When Christianity was still pure, white hot brilliant in the crucible of Roman persecution, the leading thinkers of the church had a remarkable catch phrase:
“God became man that man might become God”. They did not mean it literally of course, but were just using exaggeration to convey an important point: God came into humanity in Jesus, but at the same time Jesus brought humanity into God.
Jesus was one with the Father in a significantly different way than are we, in that Jesus was God, while we are not. We also are one with God, but relationally, not ontologically. We are not God. God is not us. That is the difference between Jesus and ourselves.
Now Jesus is a model, the first of billions to follow His path. Similar to how God and Jesus were One, the loving Presence of God in the being of Jesus and the being of Jesus in the loving Presence of God, so are we who have been reconciled to Him through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Yet because God is not limited by a physical form He can completely inhabit our entire being like water and wine can intermingle or coinhere in one clay jug. As we respond to God’s drawing near to us, available only through the advocacy of Jesus, and we draw near to Him and surrender to Him and embrace Him, His loving Presence enters into ours and ours into His, and thus, relationally, we become one in love. We surrendering all to Him, He delegating all authority to us in loving trust as He thinks His thoughts through us and feels His desires through us to do His loving will.
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