John 17:22-2622And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:22‑26)
THE Lord, in the opening portion of the prayer, has prayed for the glory of the Father. In the second portion He thinks of His own, and prays that, during the time of His absence, they may be kept for His glory—that He may be glorified in the saints. In this closing portion of the prayer the Lord passes in thought to the coming glory, and prays that His own may be glorified with Him.
(V. 22). With this great end in view the Lord can say, “The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them.” The glory that is given to Christ as Man, He secures for, and shares with, His own. This glory He has given to His own that they may be one. So perfect is this unity that nothing less than the unity between the Father and the Son can serve for its pattern, as the Lord can say, “That they may be one, even as We are one.”
(V. 23). The words that follow tell us how the saints will be “perfected into one” (N. Tr.), as well as the great end for which they are made one. The Lord indicates how the unity is brought about when He says, “I in them, and Thou in Me.” This takes us on to the glory when Christ will be perfectly set forth in the saints, even as the Father is perfectly set forth in the Son. What is it that has marred the unity, and scattered and divided the saints of God on earth? Is it not the allowance in our lives of so much that is not of Christ? Yet, even so, if all the saints on earth, at any given moment, had expressed only Christ, it would hardly have displayed the unity of which the Lord speaks in these closing verses. It will require nothing less than the whole company of the saints in glory to adequately set forth the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:22, 2322And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23)). Then indeed Christ—and nothing but Christ—will be seen in His people. We shall “all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph, 4:13). The saints so long scattered and divided on earth will be “perfected into one” in glory. “With the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye” (Isa. 52:88Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. (Isaiah 52:8)).
The great end of this perfect unity is the manifestation before the world of the glory of Christ as the sent One of the Father, and the love of the Father for the disciples. When the world sees Christ displayed in glory, in His people, they will know that the One they despised and hated, was indeed the sent One of the Father, and they will realize that the saints of Christ, that they cast out and persecuted, are loved by the Father with the same love that the Father has to Christ.
(V. 24). There is, moreover, a glory far beyond the glory that will be manifested to the world, and, beyond the millennial blessing of the earth, there is an inner circle of heavenly blessing. In this inner place of blessing the saints will have their part, for the Lord can say, “Father I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me, where I am.” Very early in the discourses the. Lord had revealed the great desire of His heart to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also. Now, once again, as the prayer draws to its close, we are reminded of this desire of His heart, as we hear the Lord saying, “I will that they ... be with Me where I am.”
While, however, it will be our high privilege to be with Him where He is, there will ever be a personal glory, belonging to Christ, which we shall behold, but, which none can sham. Christ as the Son will forever have His unique place with the Father. There is a glory that is special to Christ; there is a love that is special to Christ—the love which He enjoyed before the foundation of the world; and there is a knowledge that is special, for the Lord can say, “O Father the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee.”
The saints will know that the One to whom this special glory belongs—this special love, this special knowledge—is the One who has been sent by the Father to make the Father known. Thus they are distinguished from the world that fails to discern that the Son was the sent One of the Father.
(V. 26). To His own the Lord declares the Father’s name, and the declaration of the Father’s name reveals the Father’s love, that the consciousness of the Father’s love, ever known and enjoyed by the Lord is His pathway, may be known and enjoyed by His disciples. Moreover if this love is in them, Christ—the One that the Father loves—will have a place in their affections. He will be in them. Thus as we listen to the last utterance, we are left with the great desire of His heart filling our thoughts, that Christ may be in His people— “I in them.”
Very surely this desire of His heart will be fulfilled in the coming glory; but, may we not say, that the great thought of the last discourses, as well as the last prayer, is that Christ should be livingly seen in His people even now? To this end our feet are washed, our hearts are comforted, our lives made fruitful, and our minds instructed. For this end the Lord permits us to listen to His last prayer that closes with the words, “I IN THEM.”