Undivided Oneness "el echad"

Undivided Oneness

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Malachi 2:10 (KJV)

Today we will look at another important meaning of el echad (The One God) that gives us insight into the Godhead. Consider these Scriptures;

“For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 2:9 (KJV)

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.” Acts 17:28-29 (KJV)

These references to the Godhead have been debated for centuries from the Oneness and Trinity viewpoints so let me say that is not my intention. I have shared before that I don’t care to argue the point. I believe that sincere Believers on both sides love God and I call them Brother and Sister.

It is the division that this theological sticking point brings that makes an understanding of the name el echad we are speaking of so important. Consider the use of echad in these verses,

“The people answered with ONE voice.” Exodus 24:3

“Therefore shall a man leave his mother and father, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be ONE flesh.” Genesis 2:24

Here the word is used to denote undivided oneness or many coming together as one. God lives in perfect unity and desires that same oneness from us. We are compared to the many parts of the body that are fitly joined together and the more we have come to understand the complexities of the human body we realize the incredible unity and oneness of purpose that makes everything work. We are truly made in the image and likeness of el echad,

When God made Adam he realized that it was not good for him to be alone. God could have made another human from the dust of the earth but instead He removed Adam’s rib and fashioned Eve. Before her creation Eve was “in” Adam. After her creation, she was a separate and distinct person forged from Adams very essence. Then God does something that inspires us to wonder at His marvelous ways. He reunites Adam and Eve and joins them in a new way, marriage.

“And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be ONE flesh.” Genesis 2:23-24 (KJV)

The institution of marriage is sacred precisely because it pictures the undivided ONENESS of God. It is obvious that men and women don’t mold together into one human being but marriage does take two lives, two futures, two sets of dreams, hopes and plans and unite them into and undivided oneness. Both marriage and the body are used to describe the union between Christ and the Church.

In Christ’s magnificent prayer recorded in John 17, Jesus spends most of His time praying for this “undivided oneness”.

“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. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:” John 17:21-22 (KJV)

We can be one as The Father and The Son are one. If it were not possible Jesus would not have prayed for it. There is nothing on earth that can fully demonstrate or describe the Godhead. We are incapable of comprehending God and if we think we do then we are simply fooling ourselves. But the Church is capable of obtaining the unity that witnesses the glory of God.

Jesus did not come to serve His own purpose but came to fulfill His Father’s will. He did not come to reveal Jesus to us He came that we might know the Father. He was in complete unity with the Father on every level of His existence. This must become the witness and power of the Church. As Christ showed us The Father we live our lives to show the world Jesus. It is in our undivided Oneness that we become most like Him.

This year let’s all purpose to love our neighbor more, to stop the theological debates and start the Christ like love, to be more like Jesus when He looked at the woman who had been dragged before Him and said, “Neither do I condemn you go and sin no more.” God has made us ONE in Him. It’s time we started acting like it.

Everlasting Father

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

We have looked at the first two descriptions of the Messiah given in this wonderful passage by the Prophet Isaiah.  Today we will look at the third, Everlasting Father. Truly great is the mystery of godliness!  Throughout Scriptures we see glimpses of God that seem to overwhelm us.  Many doctrines and theologies have tried to explain God but they all seem to give us a blurry picture of something too big to fit in the lens of mans camera.  Consider John 1:1-4

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men. “

Jesus was with God and He was God.  We don’t say of ourselves that we were with us. I am here.  I can’t be with me because I am me.  So this passage seems to infer that Jesus and God can exist together in the same place yet it clearly states that Jesus was God.  If it sounds like I am going in circles, well, great is the mystery of godliness.  My purpose today is not to try and settle the differences between the Oneness Theology and the Trinity Theology.  I have looked at them both in detail and honestly it is not critical to my salvation.  It is not worth the time to argue.  I have wonderful friends that are Oneness and others that are Trinitarian.  Both sides believe that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and resurrected, caught up into Heaven and is coming soon.  Enough said!

The Prophet calls Jesus Everlasting Father and that tells us about who He is in relation to us.  He is everlasting.  His kingdom will know no end.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  Before the world Jesus was and when there is nothing left but cosmic dust He will remain.  I know that I can depend on Jesus.  There will never come a day that He will not be with me.  Because He is eternal I know that His promises to me are eternal.  I don’t know about you but that stirs a firestorm within my soul.  I can’t completely understand why but there is a part of me that needs “everlasting”.  All that I have and all that I survey in this life has a beginning and end.  I know that there is a timer ticking away on every relationship, every possession, every day.  But with Jesus that knowledge is wiped away and the fear that it creates is vanquished.

Jesus is the everlasting Father!  In this day and age with absentee father’s it is easy to forget what that means to us.  Father’s love their children.  They give their lives for them and labor so that every need is met.  Father’s lead us and guide us in the path that we should travel.  They are not tyrants but they are the givers of life.  Jesus came that we might have life.  He came to show us the way. He came so that we might have life and more abundantly.  He doesn’t want us to barely survive, Jesus wants us to thrive.

As you say the words, Everlasting Father, I invite to you trust in Jesus.  If He is for you, who can be against you?