My small group recently watched The Truth Project’s eighth lesson: Unio Mystica: Am I Alone? Unio mystica, as defined by Dr. Tackett, is the mystical union between God and man. While many people think that Christianity is primarily a moral, philosophical, or religious system, to the believer it represents “a deep, intimate, and living relationship with a personal creator.” Truly, the bond between the believer and God is beyond human understanding. For me, the question is not am I alone? for I know that God is with me. The question is, how can I explain the glorious union with my Savior?

Dr. Tackett said that the greatest of all the wonders we will contemplate in our study is the fact “that the God of the universe has come to make His dwelling both with us and in us.” It is truly amazing that the Son of God became like a Son of Man to dwell among us. There was nothing glorious or majestic about him. In fact, he was despised and rejected and ridiculed. The Son of God bore our pain and suffering and paid the price for our sins. The incarnation is a mystery beyond my understanding and yet I believe it.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:2-5

Jesus Christ said mysterious things that were beyond the understanding of the crowds around him, including those who were very religious. Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How can this be?

Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

Christ in me, Christ with Me

Even before watching this lesson, I had been thinking about the interesting way that Jesus described his relationship with his followers. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).” “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love (John 15:10).”

The grapevine is a great visual that explains how the believer is one with Christ. We are a branch, an integral part of the fruit producing vine. Yet we can’t produce fruit on our own. If we remain in him, if his word remains in us, he will remain in us and we will bear much fruit.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

In Christ, I am a new creation. The old me no longer lives. Christ lives in me. He gave me the Spirit of truth to be my advocate. The Holy Spirit is in me and with me.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

This is the great mystery of my union with Christ. Christ is with me. Christ is in me. Christ is behind me. Christ is above me. For reasons unknown to me, he chose me. I do not understand this unio mystica but I praise God for it.

The Prayer of Saint Patrick

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, 
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, 
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, 
Christ in the eye that sees me, 
Christ in the ear that hears me. 

One in Christ Jesus

Another theme of the Unio Mystica lesson is the unity of believers. When Jesus prayed for the disciples, he prayed, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one (John 17:11).” Jesus prayed for people like me who came to believe through the message of the apostles “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

Christ’s message is a message of unity and inclusion. The old way of excluding Gentiles from God’s promises was replaced with a new covenant. The despised Samaritan became the shining example of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

Dr. Tackett pointed out that the words “one another” were repeated often by Jesus and the apostles. See also Romans 12:10, Ephesians 4:2, Colossians 3:16 and 1 Peter 1:22.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:34-35

In my study of The Truth Project, I haven’t agreed with everything that Dr. Tackett says. But on the topic of the intimate, personal relationship between God and man, I agree with him wholeheartedly. There is nothing more wonderful and humbling than the incredible way that God lives with us and in us.

You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. 

Augustine, The Confessions, Book I

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Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash