John's Gospel - Chapters 14 - Chapter 17

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Permalink Reply by Clark Wade on September 2, 2009 at 11:46pm

17:21 That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

“Christianity was meant by Jesus to be a living experience of being in the Trinitarian community, loved infinitely by the Father in His Son, Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit…At the heart of all reality is the Trinity, a loving community of an I-Thou in a We-family…God’s purpose in creating us is that we may share in His very own family life…These inter-Trinitarian relationships are seen as the basis for God’s essential relationships to us…” George A. Maloney S.J., “Invaded by God”

The basis for Christian community exists in the inner, inter-penetrations of the Godhead. What Jesus is praying here is so astounding, so transcendent, that it is easy to read over this because we just don’t grasp what HE is saying. And really, how can we? But Jesus prayed it, and because HE prayed it, it matters, and HIS prayer is a prayer of intention that we live in, and by, the very life that exists in the Trinitarian community. The “oneness” that Jesus prays here is a oneness that is a joint-participation in the oneness that exists in the union and love of the Father and the Son. It is life, as it exists in the Godhead. What should we say to these things? What other response is there but “awe” and “adoration.” This verse opens to us a veil into the very heart of God’s eternal purpose.

And if we are living in and by this Trinitarian life, THEN, the world will be convinced that Jesus was sent by the Father.
So Jesus speaks of something here that fills our minds with wonder, and then says that this is necessary that others will know HE was sent by the Father. So, how does the world see us? Do they see this oneness being lived out of the divine life of the Trinity?

Oh divine Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am so amazed by Your plans for us, that You desire us to live out of the very life and love that exists between You and Your Son. “And this is eternal life, that we would know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)

O God, I thank You for Your passion to share Your Three-Person life with us. We cannot know this life without the Spirit leading us there. I pray Lord that You will strip us of all of the religious baggage we carry that takes us further and further from your purposes. I ask Lord that You give us a vision of this life in You that will consume to the uttermost everything that is not of this Life in You.

17: 22-23 I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them even as You have loved Me.

I remember reading this as a new believer, and it troubled me. How can Jesus give His glory to us? I felt there was a blatant contradiction here, for we read this in Isaiah 42:8:

“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

“Christ in you”, Paul says, “is our hope of glory!” Christ can share HIS glory with HIMSELF. And the Father can share HIS glory with us, because it is HIS Son, who is in us. And the Father loves us, even as HE loves the Son. The Father loves HIS Son in us. The Father’s love for us and for HIS Son is one love. They are not on two different levels at all. “The Father loves you even as HE loves ME.” The love of the Father is for HIS corporate Son. The Father’s love for us is that of HIS love for HIS Son’s “body” HIS Son’s temple, HIS Son’s Bride, HIS Son’s army, HIS Son’s City, the New Jerusalem.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has so lavishly bestowed on us that we should be called the “children of God”—and that is not just what we are called, but what we are.” I John 3:2

Oh glorious Father of such love. How we thank and praise You for gifting us not only with Your Son, but gifting us with the love that You have for HIM. The glory You have given your Son is Your love for HIM. Your love for HIM, is the glory of the Son. Our glory, this glory of the “sons of God,” is the love of the Father now given to us in the Son. It is You Father who has adopted us as Your own children through Jesus Christ. And now we praise Your glorious generosity a thousand times which has made us welcome in the everlasting love You bear toward Your Beloved Son (Ephesians 1:6-7)

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