“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” John 17:20-23.

Legally we are already perfect in one. This is because God counts those things which be not as though they were. In the same sense he could say to Abraham, “I have made thee a father of many nations,” he has made us one in Christ. Romans 4:17. Ephesians 4:4-6 declares, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. I Corinthians 12:12 says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.”...All this, of course, is legal standing before God as his chosen elect. Like the infant who is legal heir of a vast estate or earthly kingdom, that must grow up and become of legal age before he can take over his inheritance, so must the Church. Galatians 4:1-2.more...