not work alone. He plays His role within the ultimate unity, the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All three are integral to our unity. We seek to maintain “the unity of the Spirit” which relates to three persons: “one Spirit … one Lord … one God and Father” (Ephesians 4:3-6). This combination is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament:
- Jesus was conceived within the virgin Mary by “the Holy Spirit” and the power of “the Most High” (Luke 1:35).
- When Jesus was baptized, heaven opened and the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. Then the voice of the Father declared, “You are My beloved Son …” (Mark 1:11).
- When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He commanded baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
- Paul closed 2 Corinthians with the blessing, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
The Bible continually emphasizes that there is one God (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 6:4; Isaiah 44:6; 45:5; Mark 12:29; 1 Timothy 2:5). Yet the one God reveals Himself as three that model for us perfect unity. Divine unity is central to Jesus’ prayer for believers to be one.
The glory that You [Father] have given Me I have given to them [the disciples], that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one. … Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world (John 17:22-24).
Divine unity is central to Jesus’ prayer for our unity.
The Spirit is called “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ” in the same sentence (Romans 8:9). He is also called “the Lord.”
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).