However, when it comes to the Godhead, in other parts of the Bible we hear of the Father, the Spirit, the Word, and the Son. Most commonly we know the Godhead as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How can we reconcile this with what it says in Dt 6:4? Here is a clue that will help us understand: The Bible also tells us that man was made in the image of God. Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. . . So if we understand the nature of man we can better understand the nature of God. And as we understand the nature of God we can understand our own nature (man's).
Man is spirit, soul and natural body. He is a triune being, just as God is. This is a unique nature compared with the rest of the created creatures. The nature of animals are that they have a spirit and a natural body. The nature of angels and other heavenly creatures are that they have a spirit and a supernatural or celestial body. They are biune beings. Man has a spirit and natural body, however, what makes man unique is that he also has a soul. He is a triune being. It is this part of his nature along with his other two natures which make him the image of God. God also being a triune being makes Him a being just like us (or us like Him). He is three and one, just as we are three and one. God is like a human person. We must stop seeing His three different natures as three distinct persons of the Holy Trinity, then instead see Them like the three different natures of a human person. To see Them as three distinct persons actually invalidates Dt 6:4 and makes Him no longer One.
Here is a common misconception which is based in fact: It is said, the Father is in heaven, the Son is at His right side, and the Holy Spirit is in and among the saints. This is a fact, the Bible tells us so. However, it is a misconception in the sense that people see the Godhead as three distinct persons, and the person of the Holy Spirit is absent from heaven and present on the earth with the saints. This is an impossible circumstance. The Holy Spirit is God's spirit, and He is not whole unless His spirit life is within Him. However, since Jesus is in union with the mortal men on the earth who are His body, His spirit extends from heaven to the earth and resides in the hearts of men. This makes them one with the Lord because they are one in spirit.
Obviously, this image/understanding of the Godhead presents many problems with the standard understanding of many scriptures. That is why it is important to read on. In doing so those problems will clear up making perfect sense. A word of warning; to really see it clearly old perceptions and understandings can totally prevent a new perception from forming which will enlighten. They will prevent the mind from wrapping itself around even the most elementary things. It will cause short circuits and cause the old adage to be true, "you can't get there from here." A fresh pair of eyes are required and a heart which will allow old established understandings to be challenged as the example above.
Man too is one. When we look at or address one another we don't do so as if we are addressing the three persons of each other. Although we know that we have three different natures, we address each other as if we are one whole person who resides in a body. We appeal to the mind/soul of the person who in actuality is the real man. Although we do this while looking at his body listening to his thoughts which come out of his mouth, we do not appeal to the man's body. We also know that his mind (or soul) along with his body is given life consciousness, and animation by the power of his spirit. However, we talk to and touch his body understanding him as one whole person.
Likewise in our personal life, we don't experience it as a combination of three different persons voting with each other what to do like a Siamese triplet with three heads and six arms and legs trying to agree with each other which way to go. No, we experience life as one whole being. In fact, our three natures function so well together and likewise have their identity in each other so completely as one, that mistakenly many people think they are nothing more than a body with a brain, and when it dies they cease to exist.
To expound upon this, the Bible teaches us that our redemption actually has three different aspects; one for each nature of the human being.
- We are born again of a new spirit. Which means we die to the old spirit essence of the corrupt spirit we were born with and inherited from Adam. We do this while progressively learning to function out of the new Spirit essence we have received by being born again; which is the Holy Spirit. Like Paul said we are earthen vessels which contain a treasure inside. We actually die to our own sin nature as we increasingly live by the new Spirit we were born again with.
- We receive a new supernatural or celestial body. When we die to this natural/mortal body which is doomed to death, we receive a new body which is eternal. It is that Spirit we were born again with which has the power to quicken us back to life, raising us from the dead into a new incorruptible body. As Paul said: Eph 1:14 That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it—to the praise of His glory.
- Salvation. God's third and final remedy is pointed towards the soul of man (or his mind). Unlike the other two natures of man this one cannot die or be replaced. This is because the soul is "the real man." If you were to die to or get a new soul, you would cease to be you any longer. The soul is what makes you an individual. As such according to God's plan of redemption the soul is salvaged or saved.
We can see the reflection of this three part redemption in the following scripture: Heb 4:12 For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow {It cuts our soul free from our old spirit and we are born again with God's Spirit through hearing and excepting His word. That same Spirit given through His word also cuts our soul free from the mortal body and quickens us with a new incorruptible body. "joints and marrow" The life (or spirit) of man is in his blood (so says the Bible) and the blood is made in the marrow of the bones. By saying dividing also between the soul and the joints and marrow it is saying it can separate a soul from his mortal body}, exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. {The word of God which is like a double-edge sword does not cut or replace or destroy our soul as it does and replaces the other two natures whose identity is in our soul. On the contrary, that same word salvages the soul itself through convicting our soul/mind causing it to repent and change it's ways and perceptions of life in a way which line up with true knowledge of and conformity to God. Thus the sharp double-edged nature of His word}
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure . . . What an amazing feat God has done! He has accomplished the impossible according to Jeremiah! With His double-edged sword He has surgically removed the cancer which was in every cell of our being, and has done so without destroying us. Jesus taught us that His word which redeems us comes as a seed which must fall on fertile ground and must be cultivated to grow (the sower sow's the seed Mt 13:1). Paul reminds us that this redemption is a process and we have an active role in that we must continually choose to act out of our new nature: EPH 4:22 . . . you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, EPH 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, EPH 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
In order to qualify these three different natures as different or distinct from each other, they must somehow be independent from each other. Otherwise why would you call them three and not simply different parts of the same thing. How can we tell there is a distinction or independence between spirit, soul, and body? The answer is simple: Our spirit and our body are subordinate to our soul (or mind). Our soul can be in conflict with our body and spirit. This alone shows us there is an independence from each other by the fact that they can have independent ideas or "agendas" from each other.
Our body may desire to rest because it is exhausted, or not perform a task it is in fear of. However, our soul or mind can override the desire to rest or the apprehension caused by fear of being harmed and through the will of our soul cause our body to do as it desires. It is the same with our spirit. After surviving a car accident, by experiential knowledge our spirit may be afraid to drive in a car. However, in our mind we can rationalize it is safe to drive in a car even though it was once involved in an accident. Our spirit may fill our soul with a spirit of fear screaming "don't get in that car". However, in our mind we can reason and rationalize it is safe in spite of the past experience and override the spirit with its irrational fears. Then through enforcing the will of the soul it causes the spirit to empower the body to get in and drive the car. This is also why it is said that the spirit of prophecy is controlled by the prophet. We don't have to give ourselves over to spirit influence because spirit is subordinate to the soul and its will. One more example is that both the body and the spirit can be compelled to gratify itself in some way. However, the soul can see this compulsion as destructive or sinful, then refrain from the compelling desire of the spirit and the flesh. The point is, the fact that there are three natures in man which work together as one constituting one whole being, having their identity in each other, but can also be independently in conflict with each other says that man is a triune being.
Understand this about our own human nature and we can understand the nature of God because we were made in His image. . . .the Bible tells us so. We know from the Bible that the three natures of God are the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Word (Son). If we understand ourselves to be one being although having three natures and we are indeed made in God's image, then why is it so hard to see God as a single being or person with three distinct natures? Man is a being like God and therefore God is a single being or person like man.
The only thing left to do is to reconcile the names we have for God's three different natures as we understand man's three natures as spirit, soul, and body. This is easy. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. The actual life, consciousness, and power of animation of God.
The Word of God is the actual manifestation or embodiment of God. This is because words give form and embody the invisible nature of what something is. This makes it true that in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God, and all things which were created were created through Him ...the Word of God. God spoke things into existence. His words gave things their shape and form and His breath or Spirit (which His words were carried on) gave the words the power to actually come into existence according to the form His words gave them. The Word of God is the body of God and through the Word of God without exception all things got their embodiment/form by and through the Word of God.
To continue relating the names of the three different natures of God to the names of the three different natures of man we move on to the Father. The Father is the soul of God. He is the will of God, He is the nature which is the reasoning, rationalizing, thinking, and deciding nature of God. Through His will and because of the harmony between Him and His other two natures (the Spirit of God and the Word or Body of God) they are subordinate to the soul of God (the Father). There you have it, the three different natures of God are the natures of one whole person. Like man those natures can have their own ideas or desires which makes them three different natures with an ability to be independent from each other. However, unlike man whose three different natures can be in severe conflict with each other, the three natures of God are in perfect harmony with each other and always out of love and union subordinate to the nature which is the Father. The other two natures of God take their identity in the third (the Father). They are the power and expression of Father God. This makes them an inseparable One whole being as a person/man is.
There is one other element the Bible tells us when giving us the names of the Godhead. That is the Son. We learn from the beginning of John that the Son is actually the Word of God. That means the Son is the embodiment or manifestation or expression of God. Nothing makes more sense than this. If God was going to make His tent (body) among us—dwelling with us, that body would be the Word of God—the manifestation of God since the Word is His body. We have two clues which help us understand the relationship of Jesus or the Son (which is the Word of God) with the triune being of God (which we will now call the Father).
In the beginning of His Gospel John gives us the origin of Jesus. The other gospels give the human lineage of Jesus as the Son of Man. John does something different. He gives us the heavenly lineage of Jesus as the Son of God. John identifies Jesus as the Word of God in chapter one telling us He not only was there in the beginning but that all of creation got its shape and form—its manifestation or embodiment from the Word.
Here is something important to take note of. After establishing that fact in chapter one, John's gospel never again refers to Jesus as the Word of God, but instead either: Jesus, the Son of God, or the Son of Man.
At what point does John do this? In John's story of the origin of Jesus he stops calling Jesus the Word of God when he gets to the part of the story when Jesus is born in the body of human flesh. It is then that John rightfully calls Jesus either the Son of God or the Son of Man.
Here is the next important factor: When referring to Jesus we are told in the Bible that God came to us in the "guise" of human nature. Most translations say in the "likeness" of human nature. However, guise is a better word but they mean the same thing. There are two important factors in that statement. One is that Jesus was in a likeness or guise. The other is human "nature". To understand the significance you have to ask why not say in the likeness of a human being or a human person, or human flesh instead of human nature?
The human nature is not just the body of a human but includes the whole of man's nature which is three natures—spirit, soul, and body.
Guise: a way of seeming or looking that is not true or real: a form or style of dress: costume: external appearance: semblance: disguise
If the Word of God manifested in the body of a human and is described as coming in the likeness or Guise of human nature that means although He had a human body He was not in nature or in His essence human, but in nature, His essence is God.
Let's look at that a little closer. Jesus had a spirit, soul, and human body. In what way was He not human or the nature of a human being? Here is the answer: The difference between Jesus and the rest of us is that Jesus does not and never did have as a part of His nature the corrupt human spirit of Adam. Jesus became a distinct triune person from the person of God who we are now calling the Father. We are children of Adam. We posses his corrupted spirit. Jesus, on the other hand is a child of God and He possess the Spirit of God, He is not a human child even though He was born with a human body.
Here is the next factor: This is by what defines someone a father to a child:
Father: Noun: Father is defined as a man who has impregnated a woman and had a child. Verb: To father means to impregnate a woman.
Jesus calls God in heaven His Father. And also He is called the Son of God. What gives Him that right to do so? The answer is that God in heaven is His Father by definition. Mary, His mother who provided the egg, had that egg fertilized by God in heaven. Thus God was His Father. Mt 1:20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Because Jesus had a human mother and manifested in the form of human flesh He rightfully called Himself "the Son of Man." Because Jesus' Father was God in Heaven who fertilized His mother's egg, and it is God's own Spirit (not Adam's) which is the life power and consciousness of Jesus, He rightfully says He is the Son of God. This is what makes Him manifest in the guise of human nature. He has all three natures of a human being, He has a human body however, He never possessed the spirit of man. His very spirit essence is that of God Himself. Jesus constantly affirmed this was true by calling God His Father.
This is important and invalidates many understandings we have from scriptures, and what we take for granted is the proper understanding of them. One such example is when He was baptized. Many believe it was at the moment when John saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus as a dove and stay is when God's Spirit entered into Him and He became who He was and took on His destiny. Nothing could be more misunderstood than this, and it shows that those who believe it do not understand the true nature of Jesus.
Jesus never had the human spirit. From birth God's Spirit was His own Spirit. Although He was tempted in all manners as a human while in human flesh, unlike humans He did not have a corrupt human spirit, but a pure and uncorrupted spirit which was God's own Spirit. So how could it be that it was at His baptism God's Spirit entered into Him?
What happened at Jesus' baptism was the marking of the end of the 62-sevens, and marked the advent of the last or 1-seven. Jesus told John he had to baptize Him to fulfill prophecy. It was the prophecy of Daniel's 70- sevens. That baptism wasn't an event or moment where Jesus became something, but when He was identified as something as well as released for something. It was an event when He became "revealed" as the Anointed One. It was John who's destiny it was to do that anointing through baptizing Jesus. Just as it was Samuel's destiny to pour the oil on David's head and anoint him as king.
John already knew who Jesus was and told Him as much when he said he was not worthy to baptize Him, or that he was not fit to even serve Him by helping Him take off His sandals. However, in light of John the Baptist saying this, he also said that he still did not know Jesus was the one until he saw the Spirit of God lighten upon Him like a dove. John went on to explain (in the gospel of John) that God told him he would know the "One" by the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus the way He did.
How can we verify this is true? When that event happened and the light of the Spirit came upon Him, God in heaven spoke and identified Jesus as His Son in which He was well pleased. He didn't become His Son then because Jesus would not have had any previous history by which God in Heaven could say He was well pleased in Him. Jesus became His Son when Mary's egg was fertilized by God's own Spirit making God's own Spirit the Spirit of Jesus. People of His day called Him an illegitimate child who was conceived in sin by an unwed mother. Jesus identified Himself as the Son of God by calling Him His Father.
Some of the most compelling scriptures which tell us how to understand the Godhead, is the beginning of the gospel of John.
Jn 1:1 IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.
Jn 1:2 He was present originally with God.
Jn 1:3 All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being.
Jn 1:4 In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.
Jn 1:5 And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it].
Jn 1:6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Jn 1:7 This man came to witness, that he might testify of the Light, that all men might believe in it [adhere to it, trust it, and rely upon it] through him.
Jn 1:8 He was not the Light himself, but came that he might bear witness regarding the Light.
Jn 1:9 There it was—the true Light [was then] coming into the world [the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light] that illumines every person.
Jn 1:10 He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him [did not know Him].
Jn 1:11 He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own—His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.
Jn 1:12 But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—
Jn 1:13 Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]
Jn 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.
Jn 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out, This was He of Whom I said, He Who comes after me has priority over me, for He was before me. [He takes rank above me, for He existed before I did. He has advanced before me, because He is my Chief.]
Jn 1:16 For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.
Jn 1:17 For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jn 1:18 No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].
Without going through this line by line what we can understand through these verses according to the interpretation given above is this: In the beginning there was a celestial being called God. He is like a human person having a spirit, soul, and celestial body. He is first called God. His Spirit is called light and life (Jn 1:4 In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.) His embodiment was called the word. The soul or heart of the person embodied—the real person inside that body was called God. Which, as like a human person, included all three natures which took their identity in the invisible heart of the person whose body was beheld.
Again this person was called at this point in John's narrative, God. Then the spirit (life and light) of God was made manifest through the body of God in a new embodiment of human flesh and was called Jesus. Jesus was One with God because in Spirit and manifestation He was God.
We have a natural body however when we gain a celestial we die to our natural body. At the point when Jesus had a natural body of flesh, unlike us God the word manifested and embodied God in both a celestial body and a natural body of flesh. And because He had a separate soul from that of God the Father, when Jesus died to His natural body He came alive in a celestial body. Therefore in heaven there is God the Father in a celestial body called the Word. And a second celestial manifestation as God the Son. Then in the natural bodies of those in the world who are moved by His spirit promptings They continue to be the natural body of the Son in the world. We too therefore become children of the Father as the first born Son had.
However, He now had the complete human nature, meaning He then possessed a soul. It is a soul which is independent from the soul of God in His heavenly manifestation. At this point Jesus is a begotten Son of God, who now is a Father and therefore from that moment is called Father.
The person of God in Heaven is now Father God having begotten a Son who is independent of Him in that He has His own soul. However, He is the same as God the Father because He shares the very essence of the Father, which is His Spirit. In this way the Father and the Son are one and the same. Both are the Word or the manifestation of God's invisible Spirit. But at the same time the Son becomes a separate being in that He has His own soul which is not the soul of Father God. This means Jesus had His own mind and will independent from the Father as I do with the next person.
To understand scriptures this way allows us to truly understand our redemption and how we are to embrace Jesus so that He is our Savior and we become to Him what He is to the Father. This state of redemption is called "union". Jesus, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, who had an independent soul from God the Father was not just one with the Father because they shared the same Spirit essence. It also made Him one with the Father because He was in perfect union with Him.
It was a decision of the mind/soul of Jesus to will that He not live an independent life apart from the Father. But as an act of His will He decided to spend every breath of His life doing the will of His Father, carrying out His desires and plans. Jesus is called in another place the right arm of the Father. He doesn't need a prophetic word from the Father, neither does He consider and decide if He wants to perform a particular task the Father asks of Him. As with our right arm, we do not tell it to reach out and pick up a glass of water and bring it to our lips. Neither do we coax it into doing so. Without words and by the power of our spirit we (our soul) simply will our arm to reach out, pick up the glass, and bring it to our lips. And it does.
What was just described reflects the oneness and union of our spirit, soul, and body. This type of being one where the soul of God in heaven (the Father) will's His Spirit power to compel Jesus' body to reach out and grab a glass of water and hand it to someone is done from a place beyond words. As Jesus gives up His life in order to cause His body of flesh to live out the will and Spirit unction of His Father in Heaven voluntarily out of love for the Father, He binds Himself as one with the Father. Since the Father in heaven has not a body of flesh in the natural world Jesus becomes the very embodiment of the Father when He spends His life on doing not His own but the Father's will.
This is true union and it is this type of union with God that heavenly love desires. To get closer to God, to love Him more, to have a greater intimate knowledge of God would be to become one with Him in that you are the very embodiment of God. This is because you in reality die to yourself and become one whole person with God. This is the greatest kind of love there is! Jesus said if you are not willing to love Him this way then you are not worthy of (the quality) of love He loves us with. Jesus loves us with a union which makes us one whole person with Him. This is what it means to be His body or His bride. We as His body completely die to our own life to become one whole person with Him. Carrying out whatever His will compels us to do. We as His body must graduate beyond being compelled to do His will by the prophetic. Rather to, without question or interpretation, simply reach out and do or say whatever the Spirit of Christ urges and compels us to do from that place which is beyond words (Spirit). We need to perfect our love for Him so that we are His right arm as He is the Father's.
Jesus died to His natural body and is in the natural world as a disembodied Spirit—the Holy Spirit. All who respond to His will by the prompting of His Spirit have died with Him. They did not die to their natural body (as Jesus did), but to their independent life in the natural so they could become with Jesus through His Spirit one whole person. This is what it means to be in union with Christ as He is in union with the Father.
Now this understanding helps us know the meaning of the many scriptures which speak how Jesus is the mirror image of the Father. Or if you have seen me, Philip, you have seen the Father. Or how he says; I do not have an agenda but my Father has a plan and I do the work He gives me. Or I only say what the Father tells me to say. He was one with the Father not just because they shared the same Spirit essence but because He was in such perfect union with Him that He had no life of His own but lived out what the Father wanted. This is the point of verses like this, they speak of their union so that we too can learn this same union with Jesus.
This makes it easier to see how we are told that God the Father sits on one throne and we see Him as one person and then God the Son sits on a throne to His right and we see Him as another person.
It also explains how in what John says above that He made a way to also become children of God the Father, as the first born already has. That way is to be born again of God's own Spirit which we receive when we believe the words and teachings of Jesus, and then become in union with that Spirit by dying to our own life in order to live out in the body every prompting of His Spirit within us. We become in union with Jesus as He is in union with His Father. Then it hopefully will be said of us that if you have seen us you have seen Jesus.
How deep are you willing to die to your own life is what will determine how deep in union with Christ you are (or how much you really love Him).
2Co 5:14 For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died;
2Co 5:15 And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.
2Co 5:16 Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh].
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Phil 3:8 Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
Phil 3:9 And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.
Phil 3:10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [ 2 which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
Phil 3:11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].
Jn 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
Jn 17:21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jn 17:22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
Jn 17:23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me b and have loved them even as you have loved me.
