Trinity: The Root of Unity

Many years ago, the Christian thinker and writer, Frances Schaeffer, described the importance of love and communication in today’s world, and pointed out how these began – with the members of the Trinity opening the circle and drawing us into their own fellowship. It is a deeply profound and mysterious reality, but what we can say is that Christian community should therefore reflect the mutually supportive love of the Father and the Son. This is the source of love and unity, just as Jesus prayed,: ‘I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them’ (verse 26 of John 17, Jesus' Essential Prayer for Unity).

Christian unity is based on this shared experience of the life of God.

In writing about the grace of God, theologian Kevin Vanhoozer expresses this with simplicity,: ‘To be ‘in Christ’ is to be graciously included in the communicative activity of the Father and the Son through the Spirit, the triune life.’.

Any attempt to construct Christian unity without that fundamental spiritual reality will turn out to be an empty shell. ‘The way to the union of Christendom does not lie through committee rooms, though there is a task of formulation to be done there. It lies through personal union with the Lord, so deep and real as to be comparable with his union with the Father.’ It is hard to over-estimate the significance of this fundamental characteristic of Christian unity which emerges from Jesus’ prayer. If we are sharing God’s life, we must be especially careful about our relationships with fellow Christians, of whatever persuasion or denomination. There are times when we firmly disagree with others, and when our commitment to biblical truth demands appropriate confrontation and even necessary division. There are also those who might carry the name Christian, but who may not belong to Christ. Yet we notice that the Lord Jesus prayed not for the world, but ‘for those you have given me, for they are yours’ (17:9). So we must act with humility and be careful in our judgments.

We must remember that fellow Christians of whatever label - those whom the Father knows - are identified with the same Lord Jesus and indwelt by the same Holy Spirit. As Jesus affirmed in his prayer, we are part of that Trinitarian fellowship, sharing the life and love of God.

Christian unity is fostered only by being faithful to that message. There is a ‘missional urgency’ about Christian unity. Unity of this kind cannot be manufactured. It has nothing to do with being temperamentally compatible or culturally similar. It has everything to do with the miracle of the gospel.

In the closing moments of his prayer, Jesus looks beyond history to eternity. On that day, the unity for which Jesus prayed will be brought to perfection. We shall see his glory, and finally and fully experience God’s love.