The Representation of True Unity
even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, … The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity (17:21b–23a)
The unity of nature Christ prayed for reflects that of the Father and the Son, which is expressed in Christ’s words You, Father, are in Me and I in You. Because of His unity with the Father, Jesus claimed in John 5:16ff. to have the same authority, purpose, power, honor, will, and nature as the Father. That startling claim to full deity and equality with God so outraged His Jewish opponents that they sought to kill Him (5:18; cf. 8:58–59; 10:31–33; 19:7).
The unique intra-Trinitarian relationship of Jesus and the Father forms the pattern for the unity of believers in the church. This prayer reveals five features of that unity the church imitates.
First, the Father and the Son are united in motive; they are equally committed to the glory of God. Jesus began His prayer by saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1), as He had done throughout His ministry (v. 4). In verse 5 He added, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Finally, in verse 24 Jesus expressed to the Father His desire that believers would one day “be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me.” In John 7:18 Jesus declared that He was constantly “seeking the glory of the One who sent Him.” He did not need to seek His own glory (8:50), because the Father glorified Him (8:54). Both Jesus and the Father were glorified in the raising of Lazarus (11:4). In John 12:28 Jesus prayed, “ ‘Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ ” Shortly before His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus had said to the disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately” (13:31–32). Jesus promised to answer the prayers of His people “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13).
The church is also united in a common commitment to the glory of God. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do,” Paul wrote, “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
Second, the Father and the Son are united in mission. They share the common goal of redeeming lost sinners and granting them eternal life, as Christ made clear earlier in this prayer:
Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.… I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. (vv. 2–4, 6)
God chose in eternity past to give believers to Christ as a gift of His love, and Christ came to earth to die as a sacrifice for their sins and redeem them. That the church lives to pursue the one goal of evangelizing the lost is clear from Jesus’ words in verse 18: “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (cf. Matt. 28:19–20).
Third, the Father and the Son are united in truth. “The words which You gave Me,” Jesus said, “I have given to them” (v. 8), while in verse 14 He added, “I have given them Your word.” Earlier that evening Jesus had told the disciples, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works” (14:10; cf. 3:32–34; 7:16; 8:28, 38, 40; 12:49).
The church is also unified in its commitment to proclaiming the singular truth of God’s Word. In Romans 15:5–6 Paul prayed, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. Acts 2:42, 46; Phil. 1:27). Far from dividing the church, a commitment to proclaiming sound doctrine is what defines it.
Fourth, the Father and the Son are united in holiness. In verse 11 Jesus addressed the Father as “Holy Father,” and in verse 25 as “righteous Father.” The utter holiness of God is expressed throughout the Old and New Testaments. God’s holiness is His absolute separation from sin. In Habakkuk 1:13 the prophet declared, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor.” In Isaiah’s vision of God the angelic beings cried out, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:3; cf. Rev. 4:8). The writer of Hebrews described Jesus as “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). In Revelation 4:8 the heavenly chorus unceasingly cries out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
When they see believers united in the pursuit of holiness, unbelievers will be drawn to Christ. In Hebrews 12:14 the writer of Hebrews exhorted his readers, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” If a church tolerates sin, it not only obscures the glory of Christ it is called to radiate, but also faces the discipline of the Lord of the church (Rev. 2:14–16, 20–23).
Finally, the Father and the Son are united in love. In verse 24 Jesus affirmed that the Father had “loved [Him] before the foundation of the world.” In John 5:20 Jesus said, “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing” (cf. 3:35). Both at His baptism (Matt. 3:17) and at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:5), the Father declared Jesus to be His beloved Son. Similarly, love is the glue that binds believers together in unity (Col. 3:14; cf. 2:2), and it is that love for one another that is the church’s ultimate apologetic to the lost world (John 13:34–35).
Though not to the same infinite divine extent, the spiritual life and power that belongs to the Trinity belongs also in some way to believers and is the basis for the church’s unity. This is what the Lord meant when He said, The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity. That stunning truth describes believers as those to whom the Son has given glory—that is, aspects of the very divine life that belongs to God. The church’s task is to so live as to not obstruct that glory (Matt. 5:16).
The Result of True Unity
“so that the world may believe that You sent Me.… so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (17:21c, 23b)
The observable unity of the church authenticates two important realities. First, it gives evidence to the world so that it may believe that the Father sent the Son. That familiar phrase summarizes the plan of redemption, in which God sent Jesus on a mission of salvation “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). It is so used throughout John’s gospel (e.g., 3:34; 4:34; 5:23, 24, 30, 36, 37, 38; 6:29, 38, 39, 44, 57; 7:16, 18, 28, 29, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44, 45, 49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3, 8, 18, 25; 20:21). Jesus prayed that the visible unity of His church would convince many in the world concerning His divine mission of redemption. The church’s unity is the foundation of its evangelism; it demonstrates that Christ is the Savior who transforms lives (cf. John 13:35).
The church’s unity also authenticates the Father’s love for believers. When unbelievers see believers’ love for each other, it offers proof to them that the Father has loved those who have believed in His Son. The loving unity of the church made visible is used by God to produce a desire on the part of unbelievers is produced to experience that same love. On the other hand, where there are carnal divisions, strife, backbiting, and quarreling in the church, it drives unbelievers away. Why would they want to be part of such a hypocritical group that is at cross-purposes with itself? The effectiveness of the church’s evangelism is devastated by dissension and disputes among its members.
It must be the goal of everyone who is part of the body of Christ through faith in Him to do their part in maintaining the full visibility of the unity that believers possess, as Paul wrote:
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:1–3)[1]
The Fifth Mark of the Church: Unity
John 17:20–23
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Considering all the divisions that have plagued Christendom for two thousand years, it is amazing that God has continued to use the church to extend his kingdom.”
This statement by John White, an InterVarsity Chrisitian Fellowship worker and writer, introduces us to the subject of Christian unity in two important ways: first, by portraying the unfortunate lack of unity that has plagued the church throughout its history and, second, by suggesting why Jesus asked that the church might be marked by unity at this particular point in his high priestly petition. The divisions that exist today are too obvious to need comment. They lie both on the surface and within. Battles rage. Highly praised church mergers not only fail to heal these divisions but also usually lead to further breakups involving those who do not like the new union. So far as Christ’s reasons for praying for unity go, it is simply that he foresaw these differences and so asked for that great unity that should exist among his own in spite of them.
Another way of pointing to Christ’s interests is to note that all the marks of the church concern the Christian’s relationship to some thing or some person and that unity is to be the mark of the church in the relationships that exist between its members. Joy is the mark of the Christian in relationship to himself. Holiness is the mark in relationship to God. Truth is the mark in his relationship to the Bible. Mission is the mark in his relationship to the world. In this mark, unity, and the last, love, which in some sense summarizes them all, we deal with the Christian’s relationship to all who are likewise God’s children.
What Kind of Unity?
But what kind of unity is this to be? This is an important preliminary question, for if the unity is to be an organizational unity, then our efforts to achieve and express it will be in one direction while, if it is to be a more subjective unity, our efforts will be expended differently.
One thing for sure—the church is not to be is a great organizational unity; for whatever advantages or disadvantages may be involved in massive organizational unity, this in itself obviously does not produce the results Christ prayed for, nor does it solve the church’s other great problems. Moreover, it has been tried and found wanting. In the early days of the church there was much vitality and growth but little organizational unity. Later, as the church came to favor under Constantine and his successors, the church increasingly centralized until during the Middle Ages there was literally one united ecclesiastical body covering all Europe. But was this a great age? Was there a deep unity of faith? Did men and women find themselves increasingly drawn to this faith and come to confess Jesus Christ to be their Savior and Lord (for that is what Christ promised, namely, that if the church were one, men and women would believe on him)? Not at all! On the contrary, the world believed the opposite. Spurgeon once wrote, “The world was persuaded that God had nothing to do with that great crushing, tyrannous, superstitious, ignorant thing which called itself Christianity; and thinking men became infidels, and it was the hardest possible thing to find a genuine intelligent believer north, south, east, or west.”
Certainly there is something to be said for some form of outward, visible unity (at least in most situations). But it is equally certain that this type of unity is not what we most need, nor is it that for which the Lord prayed.
Another type of unity that we do not need is conformity, that is, an approach to the church that would make everyone alike. Here we probably come closest to the error of the evangelical church, for if the liberal church for the most part strives for an organizational unity—through the various councils of churches, the Consultation on Church Union, denominational mergers, and so forth—the evangelical church for its part seems to strive for an identical pattern of looks and behavior among its members. This is not what Jesus is looking for in this prayer. On the contrary, there should be the greatest diversity among Christians, diversity of personality, interests, lifestyle, and even methods of Christian work and evangelism. This should make the church interesting, not dull. Uniformity is dull, like rows upon rows of Wheaties boxes. Variety is exciting! It is the variety of nature and the character and actions of our God.
But if the unity for which Jesus prayed is not an organizational unity or a unity achieved by conformity, what kind of unity is it? The answer is that it is a unity parallel to the unity that exists within the Godhead; for Jesus speaks of it in these terms—“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you … I in them, and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity” (vv. 21, 23). This means that the church is to have a spiritual unity involving the basic orientation, desires, and will of those participating. Paul points to this true unity in writing to the Corinthians, saying, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men” (1 Cor. 12:4–6).
This is not to say that all believers actually enter into this unity as they should. Otherwise, why would Christ pray for it? The actual case is that, like the other marks of the church already considered, unity is something given to the church but also something for which the body of true believers should strive. There is a sense in which we already are one in Christ. But there is also a sense in which we must achieve that unity.
Brothers and Sisters
Here we are helped by the various images used of the church throughout the New Testament, one of the most valuable being that of the family. Christians belong to the family of God, and therefore they are rightly brothers and sisters of one another.
The unique characteristic of this image is that it speaks of relationships and therefore of the commitments that the individuals must have to one another. The relationships are based upon what God has done. Salvation is described in the verses that use this image as God begetting spiritual children, who are therefore made members of his spiritual family through his choice and not through their own. John even says this explicitly in the preface to his Gospel, when he writes of our having become children of God “not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (1:13). There is a tendency in the world to talk about all men and women as brothers and sisters, but while this is true in a certain humanitarian sense it is nevertheless not what the Bible is talking about when it speaks of Christian brotherhood. This is something that God has intervened to establish among his own regenerated children.
This fact has two important consequences. First, if the family to which we belong has been established by God, then we have no choice as to who will be in it or whether or not we will be his or her sister or brother. On the contrary, the relationship simply exists, and we must be brotherly to the other Christian, whether we want to be or not.
The second consequence is related to this, simply that we must be committed to each other in tangible ways. We must be committed to helping each other, for example, for we all need help at times, and this is one clear way in which the special bond among believers can be shown to the watching world. A number of years ago I walked into the bathroom in our home and found one of my children sitting on the floor with a large pile of unrolled toilet paper beside her. She had been spinning the roll and watching it pile up in intricate patterned layers as it settled. I took one look at her and said, with a note of astonishment in my voice, “What in the world are you doing?”
“I’m unrolling the toilet paper,” she answered. There was no questioning the truthfulness of that.
“Why are you being naughty?” I countered.
She said, “Nobody helps me to be good.” I suspect that her answer was a carefully worded excuse (and also not nearly so truthful as her first statement.) But whatever her reasons, the statement did at least point to a true need. We do need help as Christians, and we need it from Christians. Moreover, we must be ready to give help, just as we would to a needy member of our own human family.
A Fellowship
The second important image used to portray the unity of the church of Christ is a fellowship, which the New Testament normally indicates by the Greek word koinonia. Unfortunately, neither the word “fellowship” nor the word koinonia is very helpful in conveying what we mean. This is because the English word commonly means only a loose collection of friends, and the Greek word has become something of a theological cliché. Actually, the word has to do with sharing something or having something in common. The common Greek of the New Testament period is called Koine Greek. Partners, as those who hold property in common or share in a business, are koinonoi. In spiritual terms koinonia, or fellowship, is had by those who share a common Christian experience of the gospel. In this respect the New Testament speaks often of our fellowship with the Father (1 John 1:3), with the Son (1 Cor. 1:9), which is sometimes described as a fellowship in the blood and body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16), and with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). This obviously involves the totality of our experience of God’s grace.
But fellowship is not only defined in terms of what we share in together. It also involves what we share out together. And this means that it must involve a community in which Christians actually share their thoughts and lives with one another.
How is this to be done practically? It will probably be done in different ways in different congregations depending upon local situations and needs. Some churches are small and therefore will have an easier time establishing times of sharing. Here church suppers, work projects, and other such efforts will help. Larger churches will have to break their numbers down into smaller groups in various ways. At Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, which I serve as pastor, we have tried to do this in three ways simultaneously. First, we have tried to divide the congregation according to age levels. Thus we have a fully graded Sunday school, and on the upper levels we have tried to establish groups for college students, postcollege students, young couples, other adult classes, and meetings for senior citizens. Part of this is an adult elective program. Second, we have tried to divide the congregation geographically. Tenth Church members come from a large and scattered metropolitan area. Some of them drive twenty, thirty, or more miles to get there. Midweek meetings at the church are impractical for most. Therefore we have established area Bible studies, where people can meet weekly with those in their area. They meet to study the Bible, share concerns, and pray together. These area groups are probably the least structured but also the most profitable of all the church activities. Finally, we have also begun to divide the church according to professional interests. In this area there are regular meetings by groups of artists, musicians (we have a chamber orchestra), medical students and nurses, and ministerial candidates and young pastors.
My own experience in this area conforms to that of John R. W. Stott, who experimented with similar groups in his own London parish. He has written on the grounds of his experience, “The value of the small group is that it can become a community of related persons; and in it the benefit of personal relatedness cannot be missed, nor its challenge evaded.… I do not think it is an exaggeration to say, therefore, that small groups, Christian family or fellowship groups, are indispensable for our growth into spiritual maturity.”
Once again, this is an area in which Christian unity can become a visible and practical thing, and its unique and desirable qualities can be made known to the world.
The Body
The third important image used to stress the unity of the church is the body. Clearly, this image has many important connotations. It speaks of the nature of the Christian union—one part of the body simply cannot survive if it is separated from the whole. It speaks of interdependence. It even suggests a kind of subordination involving a diversity of function; for the hand is not the foot, nor the foot the eye, and over all is the head which is Christ. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians saying, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many” (12:12–14).
However, the one function of the body that is unique to this image is service, for just as the family emphasizes relationships, and fellowships emphasizes sharing, so does the body emphasize work. The body exists to do something and, since we are talking about unity, we must stress that it exists to enable us to do this work together.
In the book from which I quoted earlier, Stott speaks of this service flowing out of the small groups that his church emphasizes. “It must be admitted that several have been unsuccessful—through lack of time or of enterprise,” he writes. “Others, however, have offered their practical services as a group.… Certainly without some such common concern and service, the fellowship of any Christian group is maimed.”
Your Part
The question we end with is simply: What is to be your part in this area? What will you do? Obviously you cannot change the whole church, but, as one writer puts it, “You can begin in your own life to be an answer to the high priestly prayer of Christ. You can become a small focus of change.” First, you can become aware of that great family, fellowship, and body to which you already belong, and you can thank God for it. Second, you can join a small group, where the reality of Christian unity is most readily seen and experienced. Third, you can work with that group to show forth Christian love and give service. If you are willing to do that, you will find God to be with you, and you will be overwhelmed at the power with which he works both in you and in others whom he will be drawing to faith.
But perhaps you are not a part of that family, the family of God, in the first place. You may be a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic, a Pentecostal. But you have never been born into God’s family. If so, do not let pride of denomination (or of anything else) keep you from the reality of Christianity. Run to Jesus and enter in through him, the only true door.[2]
22 The glory the Father gave to the Son has been given by the Son to his followers. This glory is the radiant presence of God. As God was at work in and through his Son, so also will he now complete his redemptive task through those who by faith are one with him. The glory of God is manifested in the lives of the faithful. The promise of Immanuel—“God with us” (Mt 1:23)—is fulfilled in the lives and ministry of believers. As Jesus’ true glory was the cross, so will our glory be experienced in lowly service for others.
The purpose for which glory is given is that believers may be one as Father and Son are one. The relationship within the Godhead is the model for Christian unity. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised his people that he would give them “singleness of heart and action” (Jer 32:39). If the glory of God is the splendor and power of God’s presence, then the unity God desires will come as we grasp the incredible truth that God has taken up his abode in the lives of his children. To be one with God is to be one with all others who call him Father. It is his glory, his presence, that makes the difference.[3]
22 Jesus now says that he has given his followers the glory that the Father gave him. That is to say, just as his true glory was to follow the path of lowly service culminating in the cross, so for them the true glory lay in the path of lowly service wherever it might lead them. The little band and its Master were both insignificant as the world counts importance. But the apostles are right with God and therefore they are supremely significant. They have the true glory. They are walking in the way of God. We have seen often in this Gospel that for Jesus the cross is the true glory. Elsewhere it is recorded that he called on his followers to take up their cross in following him (Luke 9:23). For them, too, the way of the cross is the way to true glory. The purpose68 of this giving of glory to the disciples is unity. This time Jesus prays that they may be one just as the Father and the Son are one. The bond that unites believers is to be of the very closest.[4]
22–23 “And I, the glory that you have given me I have given to them,” Jesus continues (v. 22a). What is this “glory” that the Father has given him? What does it mean for him to give it to his disciples? And when did he confer on them this glory? Was it during the course of his ministry when, as he said, “I revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world” (v. 6), and passed on to them “the words that you gave me” (v. 8)? Or was it just now, in the course of the prayer itself, when he asked the Father, “Consecrate them in the truth” (v. 17), and consecrated himself on their behalf (v. 19)? It is tempting to place it during the ministry because of the structural parallel between “the words that you gave me I have given to them” (v. 8), and “the glory that you have given me I have given to them” (v. 22). But this is unlikely because during Jesus’ ministry, as described in this Gospel, the “glory” seems to have been his and his alone, something the disciples can see (1:14; 2:11; 11:4, 40), but in which they do not share. Even though he can say “I am glorified in them” (v. 10), the glory is still his and not yet theirs. His “glorification,” moreover, is repeatedly linked to his impending death (see 7:39; 11:4; 12:23; 13:31–32; 17:1, 5). It is therefore more plausible that he has conferred his “glory” on the disciples at this very moment, in the act of “consecrating” himself as a sacrifice “so that they too might be consecrated in truth” (v. 19). The “glory” he gives them is the mission on which he has just now “sent them” (v. 18), continuing his own revelatory mission as those “consecrated” to that task.
The purpose of consecrating the disciples, or giving them glory, is indistinguishable from the purpose of the prayer itself: “so that they might be one just as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they might be perfected into one, so that the world might know that you sent me and loved them just as you loved me” (vv. 22b–23). Here he repeats almost verbatim, with three slight elaborations, verse 21 (“so that all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that these too might be in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me”). The first elaboration is that becoming “one” (v. 21a) is defined as being “perfected into one” (v. 23), recalling the “gathering into one” of the “children of God” (11:52). The second is that the world’s “believing” (v. 21b) is defined as “knowing” or recognizing (v. 23). The third is that what the world is intended to “know” is not just “that you sent me” (v. 21), but “that you sent me and loved them as you loved me” (v. 23). Jesus has not spoken of the love of God so far in the prayer itself, but the Father’s love is by now a major theme of the Gospel, whether for the Son (3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 15:9) or for the disciples (14:21, 23; 16:27).
The modest changes are interrelated. The notion of being “perfected” is less characteristic of John’s Gospel than of the “priestly” Epistle to the Hebrews, where “by one offering” Jesus is said to have “perfected forever those who are being consecrated” (Heb 10:14; also Heb 2:10–11). But more in keeping with the theology of John’s Gospel is the notion that the “perfecting into one” of Jesus’ disciples means first of all having the love of God “perfected” or brought to realization in their love for one another. This was evident in the preceding discourse, where “dwelling” in Jesus (15:4) was defined as dwelling in his love (15:9–10) by extending his love to one another (15:12, 17). In 1 John, this relationship is explicitly characterized as having the love of God “perfected” in us (1 Jn 4:12; also 2:5; 4:17–18), and this is likely implied here by the phrase “perfected into one.”
With these subtle changes, the implicit link to 13:35 (“By this they all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other”) becomes almost explicit. The world cannot see, or “know,” a merely “spiritual” unity or indwelling of the disciples in each other, or in the Father and the Son, but it can recognize the love believers have for each other as a sign of God’s love for them. On that recognition, and on that alone, rests the possibility “that the world might believe” (v. 21). Perhaps surprisingly, nothing is said here of the world recognizing the Father’s love for the world itself (see 3:16). Possibly this is because Jesus has been addressing God as “Father” (vv. 1, 5, 11), and will immediately do so again (vv. 24, 25). While God indeed “loves” the world (3:16), he does not love it in the same way that he loves Jesus and the disciples—that is, as a father loves a child.[5]
Christian Unity
John 17:20–23
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.” (John 17:20–21)
Students of the New Testament sometimes wonder where they fit into what they are reading. It is a good question, and in our study of the Bible we should always seek to apply the lessons directly to ourselves. As we continue studying Jesus’ Farewell Prayer in John 17, it is not a great challenge to apply the message to ourselves, since Jesus prays explicitly for today’s believer in his Word. Having begun his prayer with a request for his own consecration (John 17:1–5), and then continued with his priestly prayer for the first believers (17:6–19), Jesus concludes with petitions aimed specifically at the church that will follow in generations to come (17:20–26). He prays: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (17:20). If you are a Christian, you may be excited to realize that on the night of his arrest, Jesus prayed specifically for your blessing as a member of his church.
Those Who Will Believe
Jesus’ emphasis on the church that would span the generations after his coming was not a thought that he had only lately discovered. All through his ministry, Jesus had spoken in these terms. Consider his Good Shepherd Discourse in John 10. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me …; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15). We can imagine Jesus standing with his hands outstretched toward the flock of Israel. But he immediately expanded his outreach: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (10:16).
This emphasis on a great worldwide church is seen from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. When he was rejected after preaching his inaugural sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus reminded his hearers that in the time of Elijah and Elisha, God had responded to hard hearts in Israel by sending his grace to the Gentiles. From the very beginning, Jesus knew that he was fulfilling God’s original promise to Abraham in the covenant of grace: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This means that Jesus would not be astonished at the spread of the religion he had started so long ago in so humble a manner, as liberal scholars have often suggested. Instead, it was always the sovereign purpose of God the Son, in covenant with the Father and the Spirit, to erect a church through all ages for God’s glory by redeeming a people with his atoning blood.
Earlier in his prayer, Jesus had asked the Father to make his church holy and protect it from corruption in the world (John 17:14–16). Christians are helped to resist being attracted to worldliness when we realize that we have been joined into a great, everlasting culture of Christian truth, worship, and life through faith in Christ. Jesus prayed that the Father would sanctify his church “in the truth” of his Word (17:17). Now, Jesus tells us that in praying for his future church, he is referring to “those who will believe in me through [the apostles’] word” (17:20). One may join an earthly church in a variety of ways, but there is only one way to join the great, redeemed, holy, and saved church for which Jesus prayed: by believing the Word of God as given through the apostles of Christ.
If Jesus looks forward in prayer to a great church that will consist of believers in his Word, then the way that we build and grow his church today is by the teaching and preaching of God’s Word. Jesus originally founded the church by sending forth the apostles to preach and then to write down his gospel and its doctrines. People today are added to Christ’s church in the same way: Peter said, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
In John 17:9, Jesus specified that he was not praying for the world but for those whom the Father had given to him. Now, in verse 20, we find that these elect people are those who will believe Christ’s Word. This proves that the great issue in every life is belief or unbelief in the Word of God as it proclaims Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (5:24).
The Fifth Mark of the Church: Unity
In Jesus’ prayer, our Lord sets forth his vision for the church. We see this in six marks of the church that are expressed in his petitions to the Father. So far, Jesus has prayed for the church to be marked by joy, holiness, truth, and mission. Now, he prays “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (John 17:21).
The topic of Christian unity has seen significant attention in recent decades. The words that Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a generation ago remain true today: “I suppose that if there is one thing that characterizes the life of the church and of Christian people more than anything else in this particular generation, it is the interest in what is called ‘ecumenicity.’ We are constantly reading about it and conferences and meetings are being held almost without intermission, with respect to it.” The word ecumenism comes from the Greek word oikoumene, which means “the inhabited world.” Ecumenism, then, is the effort made for worldwide unity among professing Christians. Those involved in ecumenical action frequently cite Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21, “that they may all be one.” Christian unity is therefore an important item in Jesus’ vision and must be important for Christians as well.
The first step in pursuing Christian unity, however, is defining it biblically. Here we immediately encounter the problem with ecumenism today, since it is usually assumed that Jesus was referring to an outward, physical, and organizational unity. This is the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which insists that Christian unity demands an institutional and bureaucratic oneness. Yet in looking at the early church in the book of Acts, we see the greatest spiritual vitality without a clear structural hierarchy. Rome insists that Peter was set above the other apostles by virtue of Jesus’ description of his faith as the “rock” (Matt. 16:18). Yet Jesus granted his “binding” authority equally to all the apostles (18:18), and when Peter fell into error, Paul did not hesitate to rebuke him (Gal. 2:11f.). From the beginning, then, Jesus did not establish a formal hierarchy but founded his church through the conjoined action of all the apostles.
In fact, the worst periods of church history have been those with the strongest institutional unity. Consider the Middle Ages in Europe, for instance, when the church was united in a single ecclesiastical body under the papacy. James Montgomery Boice asks: “Was this a great age? Was there a deep unity of faith? Did men and women find themselves increasingly drawn to this faith and come to confess Jesus Christ to be their Savior and Lord?” The answer is that under an institutional hierarchy, the gospel light was practically extinguished and the holiness, joy, truth, and mission of the church were grossly corrupted.
Reflecting on the New Testament generally, and on Jesus’ prayer specifically, we may make three statements about the unity that Jesus had in mind. Christian unity is, first, an organic, mystical unity. The unity that Jesus defines in his prayer is patterned on the unity within the Godhead. Christians are to be one, Jesus said, “just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21). I describe this as a mystical unity because we can already see that it transcends our understanding. How are three divine persons one single God, as the doctrine of the Trinity teaches? The answer is that we cannot know how this is, except to acknowledge a supernatural unity beyond our understanding.
What we can know is that this supernatural union is an organic one. We see this in the two main New Testament metaphors for the church: a body and a family. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12). Paul was stressing the mutual dependency of Christians within the church, just as a body relies on feet, hands, eyes, and ears. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’ ” (12:21). Moreover, like the human body, the whole church is affected by the experience of any part. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (12:26–27). Christian unity thus involves an organic oneness of service and sympathy.
The other main metaphor is that of the family, which is also an organic unity. One joins a family by being born into it: we likewise enter the true church of Christ through our new birth into saving faith. One can, however, join a family by adoption. We likewise join the family of the Trinity by being adopted into Christ (Eph. 1:5). Like any other family, the church expresses its unity by a bond of mutual commitment, affection, and common cause.
Second, we should observe that not only is church unity organic and mystical, but it is also a spiritual union. Jesus’ prayer describes our unity by saying to the Father, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:23). If we ask how the Father is in the Son, the answer is complex. But if we ask how the Son is in the church, the answer is clear: through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly how Paul put it in Ephesians 4:3, saying that the church is joined by “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is a unity that cannot be legislated or brought about by any human organization, but is rather a oneness created by the unifying presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Third, having unity in the Spirit, Christian unity is unity in the truth. We know that the Spirit indwells those who believe Christ’s Word and, moreover, that the Word of Christ was inspired through the apostles by the Holy Spirit himself. This is what Jesus told the disciples to anticipate: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Jesus now prays “for those who will believe in me through their word” (17:20) that they may be one. This unity can only be, therefore, a unity in belief and in truth.
The mistake most commonly made in pursuing Christian unity today is to set aside matters of truth in order to gain unity. The reason that we cannot get along, it is argued, is an emphasis on doctrine. Since we are never going to agree on Christian truth, the only way to have unity is to dispense with doctrinal divisions.
This was the argument made by Anglican Archbishop George Carey, when he boasted of joining with Pope John Paul II and an Eastern Orthodox patriarch at a ceremony in Rome to celebrate the new millennium in the year 2000. Seeing this display of unity, we might rejoice if Carey had succeeded in winning doctrinal agreement with Rome, that the pope now embraced apostolic doctrines such as justification through faith alone and sola Scriptura, repudiating the unbiblical doctrines of Rome that had caused the original divide during the Protestant Reformation. But Carey did not announce accord in matters of truth; instead, he announced that for Christians to divide over doctrine is un-Christlike. “Polemics lead to hatred and division,” he declared, so Christians must embrace unity without truth.
This is, however, a denial of Jesus’ teaching, as well as of Jesus’ example throughout the Gospels. Jesus said that when the Spirit came, he would lead his church into truth (John 16:13). God’s truth alone would sanctify the church, and Jesus prayed only for those who believe the truth. How can Christians, then, have unity without truth? The answer is that a unity without truth is something other than Christian unity. The unity that our Lord was concerned about is a spiritual unity in the truth of the gospel. Therefore, it is truth that determines the bounds of our unity, just as it is in the truth that the Spirit bonds us as one. Lloyd-Jones expressed the implications of truth for Christian unity:
There are many people in this world who call themselves Christians, yet who, alas, regard the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing but a man. Well, all I can say to this is that I have no fellowship with such people. I have no unity with them for they take from the very foundation and basis of my faith, and my whole position and standing. What do these people believe about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is their view of his death?… Is it a substitutionary death? Is it the Son of God dying because that is the only way whereby my sins may be forgiven, and therefore the essential preliminary to my becoming a child of God, and a partaker of the divine nature? If it is essential, and the other man says it is not, how can it be possible for there to be unity between us? And the same is true with all these other cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith.
Three observations will help us apply the principle of unity in the truth. First, Christian unity requires us to believe what the Bible says. To remove obedience to Scripture does not promote but rather destroys true spiritual unity. Second, Christian unity requires us not to add to the Bible. Sadly, man-made rules and extrabiblical doctrines have often divided Christians who should be one.
Third, unity in truth requires us to discern essential and nonnegotiable doctrines from those that are not essential to Christian oneness. This raises the question: does the Bible specify which teachings are essential? The answer is Yes. The New Testament explicitly identifies the following: the deity of Jesus (John 20:31), Jesus as the Christ, that is, the world’s only Savior (1 John 2:22), Christ’s death as a substitutionary atonement (1 Cor. 15:3), Christ’s bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4), and justification through faith alone (Gal. 1:8). Unity in truth also requires us to agree on the inspiration and inerrancy of God’s Word, apart from which its authority is compromised. Doctrines other than these core teachings are not essential to Christian unity, however important and beloved they are. Among these is our view of baptism, eschatological positions, and precise details of church governance. Lloyd-Jones writes, “There are certain great doctrines about which there never has been unity in the Christian church and I take it there never will be, but I would not separate from any brother or sister on matters like that.” Francis Schaeffer agreed with this position, writing:
The real chasm must be between true Bible-believing Christians and others, not at a lesser point. The chasm is not between Lutherans and everybody else, or Baptists and everybody else, or Presbyterians and everybody else.… The real chasm is between those who have bowed to the living God and His Son Jesus Christ—and thus also to the verbal, propositional communication of God’s Word, the Scripture—and those who have not.
We might observe that denominational distinctions are usually formed on a narrower basis than the bare essentials of Christian belief. For this very reason, denominations should encourage spiritual unity among all true Christians. As institutional unions, denominations not only foster unity within themselves, but permit a spirit of oneness that transcends detailed agreements on doctrine and practice. Consider the disagreement among Christians over the rite of baptism. Since Presbyterians and Baptists are not institutionally joined, they do not have to argue endlessly over this doctrine. Instead, despite our denominational boundaries, we can enjoy and cultivate a unity in spirit and mission with all others who believe God’s Word and embrace the vital doctrines of the Christian gospel.
Once, when I was ministering in Philadelphia, I received a phone call from the new pastor of a notoriously liberal church. It turned out that the man was an evangelical, and he wanted fellowship and advice on introducing biblical faith to his congregation. Because we were not in the same denomination, we did not have to argue about the various lesser issues on which we differed, and it was my delight to meet often for prayer with this struggling brother, sharing a unity in gospel truth that transcended our denominational differences.
So That the World May Believe
Having defined Christian unity, we must now emphasize its importance in light of Jesus’ prayer. Organic, spiritual unity in the truth is not an option for believers, especially within a local congregation. In working out the significance of Christian unity, Jesus highlights reasons why believers should prize and serve the cause of oneness in the church.
Jesus prays for the unity of his church, first, for the sake of his people’s blessing. He asks “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21). He adds, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (17:22). This raises a question as to how we should understand the “glory” that Jesus has given to his church. The best answer is his manifestation of the character and blessing of God. Jesus has granted eternal life to his people, and this consists of the whole life of God within their experience: a life of joy, peace, and love through faith in Christ. This experience of blessing in the church requires spiritual unity. Along these lines, Jesus concludes verse 23 by noting that the Father “loved them even as you loved me.” D. A. Carson comments that “Christians themselves have been caught up into the love of the Father for the Son, secure and content and fulfilled because loved by the Almighty himself, with the very same love he reserves for his Son.”
The blessing of the Father’s extravagant love forms a strong appeal for Christians to be one. We are loved by the Father in just the same way as and with just the same intensity and fervor with which the Father loves the Son. How greatly, then, we should dread that any grievance, preference, or agenda of our own should divide the family of God and diminish our experience of the divine love at work in us through our bond of faith in Christ.
There is, however, another great reason for Christians to prize and serve the cause of unity in the church. Jesus prays for unity, also, for the sake of his people’s witness. He asks for our unity, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21), and “so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (17:23). This prayer does not promise, as some ecumenists pedantically insist, that if we can achieve outward, institutional unity among Christian denominations, then the world will be converted to Christ. What it does say is that our gospel mission relies in large part on our unity in the faith.
It has always been those who are united in gospel truth who have turned the world upside-down for Christ. In Jesus’ thinking, a church that adorns the gospel truth with a living testimony of God’s supernatural love cannot fail to gain the world’s attention. Such a world, even while persisting in unbelief, finds it difficult to argue against the reality that Christ was sent on God’s mission of love to his people. Bruce Milne comments: “A group of Christians who are so knit together in the love of God that others can say of them, ‘Look how they love each other,’ is a church where the gospel will be ‘the power of God for … salvation’ ” (Rom. 1:16).
A Good Church
Even as we seek Christian oneness, we should remember that it is Christ’s work, and Christ’s prayer, that achieves our unity. Unity is a blessing that Christians have and are therefore to enjoy and protect. We will enjoy oneness as believers because Jesus prayed for this to happen and because the Father is sure to send the Holy Spirit to indwell all those who believe. It will therefore be our joy, and a cause of our praise to Christ, to experience a spiritual unity with all who love the truth of Christ through Spirit-wrought faith in God’s Word.
Harry Ironside relates such an experience on a train ride he took in the early twentieth century. The first morning, he began his day as always by reading from his Bible. A German woman came by and asked him what he was doing. When he told her, she said, “Wait, I go get my Bible and we have it together.” Sometime later, a Scandinavian man saw them. “Reading the Bible?” he asked. “Well, I think I’ll get mine, too.” Soon, a great number of people in their train car were taking part in the Bible study, which gathered every day during the long traverse of a continent. Before long, the conductor was advertising the Bible meeting to all the cars, hymns and prayers were added, and a service was started at which Ironside would preach. When they finally arrived at their destination and the passengers disembarked, the German woman who had started it all came to Ironside and asked, “What denomination are you?” He answered, “I belong to the same denomination that David did.” “What was that?” she asked. “I didn’t know that David belonged to any.” Ironside replied, “I am a companion of all them that fear Thee and keep Thy precepts.” The lady replied, “Yah, yah, that is a good church to belong to.”[6]
22–23. Jesus continued, I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. In this context the glory the Father gave Jesus is the revelation of himself that Jesus was to communicate to his disciples. By receiving that revelation they came to share in the glory of oneness like that existing between Father and Son. The disciples share this oneness because the Father is in Jesus, and Jesus will be in his disciples by his Spirit. The glory the Father gave the Son found expression in the love between them (15:10; 17:23, 26), the signs Jesus performed (2:11; 11:4), in the honour the Father bestowed upon Jesus (8:50, 54), and in the exaltation of Jesus after he laid down his life (5, 24). The glory Jesus would give to his disciples is similar. It is the glory of oneness with the Father and the Son mediated by the Spirit. It likewise finds expression in love between them and the Father (14:21, 23; 17:23, 26), in the signs they are to perform (14:12), in the honour the Father bestows upon them (12:26) and in their share in future glory (24).
Jesus continued his prayer, May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Although the niv renders this as an independent sentence, it actually consists of two purpose clauses indicating the purpose for which Jesus gave the disciples the glory the Father gave him, i.e. their unity with the Father and the Son. Literally translated this text would read, ‘in order that they may be perfected in one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you loved them as you loved me’. It is the unity of the disciples one with another (based on their common oneness with the Father and the Son) that functions as a powerful witness to the world. And although Jesus did not say so, the converse is also sadly true. The lack of unity among his disciples undermines their witness to him.
The unity of the disciples not only testifies to the fact that Jesus was sent into the world by the Father; it is also a testimony to the fact that the Father loves the disciples as he has loved his Son. They are recognized as God’s people by their unity and love for one another. Jesus said previously, ‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (13:35). As they are marked out as God’s people by their unity and mutual love, their witness to Jesus will have credibility.
It is amazing that Jesus should say the Father has loved them even as the Father loved him. We can only understand this in terms of the disciples’ privilege of being drawn into the circle of love in which the Father and the Son exist.[7]
Vers. 22, 23. The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.—
The Church’s unity and its influence:—
I. The gift which Christ bestows on His disciples. 1. What was the glory which Christ received? A glory belonged to the Son of God in His own Divine right (ver. 5). But the glory given to Him must refer to His mission in becoming incarnate. It was the glory of being—(1) The Divine Messenger. He was a Teacher sent from God to unfold all the truth which we required to know for our spiritual renewal and everlasting welfare, so that He proclaimed Himself as the “Light of the World.” (2) The Divine Agent. He came to act for God, as well as to declare His truth. How much of true glory was there in such godlike action and enterprise as this! (3) The Divine Representative. He came to show us the Father, to manifest the Divine name and character (Heb. 1:3). 2. The glory communicated by Christ. Clearly it has no reference to any perishable wealth or worldly honour; for “the Son of man had not where to lay His head.” It is the glory of being—(1) The messengers of God (chap. 20:21). Christ came as the Light of the world, so in and through Him they are the light of the world. (2) The agents of God. As the glory of Christ consisted in doing the Father’s will, and in being about His business, so in the same should the glory of all Christians be found. (3) The representatives of God. In Jesus there shone forth the glory of the only begotten of the Father, and His true disciples receive of His glory, even grace for grace. Men seek glory for themselves in the material resources, social attractions, and artistic splendours of the world. But all such glory can be no lasting portion for the soul. The glory which Christ bestows will be remembered, and made to shine forth at the manifestation of the sons of God at the end of all things.
II. The design of this gift. “That they may be one,” &c. Wherever the glory makes itself appear, you see the truest evidence of Christian discipleship, and the highest proof of Christian unity. This unity is—1. Glorious in its source: “I in them, and Thou in Me.” In this way only are Christians truly and vitally one. In the absence of the living Saviour from individual souls, no forced process of uniformity, no subscription merely of the same creed, can effect their union in one body. Christ is in all His true disciples; in their understandings, as the object of the highest knowledge; in their hearts, as the King of Love; in their consciences, as the Prince of Peace; in their whole inner being, as the Lord of Life, the Captain of Salvation, and the Hope of Glory. Thus He becomes the true principle and bond of all unity. 2. Gradual in its realization: “That they may be perfected into one.” Many things hinder the complete enthronement of Christ in the soul, and so many hindrances prevent the perfecting of the Church’s oneness. Christians, instead of showing their essential unity, have appeared to be the fiercest and most uncompromising foes. But all hindrances will yet be overcome. 3. This triumph of unity is the very highest design which can be realised in relation to the Church. Sin is the element of discord, and the principle of dissocialism and separation in the world; and God’s great purpose for the destruction of this discord, and the restoration of true harmony, is the establishment of a holy brotherhood in Christ, the living Centre and personal Head of men. By Him God is to reconcile all things unto Himself.
III. The glorious end to be accomplished. “That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,” &c. 1. In ver. 21, Jesus said, “that the world may believe;” here He says that the world may know. Knowledge is belief, or faith in its highest attainment. The growing oneness of the disciples would be to the world an evidence of Christian truth, and the triumph of Christian love, mighty and irresistible. But Christ gives an additional thought—“that Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” Through this conviction alone, of God’s infinite love, do the children of the world become the children of God. What an exhibition of the exceeding riches of Divine grace in the gift of God’s only begotten Son would this oneness supply! 2. This oneness, moreover, would show the exceeding blessedness of consecration to God. (J. Spence, D.D.)
The glory, unity, and triumph of the Church:—
I. The great means of the unity which Christ proposes here. “The glory which Thou gavest Me,” &c. The glory which the Father gave the Son was—1. That He endowed Him with the Holy Spirit (chap. 3:34, 35). The Holy Ghost descended upon our Lord in His baptism and abode upon Him. In Him was fulfilled Isaiah 11:1–3. In this Spirit there is glory, for the prophet further says, “His rest shall be glorious.” Now upon each true disciple this glory of God rests according to his measure. Owing to this endowment, there rested upon Jesus Christ a wondrous glory in many respects. (1) As man He knew the name and character of God. “The pure in heart shall see God,” and those pure eyes of His had seen God to the full. Has He not given us that same vision of the Father? Yes, for He tells us, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Our eyes have been opened by the blessed Spirit of God to see the invisible. (2) In His receiving, keeping, and giving forth the Word of God. The depository of the Divine word was Christ, and this was greatly to His glory. Is not the Word, one of the brightest of His titles? But now He hath given unto us the Word, and henceforth we are to hold forth the Word of Life. 2. In the sanctification of His blessed person. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” How consecrated to God He was from His childhood till He said, “It is finished!” This is the glory which He gives to us. His prayer is, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” His disciples live unto holiness, and are known as a people zealous of good works. 3. In His mission. “As thou hast sent Me into the world, even so,” &c. 4. In His model humanity. You, too, are not to be common men, but model men. Jesus especially was a model in—(1) His perfect self-abnegation. For God’s glory, and Christ’s purpose in the convincement of the world, we are to live, and if we do so the Spirit of glory will be resting upon us. (2) His oneness with God. His life ran parallel with the path of the Most High. 5. Wherever this glory is seen true unity is developed. Suppose I were to find a man, living in the likeness of Christ, with this spiritual glory conspicuous upon him. Suppose he is a coalheaver, the glory of his character will be none the less conspicuous amid the dust; or suppose that he is an earl, the glory will be none the more dim because of the good man’s honours. The holy consecration in each case is the same, and the degrees of rank do not affect the essential beauty of either. If you bring a company of common Christians together and they begin discussing, I daresay they will jangle; but if you could select a number upon whom this glory rests, within a short time they will be all on their knees together, or singing together, or engaged in some form of loving fellowship. Spiritual men are so essentially one that like two drops which lie close together they have an increasing tendency to unite.
II. The unity itself. It is not uniformity. This our Lord says nothing of. Though we are one body in Him, yet all the members have not the same office. 1. “I in them.” Christ lives in His people, and we are so to act, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that onlookers shall say, “Surely Christ lives again in that man, for he acts out the precepts of Jesus.” 2. “Thou in Me.” That is, God is in Christ. This is manifestly true, for you cannot read the life of Christ without seeing God in Him. 3. This brings about the union of believers with the Father: being one with Christ, and Christ being one with the Father, the point is reached for which our Lord prayed, “that they also may be one in us.” 4. Couple this with believers being one with each other, and you get the being “made perfect in one.” Moved by the same love of holiness, inspired by the same spirit of love, the eternal Father’s will is the will of the Son, and the Spirit worketh in us also to will and to do according to the good pleasure of the Lord.
III. The effect which this produces. 1. It will convince the world of the truth of Christ’s mission. When they see men who are no longer selfish, hard, ungenerous; men no longer governed by their passions; men who desire that which is holy, just, and good; men living to God—then the world will say, “Their Master must have been sent of God.” And then, not only will their characters convince, but their unity, because the ungodly world will say, “We see the glory of Christianity in the poor man, and we see the same in the rich man.” 2. But the world is also to be convinced of the Father’s love to us. When the world sees bodies of truly consecrated men and women living together in holy love, then they will also see much joy, peace, mutual consolation, and they will perceive that the providence of God makes all things work together for their good, and that the Lord has a special care over them as a shepherd hath over his flock. Then will they say, “These are the people that God has blessed.” See how He loves them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
True glory:—
I. Is the same in all moral intelligences. This prayer speaks of several grand unities. 1. One life. The life of God and Christ are here spoken of as one. 2. One truth; “Thy truth.” Truth has many sides, but it is one essential whole. Truths are but phases of His. 3. One Church. The Christly in all sects and countries are but one family of which Christ is the Head. 4. One love. Benevolence has many modifications, but in essence it is the same in all. 5. One glory. The glory that Christ had was the glory of God, and this He imparts to us—the glory of moral goodness. In the eye of conscience, in the light of the Bible, and in the estimate of God, the good only are glorious.
II. Is communicable from one being to another. Three things are necessary to its communication—1. The manifestation of it. Were the Eternal to conceal His glory, no creature intelligence could participate in its rays. A good being to make others good must show his goodness. 2. The contemplation of it. What boots it, if no eye observes the manifested glory. The man who at noonday shuts his eyes is as much in the dark as though it were midnight. 3. The imitation of it. There must be an effort on the part of the observer to imbibe, cherish, and develop the Divine goodness.
III. Comes to man through Christ. Christ is the only perfect Revealer, “We beheld His glory,” &c. It is by studying and imitating Him that men become glorious. “For we with open face,” &c.
IV. Is consistent with circumstantial suffering. As seen in the case of these disciples—1. How glorious their endurance! 2. How glorious their achievements! To their victories we owe our liberty, Bibles, schools, asylums, Christendom. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Saints glorified on earth:—
I. The character of this Christ-given glory. 1. Negatively. (1) Not in appearance. Painters have delighted to pourtray Christ with a shining halo on His brow. But this is imaginary. “His visage was marred more than any man’s,” &c. (2) Not in regal state and trappings. These He despised. He refused to be made a king, and had not where to lay His head. (3) Not in immediate triumph over existing conditions in any department of thought or action. Judged by all accepted standards of glory hardly was ever teacher less glorious. 2. Positively. His glory lay in the purpose and aim of His life, as appointed by the Father and accepted by Himself. It was early made known that God’s glory was His goodness. At the Incarnation the angel song showed this, and so did Christ at the first manifestation of His glory at Cana. And now with the Cross in prospect He prays (vers. 1, 2). 3. It is clear then that Christ gives glory to His people in calling them to carry forward His work and in granting them necessary equipment (vers. 8, 18). Christians are given to know the glory of being fellow-labourers with their Master. Perhaps to some the Lord’s call to service has been unattractive and irksome. It is the glory He hath given us. Is not the soldier honoured when appointed a part in the thick of the fight?
II. The design of Christ in giving glory to His people. 1. To glorify God by making Him known (vers. 1, 6). The fruitful cause of the world’s woe is ignorance of God. 2. To lead to blessed union with God and one another, “that they may be one” &c. 3. Here is discovered the responsibility of all disciples. By unfaithfulness we may turn our glory into shame.
III. This Christ-given glory throws light on the future glory of the saints, which will consist of—1. A call to higher service. “Inasmuch as thou hast been faithful over a few things,” &c. 2. The realization of perfect and harmonious relationship with God and one another. 3. The possession of true rest and joy—the joy of accomplished and prospective service. (J. Stevens.)
The mutual glory of Christ and His people:—
I. The nature of Christ’s glory. There is—1. The essential glory of Christ. 2. His mediatorial glory. 3. His remunerative glory.
II. Some instances in which this glory is communicated to the saints. 1. They have glorious titles. 2. Glorious privileges. 3. They are brought into glorious relations. 4. Glorious acts and exploits are ascribed to them. 5. Glorious prespects are before them.
III. Inferences. 1. The vanity of earthly things. 2. The dignity of real Christians. 3. Press forward to possession. 4. Let Him who put this glory on us receive all glory from us. (B. Beddome, M.A.)
Christ’s glory given to His people:—
I. Christ’s glory. 1. Sonship. 2. Union with God. 3. Perfection of attributes.
II. His people’s glory. 1. They are sons of God. 2. They are one with Christ. 3. They reflect His nature. 4. They are kings and priests. (W. W. Wythe.)
The glory Christ gives to His disciples:—As the essence of the glory of Jesus consists in His dignity as the Son, and the well-beloved Son, so the glory He has bestowed on believers is the filial dignity, the state of adoption (chap. 1:12). Whereby they have become what He eternally is—children of God and objects of His perfect love. This glory Jesus bestowed on His own, by bringing matters to such a state that God could justly reflect upon them all the love which He has for Jesus Himself (vers. 26; chap. 15:9, 10). Thus the proposition which follows, “that they may be one,” &c., is easily understood. Once objects of the same Father’s love, and bearing in common the image of their Elder Brother, they form among themselves a closely united family (cf. Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:10). (F. Godet, D.D.)[8]
22, 23. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, in order that they may constantly be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, in order that they may become perfectly one, in order that the world may acknowledge that thou didst send me and hast loved them even as thou lovedst me.
When believers are in Christ (cf. “that they also may be in us,” verse 21), then Christ is in them. This is their glory. By “the glory which thou hast given me” Jesus refers to the fact that the Father manifested himself in the Son (“thou in me,” verse 21). By “I have given them” he means that he (i.e., Jesus) manifested himself in the lives of believers. To be able to say, “Christ only, always, living in us,” is their glory.
Believers become partakers of Christ, and in that sense, of the divine nature (cf. 1 John 3:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 12:10; 2 Pet. 1:4). The glory which Jesus gives to believers means that they have become one plant with him; that he cannot be conceived of apart from them; that he is the source of all the blessings which they will ever receive; and that they, in turn, earnestly desire and strive to do everything to please him.
When God dwells in the Son, and he (through the Spirit) dwells in those who have placed their trust in him, then, naturally, these believers become partakers of all the riches that are in Christ: pardon, righteousness, love, joy, knowledge, wisdom, etc. And when all the members of the Church Universal have become partakers of these blessings, the Church, of course, will be one, just as Father and Son are one (see on verse 21). And this is the very reason why Christ gave all this glory to believers, namely, “in order that they may become perfectly one” (literally, “in order that they may have been brought completely to oneness”).
The oneness for which Christ makes request is more than an ethical unity. It is a oneness so intimate, so vital, so personal that it is patterned after, and based on, the relations which exist between the persons of the Holy Trinity: it is a oneness not only of faith, hope, and love but of life itself. Together, believers constitute one Body, of which Christ is the exalted (organic and ruling) Head. Cf. Eph. 1:22, 23; 4:4–6.
The Church, thus united by means of Word and Spirit, exerts a powerful influence upon the world. In speaking of this influence Jesus virtually repeats the words of verse 21 (see on that verse), and then adds: “… and lovedst them even as thou lovedst me.” Hence, the additional purpose which Jesus has in mind when he prays for oneness is that the world may regard it to be the product of the Father’s love, a love which, barring differences in the objects loved, is the same as that which the Father has for the Son. For a discussion of the possible difference in meaning of verbs meaning to love see on 21:15–17.[9]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2008). John 12–21 (pp. 290–293). Moody Publishers.
[2] Boice, J. M. (2005). The Gospel of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 1327–1332). Baker Books.
[3] Mounce, R. H. (2007). John. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 607). Zondervan.
[4] Morris, L. (1995). The Gospel according to John (p. 651). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[5] Michaels, J. R. (2010). The Gospel of John (pp. 876–879). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[6] Phillips, R. D. (2014). John (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; 1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 456–465). P&R Publishing.
[7] Kruse, C. G. (2003). John: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 4, pp. 341–342). InterVarsity Press.
[8] Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: St. John (Vol. 3, pp. 202–205). James Nisbet & Co.
[9] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to John (Vol. 2, pp. 365–366). Baker Book House.
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