The Father and Son unity

“He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). This speaks to the relation of the Son of God with His Father.

From the days of eternity, dwelling “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18) has ever been the privilege of the Son; and it ever will be His privilege. Their oneness, prior to sin, had resulted in seeming endless creation; and, since our fall into sin, Their unchanged oneness has also resulted in endless re-creation, that is, the redemption of Their purchased possession. By His own right, having been begotten of the Father, the Son possessed the same attribute of infinite craving to love and be loved that His Father God had. No alienation obstructed Their mutual tenderness which was like the strong nuclear force seen in the atoms of Their creation. From the beginning, His dwelling in His Father’s insuppressible love and righteousness made Jesus “the Messiah”, the “Child” of God, “The Prince of Peace” (Dan. 9:25; Isa. 9:6); “for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (John 3:34). And we can have the Father’s unbounded Spirit and love, too. And be changed from a child of wrath into His child of peace.

“The only-begotten Son, He who is in the bosom of the Father, He whom God has declared to be ‘the Man that is My fellow’ (Zechariah 13:7), ― the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on the earth!” The Desire of Ages, p. 483.

It was Their perpetual fellowship, the Spirit without measure from His Father (see John 3:34), that drove Jesus to divest from Himself the clamorings of His fallen human nature. He found His life by losing His life. “How am I straitened!” (Luke 12:50) was His earnest, life-long burden. Jesus is our perfect example of righteousness by faith. Through the “eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), Jesus’ natural action, from conception until the cross, was restricting self of its fallen inclinations, its ambition to be first, its craving for recognition and self-pity, and its hording all that self felt that it deserved. Thus kept by His Father through the eternal Spirit, Jesus had a stainless character. He “through the Spirit [mortified] the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13).

“Christ pleased not Himself” (Rom. 15:3). “He saved others; Himself He cannot save” (Matt. 27:42). Self-denial came so naturally to Jesus because He ever dwelt in the sunlight of His Father’s eternal Spirit. And we, through that Spirit which emanates from Christ’s example, will follow Him in everything. When “the Spirit” becomes “His Spirit” (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:16; 1 John 4:13), then the Lord God becomes “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Dwelling in Jesus’ love, breathing His Spirit, He constrains us to divest ourselves of self-service. “All we have and are is consecrated to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe His spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things” Steps to Christ, p. 58. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).

“The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ” The Desire of Ages, p. 805.

Scripture calls “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:9) both “the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:9) and “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9) because both God and His only Begotten are perfectly unified. They commune in one Spirit. Said Jesus, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10). “The communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor. 13:14) is the counsel of peace and rest and trust, between Them both. The Spirit is Their union, which Jesus ever longed to have with His Father (see John 17:3). The Spirit is knowing God. And we can take part in It also (see Hebrews 2:13; Revelation 1:10).

“O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was….

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.

And 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 hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.

Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:5, 21-24).

The experience of dwelling in God is the Spirit, Their Spirit joined with our spirit. And it is eternal because time stands still in His presence. We bind ourselves to the holy love within the Godhead by submitting to God and then opening our hearts to Jesus. “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97) is the segway into the saving, powerful love of God. “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23). This everlasting covenant is, has been, and ever will be. The gift of the eternal Spirit is the object of the everlasting gospel, a foretaste of the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Redemption is nothing more than our restoration into the eternal Spirit within the eternal Godhead.

Jesus says that everyone who “hath set his love upon Me” (Ps. 91:14, cf John 1:12) has an eternal relationship established with God, which He takes omnipotently seriously. With God, a commitment of love is serious business. He will never let that relationship die on His part. And because they continually “stir up the Gift of God” (2 Tim. 1:6), Jesus will keep them safe like a hen that gathers her chicks under her wings. “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28, 29). This is what Jesus ever lives for (see Hebrews 7:25), and our love to Him gives Him joy unbounded. The humbled, childlike love which the disciples had for God’s Son at Pentecost resulted in Their unleashed joy upon Their children. We catch a view of God’s searching, holy love in the snapshot of Jesus and the rich, young ruler. “Jesus beholding him loved him” (Mark 10:21).

But, our God of love is an emphatically jealous God (see Deuteronomy 5:8-10; Leviticus 26:11-42; Ex. 20:5, 6). And once He has poured the water of His Spirit into us, altering our spiritual chemistry into a new and living nature, then for us to turn away from His experiential love is to blaspheme His consummating Spirit of union. The ruler’s rejection of Jesus’ love wrenched His heart and called forth from Him public grief and consternation as He caught the attention of the multitude. “Jesus looked round about, and saith unto His disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23). The ruler would never again desire an opportunity to enter into betrothal with God. He turned away from obvious, pure love of the Son, and the Spirit of God turned completely silent to him.

Until we turn from the selfish spirit of Ashtoreth to the disinterested Spirit of the Son, none of our sins are forgiven. But, once having opened our hearts to the Child sent from the bosom of the Father, every sin and mistake toward Him is forgivable by His Father. Jesus was the personification of disinterested love; and in God’s estimation, those who love His holy Son He treats as though they can do no wrong. And in that powerful Spirit of holy peace they cannot sin (see 1 John 3:6). The Father will chasten His loved one when he errs within the covenant, and then, when that erring one returns to Christ’s humble rules of the holy relationship, He immediately forgives him. “If he trespass against” Jesus “seventy times seven” “and…turn again to [Him], saying, I repent;” then Jesus “shall” “forgive him” (Matt. 18:22; Luke 17:4). This we see in His dealings with His beloved disciples and with ancient Israel.

But, the only thing that “shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matt. 12:32) is for one to turn away from that holy bond of eternal and infinite love and conviction of truth; that is, if he has ever had it. It were better for him to never to have been born. Even cursing Jesus because Satan made us ignorant of His grace is forgivable. But, once Jesus’ grace is fully known and obtained, then to leave it and to curse that which united him into the sanctifying union of the Godhead, means to bring God the most insulting rejection of His adopting Spirit. To accept the adversary’s temptation to hate God’s gift of love will never be forgivable to that person, if having received all the abundance of the Father’s spiritual provisions of His fruit, His deliverance from God’s condemnation, His protection, and His adoption into the heavenly family (see Hebrews 6:4-8; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Hebrews 2:1-4). “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant…an unholy thing,” “wherewith he was sanctified,” “and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:29). “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Heb. 10:38). “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak” (Heb. 6:9).

Many hope in the love of Jesus, but their promises and resolutions to stop sinning have become like ropes of sand. Their inability to throw down the strongholds of sin makes them feel that they have committed the unpardonable sin and can never have God’s grace and welcoming countenance. But, it isn’t possible to be beyond God’s compassion if they are striving to have Jesus’ mercies. Their cry is, “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47). How can God who made them not respond to their crying for His help? To such we can say with authority, “Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee” (Mark 10:49). “Cast away your filthy rags; you won’t need them many more. Open your heart to the love seen in Jesus, give Him your love in return; and the love and overcoming power of God that poured down at Pentecost will be yours, also.” With one little word, “Go” (Matt. 8:32), He will fell the devil’s powers of doubt, and drive away the demons. To the overcomer Jesus says, “Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name” (Ps. 91:14). “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (Isa. 49:25). The blasphemy of the Spirit of God is not from them who hunger for God’s love and righteousness, but from them who have no need to hunger and they turn down His earnest invitations (see Luke 15:7).