on the world and we think, "Boy, they've got liberty. They can do things that we can't do." So it is easy to desire what might appear to be a very appealing life that those people are having out there. And a measure of discontent begins to come into our minds, because it appears as though the way God is leading us is so difficult.
Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
I want to develop that thought just a bit as we reach the conclusion of this sermon, so that we might be encouraged how closely God is involved in our lives. That we might be able to praise Him in the right way and to give Him glory for what He is doing and accomplishing as a Creator. He says that He has begun a good work in us!
John 14:23 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.
That is another way of saying that He lives in us—Father and Son. Can He get any closer? The idea here is to see how close the union already is. What Jesus is doing is showing a relationship of the Father and the Son with one who loves Them (who is obedient to Them) as like being part of the same home. He looks upon it as being a loving and warm family relationship. Let us carry that one step further. This time we are going to go to Colossians and we will see a familiar phrase here in just a moment.
Colossians 3:9-11 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds [That is, behavior that is not like Jesus Christ, not like the Family. You do not lie to your family.], and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Would you knowingly lie to Jesus Christ? Would you lie to Him if He were standing right before you? (I dare you.) Would we lie to Him even though He lives in us? Yes, we would. Would we lie to one another in the Family, others in who Christ lives? Is that behavior acceptable for "oneness" with the Father and the Son? Do you see what he is aiming at? You do not treat those you love like that.
This is the direction towards which we are to walk. You do not do those kinds of things to those you love. You do not treat them like trash. Maybe it is a measure of the weakness of our faith that we do not really realize Christ is in us when we do these things to one another. Does He not say (in Matthew 25, in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats) that, if you do it unto one of these the least of My brethren, you have done it to Me? We do not like to think about that, do we? But, again, it is a measure of the weakness of our faith that we fail to recognize that, when we do these things, we are doing it to Christ.
This makes very clear the direction we are to walk if we are ever going to be "one" with God. The direction is clear. God will give us the will to move in that direction and God will give us the power to overcome! He wants us in His Kingdom that badly. Even as we do it, it is going to seem like we are doing it all. It has to be that way for it ever to be worthwhile and to really build. Doing something that is easy to do does not build things in a right way. (That is a habit that is already engrained.)
Now let us carry this even one step further. We are going to go to Galatians, because verses 9 and 10 have to be seen in the light of verse 11, "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian," etc. What is he talking about there? He is talking about "oneness."
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
You see one new element that is added there. And that new element is the gender difference—male and female.
Ephesians 2:13-18 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near [at one] by the blood of Christ. For He Himself [the emphasis is on the word "Himself" in the Greek here.] is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Let us gather this all together. Racial differences (the Greek and the Jew); differences of religious tradition (circumcised and uncircumcised); cultural differences (barbarian and Scythian); social differences (slave and free man); gender differences (male and female). These are all in no way intended to represent all of the things that divide humanity from each other and from God; but it is enough to make the point. God makes it very clear that we cannot be united to Him and separated from our brother at one and the same time!
A healing has to take place. Ephesians 2 explained how. God is effecting bringing about the unity of His sons with Him through Jesus Christ. How is this accomplished? The person who is truly converted (who really has God's Spirit) is motivated, guided, inspired, led, yields to, he begins walking in the direction towards the standards of Jesus Christ. He begins to become "one" with Christ. He is empowered by the radiant energy of Christ, who lives and works within him. It is almost as if these people are driven by the Spirit of God to do this, because they all share the same nature. (Birds of a feather flock together.)
At the crux of this is the Man, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:13-18 shows that through His crucifixion Christ creates the condition needed for peace through the forgiveness of sin. And then He empowers us to make peace and be unified into "one" by enabling us, through the Holy Spirit, to live God's way—thus actively creating peace.
It is not necessarily something that two people do to or with each other; but, rather, they do it between themselves and Christ—and unity is effected. It is a beautiful way to do it. It means that you can actually be "one" with somebody who has the same Spirit as you, but you have never met him in your life. That you are "one" with him, because he has the same Spirit and he is moving toward Christ's likeness the same as you are.
The reason that we sometimes have division in the church is because everybody is not of the same spirit. I am not in any way here implying demon possession. I simply mean that some are still unconverted—or they are of the same spirit, but weak to such an extent that it is very difficult to be "one" with them yet. Paul makes this very clear. You can see it for yourself. You can read it in I Corinthians 3:3 and I Corinthians 11:19. Remember this is a badly divided congregation, and Paul tells why these things are occurring.
I do not mean to suggest, in any way, that all differences are eliminated in order to create some type of Christian stereotype. Rather, as each chooses to act out of love and loyalty for Christ and within God's law, to eliminate sins from his own life—then those things which separate begin to dissolve into a true family relationship.
Brethren, what I want us to take from this sermon is that God's purpose is drawing us into a "oneness" with Him, and that this is a process that has already begun and is affected by our yielding to Him through the power of His Spirit.
Christ is our Savior and we love Him very much for what He has done for us. We are obligated to Him because He has given so much of Himself for us. He lives and He works in us.
The combination of our love and loyalty for Him is what motivates, or brings about, the "oneness" God is drawing us into. Christ is our Creator. Christ is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. It is through Him, and because of Him, that we are justified, sanctified, and receive God's Holy Spirit.
He is our High Priest. He is our Mediator. He is our Elder Brother. He is the Head of the church. He lives in us to energize us to desire to go God's way and to practice His good pleasure. All for our God and for the completion of God's plan—that we may all be "subdued," arranged in order under God. And He will do this! He will complete it. As He says in Philippians 1:6—until all is arranged in order under God—and He truly, then, is all and in all to us!
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