What is God's purpose concerning His Son? "Wherefore, holy brethren, companions of a heavenly calling... we are companions of Christ." Who are the companions of Christ? Those who have fully left the whole earthly realm of things and are joined to the heavenly Lord; those who have become God's spiritual Israel; those who have answered to the heavenly calling. Companionship is something tested and sifted through adversity. If you have an extra lot of testing, an extra lot of suffering in your relationship with Christ, He is seeking to have us as His closest companions in fellowship with Him not only in His glory, but in His suffering. So the relationship with Christ and in the gospels is on the basis of fellowship: oneness in life, oneness in purpose, oneness in experience, and oneness in discipline. Oneness in death, burial and resurrection. Oneness in His anointing; and then at last, oneness with Him in His heavenly glory.