Dear Joshua
Thanks very much for your reply ... but I still don't understand.
Perhaps if I could ask my question again, and this time I will try to be clearer.
I believe that God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God are a single being - the one true eternal God who is the Creator of the universe and who is himself uncreated. All other things are creatures whose existence began at some point in time.
When the Lord Jesus spoke about his oneness with his Father, I believe he was referring to their single essence or substance. Even though each of them is a separate self, they possess one common indivisible identity.
When a man looks at his reflection in a mirror, the man and his image share the same identity. There is only one being but with two occurrences/representations. Jesus Christ contains the whole deity (Colossians 2:9). It is impossible to describe the appearance of a man’s reflection in a mirror without that description automatically applying equally to the man himself. Likewise, the Lord Jesus said:
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)
Whoever hates me hates my Father also. (John 15:23)
If you knew me, you would know my Father also. (John 8:19)
Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:23)
It is impossible to glorify Jesus without it automatically redounding to the glory of God the Father (Phil.2:9). There is no rivalry or competition between God the Father and Jesus Christ as there would be if they were separate and independent beings.
However, unity between God and man is surely of a different kind. A man belongs to a lower class of being - he is a finite creature who was created by God's free decision and may just as easily be annihilated in a moment if God chose. But in contrast, the Lord Jesus was not created - he is co-eternal with God the Father and he shares the Father's aseity. God would be whole & complete without having created mankind, but the idea of God the Father without the Lord Jesus is incomprehensible and inconceivable and impossible.
And yet in the passages I quoted in my opening post, the Lord Jesus seems to be describing the oneness and mutual penetration between himself and his disciples as the same kind as between himself and his Father.
Any further thoughts would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Phiz
All quotations of the Bible are from the English Standard Version.