What Manner of Man
(A weekly program for knowing and following Jesus Christ)
By Richard M. Eyre
WEEK 20: ONENESS
In our terminology, total loyalty is about as far as devotion can go. If X is totally loyal to Y, then:
X always does and says what Y would want him to do and say;
X always gives Y the credit;
X always devotes himself to Y’s cause.
Somehow (we try to reach it with our minds) Christ’s devotion to God was and is more than loyalty—it is oneness.
Perhaps the concept of oneness is not so hard to grasp as it first seems. If a mortal lifetime of loyalty could cause a person to think and act, let’s say, 90 percent similar to his Lord, then could not an eternity of loyalty bring about a 100 percent similarity? An absence of a difference? A oneness?
Christ said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). He said, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father” (John 14:7). That perfection of his life testifies to the perfection of that oneness.
He offered us maximum hope by telling us through is prayer to the Father on our behalf (see John 17:20-21) that we can join that oneness.
