One Spirit

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17

The natural and created purpose of the human spirit is to be united with and to the Spirit of God. The resulting state of oneness, by the intent and design of God, is the true destiny of our whole being and is accomplished by grace through the love of God expressed in Jesus.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

We can say that in the new birth brought about in us by grace, we are body, soul, and Holy Spirit. The human spirit is not simply supposed to be oriented to God while remaining itself and separate, but becomes united and one with God’s Spirit. The Spirit within us becomes God’s.

Prior to this work of God, our human spirit is detached from God’s Spirit because of our ignorance and unbelief, but remains restless until it rests in God’s self. We only find true peace and joy when we are as we were made to be, in union with God.

Notice also our agency that Paul indicates, though the work is God’s. Paul says “the one who joins himself”. He does not mean that we are capable of uniting ourselves to God on our own. The word he uses means to make oneself an apprentice to a master, or to attach oneself to another. That same agency is seen in Jesus’ invitation, “come, follow me.”

The transformative and uniting is all God’s divine work, but we are invited into, not compelled into, this relationship. Herein lies our agency for joining ourselves; we respond to the call initiated by God, in order to experience what we could not do by ourselves.

When we view scriptures about the Spirit’s work, or dwelling in us, from the understanding that our spirit becomes one with God’s Spirit, we recognize more clearly what is being said. To walk in the Spirit is not to follow another, or walk “in another”, whatever that might mean, but to live through and in our spirit which is now joined to God’s Spirit. It is not in another, but in ourselves as newly transformed, that we walk. God in us, and us in God.

The mystery of human-divine oneness, realized in Jesus, is now through him becoming the reality of all who are members of his body. There is no possibility of imagining ourselves as being separated from God.

What God has joined together, let no man separate. Matthew 19:6