What is unity in Christ?

Lowliness expresses the humility of mind that should characterise believers in their thoughts of themselves, in contrast to the vanity and pride that marks the flesh. Meekness is the spirit of gentleness that should mark us in our bearing towards others — the readiness to give place to others in contrast to the self-assertiveness that seeks a place of prominence. Longsuffering suggests the patient spirit that should mark us in relation to the trying circumstances that we may be called to pass through forbearance, the patience with which we should meet all that is trying in others. Further we are warned that love is to be the true motive in showing forbearance. It is possible to show great forbearance in the presence of insults and yet be acting in a spirit of pride that treats the offending brother with silent contempt. Furthermore, the Christian company is to be marked by unity; but this unity is "the unity of the Spirit," which we are to endeavour to keep. The unity of the Spirit is not the unity of a company of people held together by common opinions, or by a unanimous judgment, which may be far from the mind of the Spirit. It is the unity that is the outcome of being members of the body of Christ and is maintained by the saints walking together according to the one mind of the Spirit. Moreover, this unity of the Spirit is to be maintained in the uniting bond of peace. The danger is that if we are not agreed as to the mind of the Spirit we may fall into contention instead of prayerfully searching the word to learn His mind in the spirit of peace.

"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." How perfect is Scripture! It does not say, "the unity of the body," although including it. But had it been said, "the unity of the body," people might have built up (as indeed they have) an outward institution and made it a point of life and death not to separate from that. But what the Holy Ghost lays upon those belonging to Christ is, "endeavouring" — showing all needed earnestness — not to make, but "to keep the unity of the Spirit." It is something already made by the Spirit which we have to maintain or observe. It is not merely that we are to have feelings of love towards our fellow-christians. This might be in a thousand different bodies; but if ever so well heeded, this would not be keeping "the unity of the Spirit." What is meant then? The unity of the Holy Ghost, which is already formed, embraces all the members of Christ. And where are the members of Christ to be found? In one sense, thank God, everywhere: in another, alas! anywhere. Wherever Christ is preached and souls have received Him, there are His members. And what have we to do? Diligently to maintain the unity that embraces everyone belonging to Christ — "in the bond of peace." Here we find peace spoken of, not so much for our own souls with God, but rather for enjoying and furthering practically union among saints of God. The flesh is anxious and restless: a peaceful spirit is the fruit of the Holy Ghost, and mightily contributes to the binding together of hearts in practice. God's Spirit is not occupied with merely giving right opinions about points: deeper purposes are His. He is bowing souls to Christ, and exalting Him in their eyes. But to bring one soul out of darkness into light, or out of a little into deeper light, is surely precious; and this is what God Himself is now engaged with. We do well, while holding fast our liberty for Christ, not to allow the barriers that men have brought in, but to treat them as null and void.

We have, first of all here, the unities which the apostle would have us mark. There are seven unities, the number which, as we well know, speaks of a perfection, which is peculiarly that of God. He reminds us, first of all, that as to himself, it is the prisoner in the Lord who is speaking. Well may he who has shown us the power of the truth upon himself in the very place which it has given him amongst men, exhort us to "walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called." The "calling" includes all the blessing that we have been looking at. It is this which God's voice is drawing us on with, a Voice which has power in it also to accomplish its will; but what then is the suited answer to it on our part? "All lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love." The necessary effect of having to do with God is that it puts us into that low place before Him, the place of one with whom, therefore, the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity is able to dwell. To be with God, we must be in the sense of what God is, before Him in the consciousness of creature nothingness, yet not discouraged or distressed by that, but, on the contrary, realizing only the more the sweetness of the wonderful condescension of God toward us. We are in a world of suffering, where sin has caused suffering, and where even in one another the sin still remaining makes us suffer also; suffering from one another thus calling forth in us, as God would have it, only the more fully those Christian graces which find but opportunity for full display where there is such demand upon them. The lowliness which is the primal thought here, becomes in us meekness, and then, with reference to others, longsuffering and the bearing with one another, not as simply accepting, as it were, what we cannot escape from, but "in love." We have to "use diligence," therefore, to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace." We have not to form this unity, as is clear. The Spirit dwelling in us all has formed it, but we have to keep it "in the bond of peace." Nor is it the unity of the body of which he is speaking. That is not ours even to keep, but the Spirit is that which animates the body and makes it work together for common blessing. Thus it is not a unity in form merely, as the unity of the body might be. It is the unity characterized by what the Spirit Himself is, and to keep it may involve also sometimes what might seem to be in contrast, rather, with the unity of the body. The members of the body cannot in that character be cut off from Christ, but yet looking at things as they are here, the figure for us may be rather that of the human body such as we know it in the place of sin and death, and where one member may have, even, to be cut off for the good of the whole. The unity of the Spirit is a holy unity. Separation from evil is an essential characteristic of it, and here it may carry us beyond what the mere thought of one body would seem to necessitate. The unity of the Spirit is living unity, and we need to use diligence to keep it. How many things there are in fact that are contrary to it in a world like this!

The specification of these unities follows. "One body and one Spirit" are linked together with the "one hope of our calling" in which we have been called. Here we have, as has been often said, the innermost of three circles that we find here. The "one body and one Spirit" give us, one may say, the deepest character of unity, to which the "hope of our calling" of necessity contributes. The energy which carries us forward is the energy which works for edification and blessing now. We have then the circle of profession, not meaning by that at all to imply mere profession, while yet it leaves room for it. Here we have "one Lord," Christ in the authority which belongs to Him; "one faith," that is to say, one creed, the common range of truth which belongs to us all; "one baptism," which is not, as we see at once, the baptism of the Spirit, for that would link with the first circle rather than with the second one. Moreover, baptism spoken of in this way, simply by itself, always seems to mean what we ordinarily call that: the baptism of the Spirit has to be expressed by this addition. The language here is used, in fact, analogically, the baptism of water being analogous with that which is a deeper thing; but in the apostle's words here it is simply the baptism of water, which connects, as we have seen, throughout with the kingdom, and therefore with the Lord. It is that in which the Lord is owned. It is that which brings into the sphere of discipleship and thus is linked with the "one, faith," which is the disciples, creed. All is perfectly fitted together, therefore, here.

For as our human spirit controls the function of our bodies, so the Spirit of God is the animating power of every member of the body of Christ. The body is one: it has many members; yet all unitedly are one body. "So also is the Christ." This certainly is not merely local: it includes the entire body of Christ worldwide, though of course the local assembly is intended to give expression to it.

In the next three verses, (12-14), the apostle goes on to speak of the oneness of the body of Christ. He says first: "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." The apostle has been speaking about the gifts — the word of knowledge to one, the word of wisdom to another, faith to another, healing to another, and so on — but then not all men have gifts. The apostle now speaks of the whole body, which consists of numerous members. They are all one, though there are many. There is a variety in the body, all the members having their respective differences; but by reason of these differences they contribute to the health and efficiency of the whole body of Christ.

This unity is not something to be constructed by ourselves, the members; it is not something that is a result of each one losing his individuality, and so becoming merged with the others. That is not the way in which the body is formed. We find that it is formed by the connection of the members with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a remarkable expression here: "All the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." The apostle is evidently speaking of the Head in glory and the body here upon the earth, constituting one spiritual "man", Christ being the Head, and all the members the body. When he says, "So also is Christ," that mystical man is designated by one name — Christ.

By the baptism of the Spirit, then, the Church has been formed into a body, consisting of many members, but yet one, "for as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12). This is, perhaps, the most striking, and certainly the most frequent, figure used in Scripture to describe the Church. In the passage just cited, the length to which the metaphor is carried is very remarkable. Not merely is the body said to be united with Christ, but to be Christ Himself — "so also is Christ." The limbs, so to speak, are regarded as being merely attached to the Head, which gives motion, life, and character to the whole, so that it is all spoken of under the name of the Head. It is not perhaps, easy to grasp the full force of this remarkable language, which appears so to lose the Church in Christ, that He alone is seen, and it is regarded merely as a part of Him. But though our minds may fail to mount to the full height of blessing revealed in the figure, it is at least manifest that a closeness and completeness of union is here made known which may well fill the soul of the believer with wonder and adoration.

The truth then taught is, that believers are baptized by one Spirit into living union with Christ, so that Christ and all His people on earth form one vital body; and hence it is that believers are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones — words which indicate in the strongest possible way the living organic union of believers (as wrought and maintained by the Holy Ghost) with Christ as their risen Head. Several very important consequences flow from this truth; and it is to these we now invite your prayerful attention as we point them out from the word of God.

Now if you will turn to another scripture, viz., Acts 2, you will find the next link in the chain. This blessed One not only had proclaimed peace in virtue of the full accomplishment of His victory, not only had announced to Mary Magdalene that He has in virtue of it "fellows" — His "brethren," but we find more, even that He goes up into glory, ascends into the heavens. Hitherto I have only spoken of His resurrection, and what He said on earth after His resurrection; for He was forty days on earth after He rose from the dead; and those days must have been wonderful, when the risen Lord was seen of His disciples ere He ascended to glory. But now He has gone up; and as certainly as He goes up, the Holy Ghost comes down. And what heart does not feel the all-importance of the Holy Ghost come down? Those then who were by Christ's victory and triumph brought into relationship with God, even His God and His Father, are now, by the same Spirit that dwells in Christ, united to Him in heaven. And thus we reach Ephesians 2. Let me repeat it: not only have we peace and relationship with God, but we are one with Christ. The Holy Ghost came down and baptized believers into one body, thus uniting them, not only to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head in heaven, but to each other, as members of one body on this earth. So that every believer in whom the Holy Ghost dwells is, by that blessed Spirit, one with Christ in heaven. And oh! what heart can conceive the wonders of that? Let me ask, Is that a light matter to think of or know? If we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us (and may there not be a single soul here that is not in the conscious sense of it), is it not a marvellous reality? What can you conceive equal in importance to the greatness of it? To have the sense that I am one with the risen, glorified Man — in the place where He is; that He and we are one! Beloved, we hear of it, and we speak of it to one another, but have our souls really grasped the immensity of it? Never can we forget (thank God, never) the blessing our souls received when first we knew it. The moment when it first dawned on our souls that we were one with Christ in heaven can never be forgotten by us. It is a crisis moment in a person's history. Blessed time when first the soul opens — like a flower to the sun — to the truth that Christ and we His own are one, and for ever! And though we are here in feebleness and weakness, and He is on high in heavenly glory, yet the day of glory, bearing its brightness far and near, is coming, when He shall to a wondering universe display that He with us is one. This alone can tarnish all below, giving you enough and more than enough in Him. How different this is from tearing yourself, as it were, out of what the heart clings to. I see some casting more than a longing look behind them, showing how little they are possessed with this unspeakable reality — one with Christ in heaven. When this is tasted, there is nothing in this defiling scene good enough for us; yet we are satisfied, and we lie down in pastures of tender grass. May the Lord give each one to taste somewhat of it. "Faith cometh by hearing;" that is rich comfort to us all. Oh, may the sense of this union, if never before, come to you as you hear of it to-night! and as the word of God sets it before us simply, may the Lord give each heart here to taste it!

The believer then is a son in immediate connection with his Father, with God (God Himself being manifested). He is a son, because all who have been baptised to have part in the privileges that are in Christ have put on Christ. They are not before God as Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, male or female; they are before God according to their position in Christ, all one thing in Him, Christ being for all the common and only measure of their relationship with God. But this Christ was, as we have seen, the one Seed of Abraham: and if the Gentiles were in Christ, they entered consequently into this privileged position; they were, in Christ, the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise made to that seed.

Having then already dwelt a little upon what is one important and primary element of "the faith," I add, further, that believers are brought into great relationships. Not only are we "converted" and "saved," being brought into peace and liberty, but we are called to realise also that we are no longer merely English persons or French, Jews or Gentiles, but that we are children of God, and that we are such now. We, therefore, turn our backs on our boasting in our nation and our city, and our family, and all these various forms of men's vanity, which is merely boasting of something of the flesh. We are called out of that now. This is also part of "the faith once delivered." In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free (Gal. 3:28). What does this mean? It means just what I have been saying.