These kinds of statements have led theologians to speculate that Jesus is the Father in another form; that Jesus and the Father actually are the same person.

This is not at all true. If such were the case, there is no way we could be one with Christ as He is one with the Father; because that would mean we had become the same person as Jesus Christ.

It rather is true that God and Christ are utterly integrated, and this is the way Christ is to be with us.

Notice carefully:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20—NIV)

The above verse spells it out for us. Paul was no longer living. Or was he?

We know Christ and Paul are not the same person. Neither is it true that the Christ and the Father are the same person.

Christ lives in Paul. Is it Christ or Paul who is living?

We know it is Paul, but Paul and Christ have become one just as Christ and the Father are One.

Becoming one with Christ means we lose for eternity our life as a person independent of Christ, just as Christ has no life as a person who is independent of God.

Whoever has God has Christ and whoever has Christ has God.

In the same manner, we are pressing toward the experience in which whoever has Christ has us and whoever has us has Christ.

I hope this doesn't shock you for this is exactly what God and Christ desire for us.

We begin as a descendant of Adam. This is an animal existence, actually. It was never meant to be our permanent state.

By becoming one with Jesus Christ our life takes on eternal significance. Think of it!

Our animal life profits nothing. It is only as we partake of Jesus Christ that we have an enduring personality. Flesh and blood, the adamic personality, cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

Another figure of speech is the vine and the branches. Once we are grafted into the true Vine, Jesus Christ, we lose our identity as a separate branch. We now are an integral part of one Whole—the Vine that is Christ.

Have you ever looked at a grape vine? Did you consider one branch in particular or were you interested in the grapes?

So it is to be true of us. Apart from Christ we are of little significance indeed! But when we are willing to surrender our right to be a separate person, a separate branch so to speak, with our own independence of thought and action, we become part of the planting of the Lord that is destined to fill the earth with Divine fruit.

Let me ask you. Are you willing to surrender your right to be an independent person that you may be part of Christ? Do you want to be a partner of Christ or a part of Christ? Which is it to be?

We who have been saved and filled with God's Spirit are at this place of decision today.

To be continued.