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“The Full Rights Of Sons” Simply Put / 
K.E.Stegall
 
Chapter Il
-
Oneness: “...you are all one...”
 
7
 
 
Oneness:
“...you are all one...”
 
(Galatians 3:28)
The battle of the sexes.Opposites attract.Viva la difference!A love/hate relationship.
You can‟t live with them and you can‟t live without them.
 Who can understand the male/female mind?
You‟ve heard all these and many more. They‟re the little bits of folk wisdom about how
men and women do and do not get along with each other. They reflect those confusing feelingswhich are a part of every culture.There are traditions. There is experience. There are stereotypes. There is research. There is
counseling. There are quizzes in women‟s magazines. There are books. There are even
Sundayschool classes. And yes, there are roles.Yet there remains the riddle, the mystery, the puzzle, the problem, the conundrum, of gender.How are man and woman to relate to each other? What is to be the nature of theirrelationship? Does the Bible have anything to say on this?Of course the obvious place to start is in the beginning .... when things were good. If weexamine the way things were at creation before the fall, we may learn something about the wayGod originally intended things to be.The mo
st revealing Scripture of God‟s intentions for Adam and Eve is found in the secondchapter of Genesis, verse 24, “...and they will become one flesh.” This was perfection. This was
good.There should be no confusion about what the creation norm was. Jesus tells us exactlywhat it was,
“Haven‟t you read.” he replied. “that at the beginning the Creator „made them
male and
female,‟ and said, „For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become
one flesh‟
? So they are no longer two, but one.
Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Matthew
 19:4-6)
It‟s not just that they became one. They quit being two. This is an amazing statement.
Jesus is saying that the oneness is so complete that two separate identities cease to exist and areblended into one new identity. This oneness transcends individuality and excludes separation.
This oneness is God‟s doing, and what God had done, man had no business undoing.
 When Paul quotes the creation norm from Genesis in his letter to the Ephesians he adds
that what is really being talked about here is Christ and the Church. “For this reason a man willleave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.‟ This is
a profound mystery -
 but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians
5:31-32)
Headmits that it is all a profound mystery, but one that God has chosen to reveal. Still, there remainssomething about this that we cannot fully know or understand yet.But there are hints given. Jesus tells us that marriage is only a temporary institution whichwill not continue beyond the resurrection (Matthew 22:30). So perhaps at least part of the purpose
 
“The Full Rights Of Sons” Simply Put / 
K.E.Stegall
 
Chapter II
-
Oneness: “...you are all one...”
 
8
 
 of marriage is to picture some greater, more absolute, and eternal truth.We know what this eternal truth is. Oneness through the first Adam was broken. So Godmade us all new creations through the second Adam. It is with him that we are now to be one.And not only with him, but with each other. All of us together, ourselves, other believers, and
Christ are all to be one, one body, Christ‟s body. The new creatio
n of humanity is to be one body, just as Adam and Eve were to be one flesh ( I Corinthians
15:44-49).
We learn a lot about how we are to be one body from Jesus
‟ prayer before his death. In praying for his disciples he said an astonishing thing, “...that they may be one as we are one.” Hesaid this twice, and defined exactly what he meant, “...that all of them may be one
. Father, just asyou are in me and I am in
you.” (John 17:11,21)
 We are to be one in just the same way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. This
makes perfect sense since we are made in God‟s image. “God said. „Let us make man in our image in our likeness‟...So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created
him: male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26
-
27) God is “he”/singular, and also“us”/plural. What God created was “man”
-
”him”/singular, and also “male and female”
-
”them”/plural. The creation mirrors the creator. Man in God‟s image.
 
At the end of the sixth day God found his creation “...alI...very good.” (Genesis 1:31) Yetthere was a point during that sixth day when God saw something was “...not good.” (Genesis
2:18)
The “not good” thing was that the man was al
one. Adam was perfect and without sin. Yet,when there was no other human for Adam to relate to he felt an unfulfilled need.If men and women are different in some ways and if it was not good for man to be alone,perhaps the image of God was not completely reflected until after the creation of Eve (Genesis1:27) when God saw that His creation was all very good. Or perhaps it was not the different
characteristics of the two which together completed God‟s image, but the relationship itself.
Perhaps two being
one was necessary to truly reflect God‟s image. We believe that God is three in
one. One alone could not reflect this triune/oneness aspect of God.Before the fall, when things were still good, oneness was complete. There were no barriersbetween the man and woman. There were no clothes, no shame (Genesis
2:25),
no secrets,nothing to divide or separate. There was oneness.Then humankind fell into sin. Separation was the result of that long ago disobedience inthe Garden of Eden. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned they realized they were naked and theywere ashamed. On went the clothes. Up went the barriers. They did what we all do. They becamehostile toward each other. They began to hurt each other (Genesis 3:7-12). And suddenly thehuman race splintered into as many pieces as there are people, maybe more.
Jesus said this separation was completely contrary to God‟s will (Matthew 19:3
-6).Creation through the first Adam had and has failed to be one, neither one with him nor one with
each other, as was God‟s pla
n and purpose.So God created again, redeeming oneness through a second Adam (Romans
5:17-18).
Through Jesus, God took the fragments of his broken creation, drew together what had beenseparated by sin, and made a new creation - one new man....remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship inIsrael and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in theworld. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought nearthrough the blood of Christ.For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed thebarrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with itscommandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man
 
“The Full Rights Of Sons” Simply Put / 
K.E.StegaU
 
Chapter II
-
Oneness: “...you are all one...”
 
9
 
 out of two thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to Godthrough the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace toyou who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both haveaccess to the Father by one Spirit.Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with
God‟s people and members of God‟s household built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too arebeing built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by the Spirit. (Ephesians2:12-22)In Christ the hostility is gone. The barriers come down. All the pieces are put together intoone. A new creation is made. One new man. And it is good.Paul mixes his metaphors a little from body to building or temple. A body with Christ asthe head, or a building in which God delights to dwell. Either way, God wants no separation
within this oneness. “Don‟t you know that you yourselves are God‟s temple and that God‟s Spirit
lives in you? If anyone destroys
God‟s temple, God will destroy him; for God‟s temple is sacred,
and you
are that temple.” (I Corinthians 3:16
-17, 12:24-
25) “...what God has joined together, letno man separate.” (Matthew 19:6)
 The creation norm is restored with the recreation norm.Creation Norm for man & woman Recreation Norm for the ChurchMatthew 19:4-6 Ephesians 2:12-22
“In the beginning the creator made them...”
 
“His purpose was to create in himself...”
 
“...the two will become one flesh.”
 
“...made the two one...one body...”
 
“...they are no longer two, but one.
 
“...one new man out of the two,...”
 
“...let
 
man not separate.”
 
“...remember...you were separate...”
 
“...what God has joined together...”
 
“But now in Christ Jesus...the whole building
 
is joined together...”
 
The church has been recreated one in God‟s image, just as man and woman were created
one in
God‟s image? All members of the church are needed to express the fullness of Christ
(Ephesians 4:1-16). Both male and female are needed to express the image of God (Genesis 1&2).Man and woman are one flesh. The members of the church are one body.So in or
der to truly reflect God‟s character and nature, his church, or body, must be one justas God is one. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are
many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one
of you is a part of it.” (I Corinthians 12: 12,27; Ephesians4:l
-16)
Does all this mean that the individual person is not made in God‟s image? Not at all. God
cares a great deal about the individual. Jesus always made things very personal. He addressed
individual needs in individual people. Each individual is created in God‟s image. But the image of 
God reflected by one solitary individual is incomplete because oneness cannot be reflected by oneperson alone. The separation, the aloneness is not good.
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