![Arriving at the Oneness of the Faith and of the Full Knowledge of the Son of God [Picture: Above clouds]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/above-clouds-oneness-of-faith-full-knowledge-of-god.jpg?resize=454%2C340&ssl=1 "Arriving at the Oneness of the Faith and of the Full Knowledge of the Son of God [Picture: Above clouds]")
In Eph. 4:13 we read, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
This implies that today in the church life we are on a journey – we have the oneness of the Spirit in reality, since we were born into the oneness by being born of God (who is oneness), and we need to arrive at the oneness in practicality.
Saints, we ALL need to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God! We all need to be constituted with THE FAITH, the object of our belief, and we all need to know the Son of God experientially as our life.
Our Heavenly Father is not fully at rest until every one of His children will be matured and arrive at the oneness in practicality.
For this we need to be willing to be perfected by the gifted members of the Body, and we need to grow in life and in knowing the Lord Jesus the Son of God as our life.
Also, we need to learn to perfect others to arrive at the oneness of the faith by helping them to grow in the divine life, know and insist only on the faith, and know and experience subjectively the Son of God in their daily life.
Lord, grow in us! Perfect us until we ALL arrive at the oneness in practicality. Lord, may we keep the oneness of the Spirit and may we be perfected until we have the oneness in practicality among us in the church life today! Do this for the building up of Your Body!
Arriving at the Oneness of the Faith
I’m so happy that we all believers in Christ are on this journey today, to arrive to the oneness in practicality, that is, the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
What is “the oneness of the faith” in Eph. 4:13? Faith in the Bible refers to two things mainly – subjectively, faith is the act of believing (having faith in Christ, see Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 11:1), and objectively, faith is the contents of our faith, the object of our believing (see Titus 1:4; Rev. 14:12; 2 Tim. 4:7).
The oneness of the faith here refers to the objective aspect of our faith, that is, the content of our faith.
What is the content of our faith? The speciality of the church life today is THE FAITH, that is, the things we believe in, the object of our faith, our belief.
We insist on nothing else but the faith, which Paul kept, which the martyrs all kept, “the common faith” in Titus 1:4. This is composed of the matters in the New Testament we believe in and which save us, composed of beliefs concerning the Bible, God, Christ, the work of Christ, salvation, and the church (more here).
Many believers today hold on to some specific doctrines, and those doctrines divide them from the other members of the Body.
The Lord wants to perfect us by simplifying us so that we may hold on ONLY to THE FAITH, the common faith which saves us, and leave the other doctrines, teachings, rituals, traditions, etc aside.
We are being perfected today to NOT insist on the matters which are not of the faith, but rather hold on ONLY to the basic matters of the common faith, so that we may keep the oneness and even arrive at the oneness of the faith in practicality.
Arriving at the Full Knowledge of the Son of God
What does it mean to arrive at the full knowledge of the Son of God?
![On the one hand we need to arrive at the oneness of the faith, which is a set of beliefs that we hold to and we keep - which beliefs save us, and they are the common faith, matters in which all genuine Christians in the world believe in order to be saved. On the other hand, we need to know and experience the Son of God as our life in a daily way by having a full apprehension of the unlimited Christ in our experience. [Picture: Ephesians 4:13, NASB]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/NASB_Ephesians_4-13-oneness-of-the-faith.jpg?resize=450%2C348&ssl=1 "On the one hand we need to arrive at the oneness of the faith, which is a set of beliefs that we hold to and we keep - which beliefs save us, and they are the common faith, matters in which all genuine Christians in the world believe in order to be saved. On the other hand, we need to know and experience the Son of God as our life in a daily way by having a full apprehension of the unlimited Christ in our experience. [Picture: Ephesians 4:13, NASB]")
On the one hand we need to arrive at the oneness of the faith, which is a set of beliefs that we hold to and we keep – which beliefs save us, and they are the common faith, matters in which all genuine Christians in the world believe in order to be saved.
On the other hand, we need to know and experience the Son of God as our life in a daily way by having a full apprehension of the unlimited Christ in our experience.
We shouldn’t try to have the oneness of the faith without the Son of God as the focus. We not only “hold on to the faith” but we as Christians love, experience, know, believe into, and enjoy a PERSON!
The full knowledge of the Son of God is actually the full apprehension of the revelation concerning the Lord Jesus as the Son of God – FOR OUR EXPERIENCE.
In our experience, we all the believers in Christ need to know this One, who is not only “the Christ” (related to His work) but “the Son of God”, the One who is our life and our person in our daily life.
For this, we need to daily open to Him, spend time with Him, enjoy Him, eat and drink Him, and experience Him as the all-inclusive, all-extensive, all-filling, and awesome Lord Jesus as the Son of God to be our life and everything!
Daily we need to grow in life, enjoy Christ, and experience the Lord as our life and our everything, until the “knowledge of the Son of God” becomes our experience and even our being.
Growing in Life Until We All Arrive
Children love toys, and immature Christians love doctrines, separating themselves “to be together with the ones who love their doctrines”.
We need to grow in life and leave the peripheral and auxiliary doctrines – which are not part of the Christian faith – aside, so that we may arrive at the oneness of the faith.
The more we enjoy Christ and experience Him, the more we grow in the divine life, and the more we will cleave to THE FAITH, the common faith, and to the realization of Christ in our daily experience.
As we grow in life, we will drop all the concepts concerning minor doctrines which cause divisions – and we will gradually ALL arrive at the practical oneness.
We all need to grow in life unto maturity that we may arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Lord Jesus, grow in us. Keep us enjoying You and loving You. Lord, we want to experience You as the Son of God. May our knowledge of You become our experience of You, so that we may be inwrought with You and have You constituted into our being. Lord, we want to hold to nothing else but the faith, the common faith, the contents of our belief which saves us. Cause us all to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron K’s sharing in this message and portions in, Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 43) and, The Intrinsic View of the Body of Christ (ch. 6), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 8 (entitled, The Work of the Ministry).
- Hymns on this topic:
# The unity of Church is but / The saints in oneness living; / The Spirit which indwelleth them / This oneness ever giving.
# Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit / In the uniting bond of peace.
# Christ the Son of God and His redemptive deed / Are the saving faith which is our only creed. / All the other doctrines do not faith comprise; / Christ, His work and person, only qualifies.
Between the oneness of reality and the oneness of practicality there is a distance. For this reason, there is the need to “arrive at” the oneness of practicality. The oneness of the Spirit is the beginning, whereas the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God is the destination. This indicates that we must journey from the oneness of the Spirit to the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. In other words, we must travel from the oneness of reality until we arrive at the oneness of practicality. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 366-367)
We need to see this organic view of the church growing up to maturity to be a full grown man. Such a view will make our pursuing Christ much more meaningful. We can not excuse ourselves by saying that others will build up the Body. We must all grow. We must all arrive! Only in this way can God fulfill His eternal plan so that Christ can return.
Amen. It doesn't say "until some of us arrive" but "until we ALL arrive" – we are all in the process of transformation and growth in which we are being perfected to function. We may not have the skills to preach the gospel as an evangelist does, but we can be perfected by an evangelist to preach the gospel and lead others to the Lord. We just need to be willing and ready to be perfected. Lord, make us willing!
I regularly read ur blogs. Just wondering why you dont have december 24,2012 up to december 31,2012 blogs?
Sister Angel, I was away on holiday last week – not away from enjoying the Lord every day, just away from my PC 🙂 – so I didn't write anything on the blog. However, you can't take a break from the Lord 🙂 and so I continued to enjoy together with the saints something related to, Ministering to the Lord (and not only to His House).
Yes lord I want to arrive at the ones of the faith. Pray for the fullness of maturity