Although much has been said about John 17, still more is necessary. We must never forget this chapter, for in it the Lord prayed that God would glorify Him so that God might be glorified in and through Him. The words, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (17:1), are the subject of this prayer. How was the Son of God glorified so that God the Father might be glorified in and through the Son? It was by the resurrection which follows death. After His death, the Lord was resurrected, meaning that He was manifested and glorified. The Lord was released and manifested by resurrection; hence, He was glorified. When the Lord was thus glorified, the Father was glorified in and through the Son.
We have seen how the Son was glorified in His resurrection. Now in what way will the Son be glorified today so that the Father might be glorified in and through the Son? It is by the church. When the church has been regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united with Christ in glory, then the Son of God will be expressed and manifested. The Son of God will be glorified in the oneness of the church. The Son of God being thus glorified, the Father at that time will also be glorified in and through the Son. Therefore, the prayer, “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You,” includes and depends upon the matter of the church being regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united in oneness with the Son of God.
As we have seen, the Lord’s prayer in John 17 unfolds three stages of oneness. In this message, let us pay careful attention to the verses in John 17 that are concerned with oneness. Verse 11 says, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.” We see here that oneness is a matter of being kept in the Father’s name. As we have already pointed out, the reality of the Father’s name is the Father’s divine life. Hence, the first factor of genuine oneness is the Father’s name with the Father’s divine life. This is the life mentioned in 17:2, where the Lord said to the Father that He had given the Son “authority over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” We must take care of these two verses in order to see the first main factor of genuine oneness.
John 17:21 is a wonderful, deep, and profound verse. “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” The oneness in this verse is the oneness in the Triune God. When we all are in the Triune God, we have oneness. How can we be in the Triune God? Only through Christ’s death and resurrection. This is the reason why the Lord told us in chapter fourteen that He had to go in death and come in resurrection. It was through death and resurrection that His disciples were brought into the Triune God. In the Triune God is the real, genuine oneness. We must take verses 17 and 18 along with verse 21. “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” In verse 17 we have the sanctifying word. Although we are in the Triune God, we may slip out of the Triune God into the world. Thus, we need the sanctifying word to separate us from the world back to the Triune God. Therefore, the second factor of genuine oneness is in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word.
© Living Stream Ministry All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.