The Oneness of the Body of Christ is the Enlarged Oneness of the Divine Trinity

There are many wonderful aspects of the tabernacle in Exodus that are types of our Christian experience, and one of these is that the tabernacle typifies the oneness in the Triune God.

Oneness in this universe is God Himself; only God is one, and the oneness in the Triune God is the unique and most wonderful oneness. However, in His economy the oneness in the Triune God has been enlarged to include man; now we are in God and God is in us, and we are one with God and God is one with us.

We as believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ can be one with God and with one another not because of anything outward or doctrinal but because we have God’s divine life, His sanctifying word, and His divine glory, and we are being daily mingled with God.

The oneness in the Triune God has been enlarged to include the Body of Christ; now this oneness is the Body of Christ, who is one.

Where do we see this oneness in the tabernacle? This whole week we will look at how different items in the tabernacle typify the oneness in the Triune God, which has been enlarged to include us, men mingled with God.

The standing boards in the outer court were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, and there were some poles and bars that were crossing them to unite them; these poles were also made of acacia wood and gold.

We will see more concerning this later, but the oneness in the Triune God which has been enlarged to include us, the members of His Body, is the mingling of God (typified by the gold) and man (typified by the acacia wood).

Oneness is a matter of sinking deeply into the Triune God until we are fully overlaid with Him as gold; our problem is that we are short of God, and our need is to gain more of Him; the Lord’s recovery consists of God overlaying His recovered people with Himself. Banner #2, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (4)

What is our oneness? It is being overlaid with God, saturated with God, and mingled with God; it is God mingled with man. The more we are mingled with God, the more we gain of God as gold, the more we are one with God and with the saints for the building up of the church as the testimony of God.

The way to keep the oneness of the Body is to be mingled with God more, to allow God to overlay us with gold – more of God! God doesn’t want “good men” or “good Christians”; He wants God-men, men who are mingled with God to be one with God and one with the other saints to be God’s expression.

In order for us to gain more God, He takes us through situations and things that will cause us to be stripped of anything natural and gain more God.

The Oneness of the Body of Christ is the Enlarged Oneness of the Divine Trinity

God is One; He is Three yet One, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are distinct yet not separate, and at the same time They are one in the way of coinherence: the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Spirit, and the Son is in the Father and the Spirit is of the Father.

With our limited human understanding we cannot comprehend this great truth, but what we can enjoy and apprehend is that there’s such a thing as the oneness of the Body of Christ, which is the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity (see John 17:11, 21-23).

The oneness of the Body of Christ is the oneness in the Triune God, revealed in the Lord’s prayer in John 17 and expounded on by Paul in Eph. 4:3-6. The Lord prayed that we all may be one just as the Father and the Son are one; this oneness is not a mental or even spiritual oneness but a oneness by way of coinherence: God is in us and we are in God, therefore we are one.

In Eph. 4:6 we see that there’s one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. The footnote on this is very helpful,

The Trinity is implied even here in Ephesians 4:6. Over all refers mainly to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us all by reaching us as the Spirit. The oneness of the Body of Christ is constituted of the Trinity of the Godhead—the Father as the source and origin being the Originator, the Son as the Lord and Head being the Accomplisher, and the Spirit as the life-giving Spirit being the Executor. The Triune God Himself, when realized and experienced by us in our daily life, is the fundamental basis and very foundation of our oneness. (Eph. 4:6, footnote 3, Recovery Version Bible)

The Triune God in His economy has stepped out of eternity onto the bridge of time to be processed; He was incarnated, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross, resurrected, and was ascended as a God-man.

In His resurrection, Christ enlarged His mystical Body to include all the regenerated believers in Christ, and all His members are God-men, God mingled with man. The consummated Triune God mingles Himself with us, His chosen people, and this mingling is the genuine oneness.

Oneness among us is not merely meeting together or adhering to certain doctrines and Biblical truths; the organic oneness of the Body of Christ is the mingling of God with man.

The Body of Christ is God mingled with man, and the oneness of the Body is the Body of Christ; the factor of this oneness is the Triune God being mingled with man to be the enlarged oneness of the Triune God. This is amazing, wonderful, and so real!

The more we are mingled with God, the more we are part of the enlarged oneness of the Triune God and keep the oneness of the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, thank You for including us in the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity. Thank You Lord for mingling Yourself with us to make us one with You and one with the saints in the Body of Christ. Keep us in this process of being mingled with God to be overlaid with God, saturated with God, filled with God, and permeated with God! Hallelujah, the oneness of the Divine Trinity has been enlarged to include us, the many believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ!

The Oneness for which the Lord Prayed in John 17 is the Oneness Typified by the Tabernacle in Exo. 26

The oneness for which the Lord prayed in John 17 is the oneness typified by the tabernacle in Exodus 26; because the forty-eight boards of the tabernacle typify the believers built together to be the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle is a clear picture of the oneness in the Triune God.

Before we get into the details and significance of the oneness typified by the tabernacle, we need to see what is this oneness of the Triune God. First, this oneness was something in the Lord’s desire; His desire became His aspiration, which was expressed in the Lord’s prayer in John 17 (see John 17:2, 6, 11, 14-24).

At the time the Lord prayed for the oneness, this oneness was there only in the Triune God as a model, but the Lord wanted it to be reproduced and enlarged in the Body of Christ after His resurrection. This oneness is the oneness “IN US”, that is, we are one by being in God and by God being in us.

The oneness of the Triune God has been enlarged through the Lord’s resurrection, and now the oneness of the Body of Christ is just the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity. At the time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts, the Body of Christ was produced, and the enlarged oneness came into being; now the Body of Christ is this oneness, a solid oneness.

As seen in John 17, the genuine oneness – which is the mingling of the Triune God with the redeemed humanity – has three main aspects:

1. The oneness in the Father’s name by His divine life. The source and element of the oneness is the Father’s name and His divine life. We are one in the divine life which unites us, flows in us, and heads us up in Christ to be the Body of Christ. Because we have received the Father’s divine life and have His name, we now can be one!
2. The oneness in the Triune God by His sanctifying word. The standing of the oneness, day by day, is in the Father’s sanctifying word. How can we keep the oneness and stand in the oneness? How can we be separated from the world and kept away from Satan’s hand? It is by being in the Lord’s sanctifying word; His word separates us from the world and saturates us with God’s holy element, and in His word we are one.
3. The oneness of the believers in Christ in the divine glory. God’s glory is His divine life with His divine nature to express Him; if we don’t have the Father’s life with His nature, we can’t express the Father, but since we are children of God, we have the Father’s life with His nature and now we can be one in God’s glorious expression.

Hallelujah for this wonderful enlarged oneness of the Triune God! These coming days we will delve into the depths of the type of the tabernacle to see how the oneness for which the Lord prayed in John 17 is the oneness typified by the tabernacle in Exodus 26, and how this can be applied to our experience in the Christian life and church life.

Thank You Father for regenerating us with Your divine life and for giving us Your name; in Your life and name we are one! Thank You for Your sanctifying word which separates us from the world and saturates us with the element of God: in Your word we are now all one! Thank You for giving us Your glory – Your glorious expression coming from enjoying Your life and Your nature; hallelujah, in Your glory we are all made one! Praise You, Lord, for the oneness of the Body of Christ which is the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed M. for this week, and The Intrinsic Problem in the Lord’s Recovery Today and Its Scriptural Remedy, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (part 4, 2016 Summer Training), week 42 / msg. 6, The Oneness in the Triune God Typified by the Tabernacle.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oneness is not unity, / Outward agreement / But a life within— / God’s very life! / The Triune God—included us / In His divine— / Oneness—Oneness. / That they all may be one; / Even as You Father, are in Me / And I in You— / That they may be— / May be in us. / Oneness—Oneness. (Song on Oneness)
  # How may we express such oneness, / be divine and shining too? / Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way! / He’s the tree of life, the manna, / and the feast that’s ever new— / Hallelujah, we may eat Him every day! (Hymns #1226)
  # Father God, Thou art the source of life. / We, Thy sons, are Thine expression; / In Thy name, our dear possession. / Father God, Thou art the source of life. / In Thy life, in Thy life, / We have oneness in Thy life. (Hymns #1081)