Joined to the Lord in One Spirit

By Tammy Lacock

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17)

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman helps us understand what it means to be joined to Christ in one Spirit and how this union takes place and delivers us.

We first see this union in Mary’s encounter with the angel telling her that God will place His very own seed inside her, and she will give birth to a new life, the life of God’s Son, our Savior. Here she was joined to Christ’s Spirit.

Warren also reminds us of Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:3: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

There must be a new birth, a birth in spirit. Nicodemus didn’t understand at the time what this meant. Not until Christ raised up the Apostle Paul would we have any understanding of what it means to be born again.

Paul didn’t know Christ in the flesh before He died on the cross. He knew Him only in Spirit, the way we, too, are to know Him now. Christ revealed to Paul what it means to be born again, or to be joined to Christ in one Spirit. He calls it the “mystery”:

• “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
• “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words." (Ephesians 3:3)

The “mystery” revealed to Paul is this: Christ literally lives in every believer.

Paul understood, more than anybody, what this meant and how it happens. When Jesus drank the cup in Gethsemane, He was “drinking” into His body all of our sins, past, present, and future. When He died on the cross, we died too. When He was buried, our old lives were buried. When He rose from the dead, we arose, too. We went through the entire process with Christ and arose to an entirely new life with Him. Our new life, our rebirth, is Christ living in us, our only hope of glory. The Satan-nature, passed down in us by the curse of Adam and Eve, has been replaced by Christ’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Paul tells us over 146 times that Christ’s life, His Spirit (he uses interchangeably), now lives in us, and we in Him. By Christ’s death, we now have a new life in Him! We are born again by being joined to His Spirit. Without God’s Seed, Christ, in us, we would have no salvation.

This is what Christ meant when he said on the cross in His last three words, “It is finished.” God’s intention for us, who He created us to be, is finished. We are complete now with Christ in us as our new life.

Without Christ in us, without being joined to Him in one Spirit, we could not function the way God created us to. Paul goes on to explain throughout his epistles, however, that although we are perfect in spirit at salvation, our souls — where our minds, wills, and emotions reside — are not yet transformed to our new life. Our minds, Paul says, must be continually renewed, by the help of the Holy Spirit, if we are to grow up and learn of Christ and our new life in Him. Our souls are being perfected (matured) as we get to know Him and love Him as our new life.

Are you an actor or a true Christian?

Without knowing their true identity in Christ, Christians today are actors, trying to be somebody they are not. Christianity is a union, a love affair, a marriage to Christ, in operation. It is a personal relationship with Him. It is not what we do or don’t do, what religion says, that brings us closer to God. It is Christ in us.

A mature Christian knows their true identity, who he/she is in Christ. They’ve had the revelation of the mystery, that there is no separation now. They see Christ as their only life and, therefore, cultivating a relationship with Him is first and foremost.

As born-again believers, Christ is in you as you, joined in one Spirit. A Christian is a Christ-person, complete and “finished” in Him!

Now, let’s get to know Him!