Union with Christ: what it means to be one spirit with him

For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)

Some believe that God and man are so different, so far apart, that they could never become one in any real sense. “God is God; man is man; that is that.” To suggest anything otherwise is considered blasphemy, for God is too holy and man too sinful. Some of these people, quite surprisingly, still believe that God dwells inside them through the Holy Spirit, and yet, the radical distinction between themselves and God remains. It is like oil and water in a cup (his Spirit and our spirit in our body)—two things that can touch but never mix.

Others believe that God and man are becoming one—a work in progress that will be completed on that Day when we are raised from the dead. They cannot deny that the scriptures allude to this destiny, but they also feel they must be honest to the observable reality that this hasn’t occurred yet. They might think of it like a Venn diagram, with two circles partially overlapping one another, growing closer and closer together until they are eventually the same circle.

And then there is Paul, who, as we can see in the scripture above, believed that every Christian becomes one with Jesus—completely and totally—the moment they receive him into their hearts.

There are many ways to talk about what happens to us when we are saved, or born again, but to me, this is the way that gets straight to the point better than any other. When a person repents of their sin and places their faith in Jesus Christ, they are joined with Jesus, meaning they become one spirit with him. The Bible’s teaching on marriage, which says that a man and a woman become one flesh, is actually pointing to a deeper spiritual truth—that Jesus (the Groom) and his Church (a.k.a. the Bride of Christ) have become one spirit. Another metaphor that he uses to convey this reality of oneness is Christ as a head and the church as his body, lending itself once again to the imagery of marriage where a husband is the head of his wife. You can see in Ephesians 5:22-32 how fluidly he blends each of these images—head and body, husband and wife, Christ and the church— ending with the following:

[W]e are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:30-32)

Let us also remember Jesus’ prayer in the gospel of John that “they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us . . . The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one . . .” (John 17:21-23). When Jesus prays that we “may become” perfectly one, he is not alluding to the end times but to the time after his resurrection when he would send his Spirit. We can be sure of this in light of all the New Testament passages that speak to this reality, like Ephesians 4:4-6: “There is one body [i.e., the Church] and one Spirit . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Examine the scriptures, and you’ll find there is no indication anywhere that our oneness with Christ is something that is to be attained or completed when we are resurrected from the dead. Any teaching suggesting that we are not already one with him has come from man, not God, only to make sense of something they could not understand. The fact is, you are either married/joined to Christ or you are not. You are either a member of his body or you are not. Any speak of “almost,” “not yet,” “kind of,” “sort of,” or “something in between,” makes no more sense than a woman being “kind of” married to a man or my head being “almost” part of my body.

All this is to help you see that if you are a follower of Christ, you are as one with Christ as you will ever be, and thereby one with God. It is like when someone receives a blood transfusion, and the blood from the donor becomes their own. The two bloods become inseparable and indistinguishable from one another, flowing through every member of the body. In this analogy, of course, the blood represents the Spirit, which (not coincidentally) is what the blood/wine represents in the Lord’s Supper, “as all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13), and, “my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:55-56).

Similarly, if your body were like a glass and your spirit like water, receiving Jesus’ Spirit is not like pouring oil into the glass alongside the water. Rather, it is just like pouring water into the glass. Some may argue that, before knowing Christ, our glass is empty, and when we receive Christ, it is filled. I am OK with this as long as we acknowledge that both analogies result in the same outcome—a glass filled with water or a body with one s/Spirit (his and ours joined together). This is how we must view our current state. You may not see it yet or understand how it is so, but this doesn’t change the unchangeable word of God.

Consider, then, how this changes your concept of yourself. You are not made to be a replica of God but an extension of him. Think about that for a second. When you enter your workplace, Christ himself enters your workplace. When you kiss your children, Christ himself kisses your children. When you look in the mirror, Christ himself looks in the mirror. When you serve your brothers and sisters, Christ himself serves Christ himself (see Matthew 25:34-40 and Ephesians 5:29-30). This is not cute language. It is not a desperate attempt to sound super spiritual. There is nothing metaphorical or analogous about it. It is as plain and real as I have presented it. And thus, it is the most profound thing in all the universe.

We are not mirrors that reflect his light; we are the light (see Matthew 5:14), for he is light (see 1 John 1:5). Try to separate his light from ours. You cannot. Christ is not something apart from us anymore. Instead, everything we truly are is defined by him, and whatever is not him is not truly us. This is why Paul says things like “Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11), “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20), and “the church [is] the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Anyone who tries to explain these verses without the understanding of our present oneness with Christ invariably has to drum up excuses and exceptions that Paul frankly does not provide. And without realizing it, in their attempt to offer explanations that are “safe,” “sensible,” and “wise,” they drain the gospel of its power.

As you think about the fact that you are dead to sin, you should see now what makes this possible. If you identify with Christ, then how could you also identify with sin? On the other hand, if you are not one with Christ, then dissociating from your sin would, in fact, be false, empty, and powerless. For Christ is the substance of everything we have and everything we are.

But having been born of God and joined with him, there is now only one way to know yourself truly—know Jesus truly. There is only one way to see yourself clearly—see Jesus clearly. There is only one way to evaluate your character—evaluate Jesus’ character. There is only one way to measure God’s love for you—measure his love for the Son. For Christ is your new life (see Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; Colossians 3:4; etc.).

So now, let us realize that Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension are not the whole story. If they are, then the gospel is just a solo victory for God with no benefit to his people. Jesus would be the only human in heaven forever. None of the things that he so wonderfully accomplished would have any meaning or practical value in the lives of his followers.

Make no mistake about it: the linchpin of this whole operation is that those who believe “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). And this is more than a friendly relationship with the Spirit; it is oneness with the Spirit. For “he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). It is more than walking with Christ like his disciples walked with him on Earth. It is walking in Christ as if we know no reality and have no identity apart from him.

From this Christ-reality flows nearly every grace in Christian life. If you do not understand this, you may not understand much else. For seeing ourselves as one with Christ is the doorway to understanding the great depths of the gospel.

Before we move on, I feel the need to stress that Christ himself is the power, the answer, the solution, the way. This book is full of truths that greatly impacted my life, but I want to be forthright that the power is not in the truths themselves but in the fact that they lead us to Christ, who is the Truth. At the end of the day, if you are born again, to whatever extent you still sin, the root cause can only be one thing—you have not learned to depend totally on Jesus, your Savior.

This, I believe, is not because you don’t want to depend on him but because there are lies you believe that are keeping you from doing so—namely, that you and him are separate. This book is an attempt, in one way or another, to break down those lies. Everything I write serves to help you abide in him, know him, learn from him, draw strength from him, and rely on him at all times. This is the way. Jesus is the Way (see John 14:6).

If we ever lose sight of this, then all the knowledge we gain loses its substance. For the real knowledge is to know him, like Adam knew Eve—intimately, actionably, presently. As Jesus said, “[T]his is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The very life of God—i.e., “eternal life”—is to know him.

So, “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:2-3). Let this be our compass, today into eternity. Let this be the simplicity of the gospel. Let this keep us humble despite whatever knowledge we think we have. And when all else fails us—including the knowledge in this book—let it be our reminder to fix our eyes on Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).