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. 2:1616And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (Ephesians 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. 8:19,2919For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)
29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29).) 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 20:1919Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (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 1:1414These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. (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.)