New Thoughts (06/28/12-07/02/12)
As I consider the final verses of this prayer, it is only fitting that I should consider the whole. To that end, the four verses brought together by the marginal references for verse 23 are well suited to the task. The verses in question are John 17:3, John 17:8, John 17:18, and John 17:21. Consider, then: Eternal life consists in knowing You, the only real God and Jesus, the Christ You sent. And, I have given them every word that You gave Me to impart to them. They get it. They really understand that I came from You. They fully believe that You sent Me. And, just so, I send them into the world to continue My mission. As they go, may they be as united in character, essence and purpose as We are. You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us (and We in them), so that the world will believe You sent Me. Father, perfect them in that unity, so that the world will know: You sent Me, and You love them just exactly as You have always loved Me.
Do you feel the power of that? Our mission: To let the world know that God loves them. Again, there is that point of what the mission does not consist in: judgment. No. It’s not about rubbing the world’s nose in its sins. It’s about letting the world know there is forgiveness on offer. It needn’t be this way. What was demonstrated in His Son, while it strikes the unbeliever as rather sadistic, was actually the mark of His love for mankind. He loved us enough to sacrifice Himself that we might come to life. He loved us enough to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, what we couldn’t even desire for ourselves without His help.
And now, we who have come to the knowledge of this incredible love of God have been entrusted with the task of aiding God. He, as I said, aided us in that which we couldn’t even think to do, let alone accomplish. Now, He permits us a role in that which He could doubtless accomplish more easily without us. Face it. God does not need us to preach His message. He does not need us to be His hands and feet, as we so happily look at our efforts. He could, did He choose to do so, accomplish the salvation of all who are His amongst mankind without our involvement. The Apostles were not, in this sense, necessary. But, in that they were the course of God’s plan and purpose, they were made necessary. Likewise, we are made necessary.
It would be overstating the case to say that there are things in God’s plan that simply will not be accomplished unless we get on with pursuing our purpose. God’s plans are not subject to such vagaries as would be implied in that sort of dependency. God is not dependent. If we will not do our part, He will see to it that one who will do our part is given our part. Take the talents from him who failed and give them to him who obeyed. Isn’t that rather the point of that parable?
You have been entrusted with a part in the Father’s plans. He didn’t need to do that. He could have just taken care of the whole thing Himself, but He sovereignly chose not to do so. He sovereignly chose to give us a part to play, a purpose in life. He knows us, you see. He knows how we long to be responsible for something good. He knows how we wish we had something to give back to Him, to show our gratitude, to demonstrate our maturity of spirit. He knows that this is part of our spiritual health. And so, He sees to it that we have that which we need. What a wonderful Father!
As I come to the first verse of this section, I am taken aback to read what Jesus says. “I have given them the glory You gave Me.” Somewhere, it seems to me Scripture says that God will not share His glory with another, although I cannot find the reference this morning. Yet, here it is given to us. How can this be? Indeed, how could I even suppose myself capable of sustaining the touch of such glory? There is that sense, in the glory of God, of weightiness. Can it be that I can bear the glory of the Lord upon my being? But, it is also lightness in the visible sense, that shining brightness that appears whiter than the whitest thing we know. It is there in the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount. It is there as God passes by Moses on the mountaintop. It is there amidst the concealing smoke as the presence of the Lord fills His temple.
Never mind, then, His willingness or unwillingness to share that glory. Who could stand if He did? For all that we cry out, even today, that He would show us His glory, the reality of the situation is that we should be crushed, driven nearly insensate, were He to do so. And yet, here is this declaration of our Lord that this glory which we cannot even dream of sustaining has been given to us! How can this be? The only way I can fathom this is that this gift of glory and the gift of Himself indwelling are intrinsically tied. The one without the other cannot be. Perhaps that is the answer. We cannot have the gift of verse 22 without the reality of verse 26. Praise be to God, we have both!
That, in turn, raises a question as concerns our tendency to want that glory shown to us. If it is already ours, at least in regard to it being given us in Christ Jesus, what cause have we to be looking for it externally? It smacks of that same lack of understanding that Philip had shown when he asked Jesus to show them the Father. You’ve already been seeing Him all this time, Philip! Didn’t you get that? So with us: You’ve had My glory in yourselves all this time, and you still feel the need to have My glory shown to you? Where have you been?
In reality, much of what passes for seeing His glory in such places as are deemed revival centers today are as likely as not just events that tickle the senses. Ooh! Gold dust! Really? Perhaps it’s some move of God, but I have strong doubts. Feathers drifting down in an unlikely setting? I’m sorry, but that really doesn’t make me think immediately, “God is in this place.” It’s sense-tickling. Even if God is in it, it remains sense-tickling. I have little time for sense-tickling. I’m far more interested in the reality. And, according to Jesus, at least, the reality is, “I have given them Your glory.” What need have I to look further?
Then, there is this: What is that glory which He has given us? In this case, I’ll turn to The Living Bible for a rather clear presentation of the answer. “I have given them the glory you gave me-the glorious unity of being one, as we are.” Isn’t that a beautiful thing? The glory we are given is unity – unity of being one. Actually, I’m inclined to shorten that by one word, and say that we are gifted with a unity of being. It is not just the fact of existence that unites us, it’s the nature of that existence, the essence of our being, that is the unifying thread. That is why Jesus emphasizes that unity as being one, “Just as We are one.”
Now, we must arrive at a depth of understanding the doctrine of the Trinity. Now we face the issue that boggled the Church for much of its early history. How is He three if He is One? How is He One if He is three? It comes down to the question of what is essential. You will note that I often place that term in bold italics, as I do with the word necessary on many occasions. I do this when these two words take on their particular, philosophical or theological meaning. That which is essential is that which, were it removed from the thing or person, that thing or person would cease to be. God cannot be God except that those attributes which are essential to Him persist. Thus, God cannot cease being Love, being Truth, being Just, or being any of His other defining attributes for so much as the smallest division of a second. He cannot set aside one attribute in the service of another. It is thus that John stresses the point that God is both faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins (1Jn 1:9). He found the way to express His Love while yet upholding His Truth and maintaining His Justice. He did no violence to His essence in arriving at the plan of salvation.
In that same sense, what is essential to God’s being defines what is necessary. His essence makes it inevitable that the necessary thing will follow. It is impossible that it would be otherwise. So, when we consider the Trinity, we construe that Father, Son and Spirit are One in that most essential aspect. It is that unity to which Jesus points repeatedly in this prayer. I am in You, You are in Me. We are one essence. Here, the oneness is a stronger thing even than philosophy can grasp. It goes beyond the fact that they share a common worldview, or universe-view. It is not just that they are of like character. They are the same character. It would be tempting to try and equate it to the hive-mind concept, but that doubtless does them great injustice. Yet, there is something of it in our understanding. God is three in person. Father and Son and Spirit are unique in that sense. Each, at the very least, fulfills a distinct role in the operations of God. Yet, it is not as though they need conferences and committees to arrive at their plan. They are One. He is One. The plan and purpose of God is arrived at as One, executed as One, and the results are rejoiced over as One.
So, then, this is the glory that has been given to us: That we may be part of that essential unity. As God indwells, as His transforming power takes effect in us, we are being remade in His image. Oh! We were created in His image at the outset, but that image was marred in us, distorted almost beyond recognition by the effects of our sin. Yes, even from birth it was so. The idea of some age of innocence is by and large a conceit of our imaginations. David long since dispelled the thought as untrue. “In sin my mother conceived me.” But, God has come. Faith has been imparted, and the Spirit has been implanted. The transformation has begun, and it will not be stopped, for God is in us! My, but doesn’t that sound conceited! Hah! God is in me, mortal. What have I to do with you? But, it’s not that way. No! God is in us, and there can be nothing more humbling in all of life.
Such as I am, yet, He has sovereignly chosen to come to me, to draw me to Himself. He has given me riches beyond all imagining! No, I may not be rolling in the dough here. No, I don’t live in some fancy manse, with matching Rolls Royce automobiles in the drive and servants to keep them clean. I have things far better! I have life! Yes, and though I tend to misconstrue what that means, the real meaning is fathomless wonder to me! I am given to know God as my Father. I am given to know Jesus as my Messiah, my Savior. More! I am given to count God as my friend, or more properly, to know myself His friend. He said so! Then, too, I am given this gift of glory. And, as with life, I find myself sadly inclined towards misapprehending what that glory is. The glory is not in flashing lights, falling clouds of some precious metal, or any such manifestations. The glory is in this: I am one, essentially one, with this God Who calls me His friend!
As He speaks of Himself, now He speaks of me as well. I in Him and He in me! Really, do we find need for other marvels when this is our present reality? “I have given them the glory You gave Me.” I have given them Me! I in them, You in them, the Spirit in them. We are, against all reason, granted this immense privilege of being living temples of the Lord, indwelt by Him at every moment of life. And, by His presence, He is making us more like Himself every day. Oh, we still have our quirks of personality. We remain individuals. Father, Son and Spirit may well be said to be much like us in that regard, or we like them in Whose image we are made. Yet, there is an essential unity of being that has arrived with our God, His gift to us. We are coming to perceive as He perceives, to consider as He considers, to value as He values, and to act as He acts. That has been the entire life mission of Jesus with His apostles, to demonstrate this life of the temple. He imparted it well, and they in their turn imparted it to the next generation, and so on right down the line to us. We are well taught in the ways of our Lord. Even were it not so, we have the Holy Spirit Himself teaching! We are being improved in our adherence to those essentials that define the God of our temple, and as this happens we are becoming more inclined to find certain behaviors necessary in that fashion of it being impossible that it should be otherwise with us.
To be sure, we still stumble with alarming regularity. We are not perfected in this yet. But, we are assured of being perfected. We shall be like Him in that moment when we see Him in His fullness, when we are finally transformed sufficiently to bear the sight of His glory, the weight of His glory, without being destroyed by it.
This may seem to be overstating the case, but I note that Jesus speaks of us being one, “just as We are one”. Just as: In the same proportion, in the same degree. He doesn’t seek that we be more or less like God in our unity. He seeks for us to be united in the same degree that Father, Son and Spirit are united, and that’s a very high degree! Indeed, that is the superlative degree. Our God, perfect in Unity, and ourselves partakers in that unity by His doing; this is what we arrive at in the words of Jesus. And, notice, as we look to the cause of that perfected unity: That the world will know. The concern is not just that the world will know that Jesus was sent by the Father. The concern is also that the world will know that God loves us just as He loves His Son. Again, there is that aspect of equal proportion or degree. Just exactly as Father loves Jesus, He loves us! That is a thing that must amaze. Jesus was perfect. We can easily understand how Father would love Him. Besides that, Jesus was Himself, integral and essential to the being of God. Of course, He would love Himself.
But, don’t you see? That’s exactly the same way we are viewed. Let me borrow some words from Paul. “He who loves his own wife loves himself” (Eph 5:28). And, note where that thought finds its parallel. “No one hates his own flesh, but rather takes care of it, cherishes it. Just so, Christ also cares for and cherishes the church” (Eph 5:29). We are part of Him, part of His body (Eph 5:30)! We are united with Him, and, as Jesus prays so we are assured Father answers, we are perfected in this unity. Whatever might be found lacking in our unity is being provided. The unity for which Jesus prays is being completely filled out in us, to the effect that, we “may become perfectly one”, as the ESV sets the phrase. We are being perfected in unity, says the NASB. And, it is done in demonstration that Father’s love for us is of equal proportion to His love for His Son. In both cases, in His love, He loves Himself.
God is in us! We are members of the body of Christ. We are the bride of Christ, and Paul spoke on God’s behalf in pointing out that to love one’s wife is to love one’s self. They are become one flesh (Eph 5:31, Gen 2:24). It is all connected, and it is not intended to be understood solely of life in this fleshly plane. The whole arrangement of marriage is designed to illustrate higher principles, to provide us with a visible, visceral model for appreciating our relationship to the ineffable God who is our Father.
Don’t miss the connection in this, though: Unity is the mark of the faithful. It is by our unity, Jesus says, that we will be known as belonging to God, objects of His love. Love of God, that love which is from God and which finds its object in God, is the glue by which unity holds together. The two points become inseparable. We cannot, as John makes clear in his letter, be a real part of this brotherhood of faith if we don’t love God. And, we cannot in truth love God if we don’t love our brethren in this faith. The presence of God in us and God in them cannot but lead to recognition of one another as kindred spirits, as organs of the same body. Does my left hand hate my right? Does my kidney refuse to be party to what my heart is doing? Do my lungs insist on keeping their supply of oxygen from supporting my brain? No. The body, in all its parts, operates in harmonious mutual support. Just so should be the body of Christ which is the Church writ large. We are enwrapped in the bonds of unity, and those bonds are bonds of love.
Think about John’s words to his congregants in later years. Nobody has ever seen God, but if we love each other, then we have this proof that He abides in us, that His love is completed in us (1Jn 4:12). Completed – perfected: same term used of our unity with Him in this passage. Anything that might have been lacking in our love has been supplied such that there is absolutely nothing about our love that falls short. John proceeds to assign yet another purpose to this perfection of love which becomes in us the perfection of unity with God. “Love is perfected in us so that we can be confident in the day of judgment. By the reality of this love completed and perfected in us, we are just like Him in this world” (1Jn 4:17). Now, obviously this does not suggest that we are wholly vested with the power of God, able to judge and create from nothing as God has done. Nor are we perfectly sinless in this world as God is. There is a bit of hyperbole in the statement, and yet there is the depth of Truth.
“As He is, so also are we in this world.” United, loving, seeking good for all, sorrowing for those who refuse the good, angry at the evil, determined to set right all that can be set right, and willing to set aside all self-interest in the pursuit of those lost souls around us. Just as He is. For, we are united with our God – perfectly. We love all who are truly His – perfectly. For, we have been given to our Messiah by our Father, given as a permanent gift, as Wuest offers the meaning. He who loves his brother loves himself, is a way we ought probably to perceive Paul’s instruction to the married. For, the scope is far wider than the family unit, far wider than the marriage bed. How we need to lay hold of this! It is no condescending love to which we are urged, but an earnest love, a depth of caring concern for one another, a breadth of appreciation. We must needs see that our God is not only in us, but also in them whom He has made family to us through this miraculous gift of grace in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Father, I pray that You would cause me to be more clearly aware of this reality even today and going into the week ahead. Yes, there will always be those in any family who rub each other the wrong way, and yet this is not a thing that love can take to heart. We are family, whatever our differences. We are Yours, whatever our unique quirks may be. And You have loved us equally, perfectly. Grant me, then, the presence of Your presence to love as You love, to be truly one with You, which must surely mean truly one with my brothers who are likewise one with You. Oh! May I stand as a testimony to Your love, that the world may know, as You have always desired!
Looking at the closing statement of this prayer, I find yet another cause for amazement. “I have made Your name known to them, and I will make it known.” I am particularly caught by that last bit. As the ESV translates it, “I will continue to make it known” (emphasis mine). Now, there are two particulars about this statement that stand out to me. First, in that second clause we do not have them, the disciples, as the stated object. I must be careful here, for I know that there is that tendency in Greek and in the Gospels, particularly, to leave off the object in such a case, with the first object assumed for the second. But, I wonder: Is that the intent here? The significance of what Jesus is saying rather hinges on how I perceive this intent.
If I accept that Jesus is addressing Himself to the disciples in both clauses then this final bit of the prayer serves as an endorsement of their ministries. In other words, as He has been their teacher and trainer these last three years, so He shall continue to be, though removed to His heavenly realms. He is, after all, in them, and He has His advocate posted as well, that the lines of communication may remain open.
If, on the other hand, I remove the disciples as being the direct object of that final statement, I find a broader application. With this broader application, I find the “I will continue to make it known” attaches to the “I have sent them” of John 17:18. I have given them their mission – My mission – to pursue, and as they pursue it, I will be working in them, to make You known, to make Us known. This is, after all, our mission. That unity that we have observed Jesus praying for in verse 22 and elsewhere serves the purpose of making known to the world that God sent the Christ, and that God loves them as He loves His Son. How do we achieve this? Well, first by that unity which is to demark the Church. Second, and critically, by that very Christ in us, making Father known through us!
This is at once a humbling and an enabling truth! It is not something new, discovered by careless parsing of the text, but a truth well known that is but further established by this message. The preacher is nothing in himself. The finest of hortatory skills wielded in the service of the Gospel are nothing in themselves. The most compassionate heart ever a pastor possessed was never a power in itself. The whole of the mission, the only means by which the mission succeeds, is that Christ in us is doing His work through us. What I read here, is then an echo of what Paul pointed out to the Philippians. It is God working in you. It is God willing in you (Php 2:13). Apart from this, you could not even desire to do the work of the Gospel, much less succeed at it. If there is fruit to be had of your preaching, it is God working in you. If your compassion is of greater value than government largesse, it is God working in you. If there is any good thing in me, it is God working in me. All else is dross, filthy and worthless imitation righteousness. It is not that I am devoid of responsibility, nor that I should cease trying. It is that success, particularly in this pursuit of being a true Man, comes from God else it comes not at all. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ living in me (Gal 2:20).
Do you see this? Jesus, our Savior, our Christ, by His work, His life, His prayer, has purchased for us not only forgiveness in the sight of our Father in heaven, but has also empowered us by His own indwelling being in us, to be valuable and earnest servants of the King. In Him, truly we live. By His motivation we move. As we sang yesterday, He is the air we breathe. He has sent us on this mission which is to consume the remainder of our earthly days, and He, in so doing, has assured the result by His own presence in the matter. “I will make Your name known.” Yes! He continues to make the name, the fullness of Who God Is known to us. He does so through His Word, through His servants in the pulpit, and through His own abiding presence in us confirming what we read and hear. He makes our God known to others, as well, through us. We are set in this world as exemplars of Christ, as evidence of God and proof that He is Who He has always said He is. We are left in the world that the world may not be utterly without hope. We are left as a light on in the window to guide the lost wanderer to the safety of home.
What, then, is our role in all this? Well, first we understand that He has made Truth known to us. Second, and more challenging by far, comes the task of internalizing the reality that He has revealed. We needn’t wander into the wilds of mysticism to grasp this Truth, though neither ought we to avoid all that is mystical in favor of our estimate of what is rational. Both ways are extremes and both ways are wrong. No. The deeper mystery lies in actually making the revealed Truth a part of who we are day by day. This step, I dare say, is absolutely impossible apart from the constant ministrations of the Holy Spirit, and yet, it remains our responsibility, our part. To quote Scripture with accuracy is one thing, even to quote it with an accuracy of meaning. But, to walk as one who really believes what he quotes! That is quite another thing.
I seem always to fall back to the same examples, but only because they are so apt to illustrate the point. It is all well and good to be able to point to Romans 8:28 and rejoice in stating that God works all things for good to those who are working in His purpose. Great! But, what does it mean to you? Does that mean that the remainder of your days will be a garden path down which you lightly trip and just breathe in the perfume all around? It cannot be, for the words of Christ Himself deny the possibility! “In this life you will have tribulation.” There is no optional voice applied there. There is no shred of doubt left as to whether this will be your personal experience. It is not a generalization to which some may be proven the exception. It is a declarative. This is how it is, and if it isn’t this way, you really ought to be checking yourself to see if your claim of salvation is legitimate.
So, how do we say that all things are working for good? When life is going to hell, how do we see heaven in it? It requires having really acquired the knowledge of Romans 8:28. What do I mean? I mean it has to have gone beyond words and become mindset. It has to have gone to the point of trusting God meant what He said there through Paul. If God says these events are working for good, then they are. I can choose to complain about the events, or I can walk calmly through the events, knowing God is with me whether I ‘feel’ that way or not. Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death… My God, You are with me! I may not perceive these events as reflecting what I know of You. I may feel as abandoned as ever an orphaned child felt. But, there is this: “I will not leave you like orphans.” There is this, “Lo! I am with you even to the end.” There is this: “No one is able to snatch you from My Father’s hand, and I and My Father are one.” Indeed, now there is this: “You are one with Us, just as We are one. Father loves you just exactly as much and in the same way that He loves Me.” This is no promise that you will never hurt. Do you suppose that Christ hanging upon that cross in dying agony suffered no hurt? But, it is an absolute assurance of this: Whatever temporary hurts there may be, the ultimate good that lies ahead, the inheritance that has been sealed to your account by God’s own hand, lies ahead!
Christ, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame. And now, He sits at God’s right hand (Heb 12:2). The pain was real. The suffering was real. But, God was working all of that for such a good as the world has never known nor ever shall again. For, the good that God worked in that suffering was sufficient once for all time. It reached back to before the world was. It reaches forward to when the world is no more. And you wonder what good He can wrest from your sorrows? I wonder if Joseph wondered, as he sat there in Pharaoh’s prison. Perhaps he did, but it is rather astounding, given the tendency of Scripture to show its heroes in stark truth – warts and all, that there is no hint of it in the accounts. Joseph just patiently went about what life had given him to be about. He was faithful to God, and faithful to those by whom he was employed; even in prison. No matter how terrible the circumstance, it seems he simply faced it with a pure faith in God. Somehow, those many centuries earlier, he had already internalized Paul’s words. God is working this for good. You meant it for evil, but God’s plans trump yours. God’s plans trump mine. “I will continue to make You known.”
All of this which Jesus has prayed, I note, has been prayed not for His own benefit, but for ours. We can debate whether His intended beneficiaries encompass the Apostles alone or the whole of the community of true faith. The reality of it is that even were His immediate blessings solely upon the Apostles, yet it blessed the whole community. But for their training, and their continued labors in the Spirit of God, we would have no record, no means of hearing about what God had done. We would be lost and without hope in the world, with no glimmer of light to call us to the God Who so loves us. But, He did not leave it so. He prayed, Whose words are most assuredly heard in heaven’s court, being the words of heaven’s king. If ever there was one to whom Father’s ears were fully attuned, it was His own Son! And, His prayers, even with what lay ahead for Him, are not on His own problems, but on our eternal security.
There can be only one response to so great a Shepherd. There can be only gratitude that He to Whom the whole of creation belongs saw fit to cast aside His own comfort and privilege to rescue the likes of us! There can be no gratitude, I dare say, except we sense the magnitude of wonder that befits such recognition. The likes of us! We, the ultimate ingrates determined to usurp the Creator and pursue our own paths whatever He may think about it, have been blessed to know His love when all we could reasonably have expected was His wrath. We have been bought with great price, but not to be slaves under a new and improved Master. No! We have been bought and then set at liberty, not slaves of the King, but friends. We have been bought with the price of our redemption, it is true. But, the price of our redemption was something more than just the payment of our debt. It was our bride-price. It was the securing of our own pitiful selves to be wedded to this King against Whom we had labored. “I don’t call you slaves. I call you friends. I call you My beloved. I call you to your wedding. Look! The banquet is laid, and it is for you! For Me! Come, My bride, and enter into the joy of your Husband.”
How can we contemplate the enormity of this and not be struck with wonder? What room remains for that pride that is our constant state? Of what shall we boast, who have been so richly rewarded not for what we have done, but in spite of what we have done!
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name! Your Son has made it known to us, and by Your grace, He makes it known through us. We, who have less than nothing to offer You, find ourselves welcomed by You, and we are indeed humbled. If ever there was cause to know fear and trembling in Your presence, this is it. Far greater than Your wrath towards us, which we could at least understand and know we have deserved, is this love You have shown, for which we shall never find explanation beyond the fact that You just love us. Who can explain it? Who can even fully comprehend it. My mind boggles. Yet, my heart rejoices, for my heart knows it is True. You are True! And You have said it. Therefore it is. Therefore I am. I am Yours, Lord. I pray Thee, do with me as You will. Make me a servant, who am Your friend. Grant me to be a keeper of Your word, and an obedient son in Your service. Amen.
