Divine Mystery: Meditation for August 10-16
John 17:20–26 (NASB)
Jesus continued to pray as He walked with His Disciples from the Upper Room where He observed the last Passover meal, to the garden of Gethsemane to wait for His captors.
This is the Word of God. May the Spirit of Truth give us wisdom and insight to receive what has been conveyed through His Word by His Inspiration.
Who or what can separate us from the Love of God?!
17:20-21
20"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
The focus of Jesus' prayer was steadily progressing from His inseparable Union with His Father, to an intense intercession for His Disciples, and now to an equally deeply felt supplication on behalf of those who believe through the hearing of the Word. Those are the ones who would believe without seeing Jesus in person as He said to Thomas. This would include not only Jewish believers, but also Gentiles who would receive Jesus as the one sent from the Father and embrace Him as Savior. The Spirit would move with Power throughout the world affirming the messengers of the Gospel and quickening the hearts of those called unto salvation. That would include us: sinners saved by Grace.
Jesus’ prayer for all believers across the ages was not different from what He offered on behalf of His Disciples. He petitioned His Father for our union with Himself and His Father, and for our continued unity in the Spirit, just as He had prayed for the original Disciples. The redeemed are all indwelt by the same Spirit, worship the same eternal God, and accept the Sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God. In the end, Jesus petitioned His Father that He would gather His own as one in Him, openly affirming to the world that Jesus Christ is sent by God and came forth from God to redeem the Called out of sin's bondage. Then the world will know this irrevocable Truth, that Jesus Christ is the anointed Messiah Who came forth from God and is the only acceptable Sacrifice able to atone for Man's sin.
17:22-23
22"The Glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
23I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Jesus' prayer speaks of an incomprehensible bond which draws all believers into a Glorious relationship with the Lord. Jesus confessed to His Father that He had given the Glory which He shared with His Father to those whom He purchased with His Blood, implying that we enter into the Union of the Father and the Son through the divine Glory conveyed to believers in Jesus Christ. As believers, we would not only behold His Glory, but also experience the Glorious essence of being united with Him, having been imbued with His Glory and filled with His Spirit.
This is a divine mystery. It is too wonderful to fathom. Such a shared Glory and Spirit would result in a Body of believers inseparably one with Christ our Lord and Savior as “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from Glory to Glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."
This is not some shared purpose or objective devised by men for men. This is a shared union of the redeemed saints with the eternal God. This is the mystery of our faith which is signified by the gift of faith imparted to us by our eternal Lord and Redeemer. God imparts to the faithful some measure of His own divine essence through faith and His Glory, sealing the saints with His Spirit and imputing to the redeemed His Glory and His Righteousness.
Everything planned, purposed, and accomplished by God is made evident by the unity of the believing Body of Christ within itself and with the Savior. Jesus said that the Disciples' love toward each other will reflect the Glory of God and testify to the Unity each one has with the Father through the Son. The Son is in the believer just as the Father is in the Son. This is the testimony which affirms that the Father has sent the Son and that believers are perfected in the same divine Love which has eternally flourished between Father and Son.
17:24-26
24"Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My Glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25"O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;
26and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
Jesus continued to plead with His Father for the believers who would come to a saving faith through the ministry of the Gospel. He prayed for all the saints across the ages as intensely as He did for the Disciples. He acknowledged that the believers are also given to Him by God as were the Disciples. He prayed that they too would be with Him and behold His Glory. Jesus asked His Father these favors on the basis of the eternal Love they shared. This eternal Love draws all believers into the Union of our Father and His Son, securing and preserving the redeemed of Christ in God's Love.
While on the earth, Jesus prayed for the believers’ joy, their oneness in the Spirit, and their courage in the face of opposition. He prayed that when their earthly sojourn is over, they would join Him in His Kingdom to witness the full, unveiled Glory of the Son. There they will share in the Glory of the one sent from the Father to redeem the lost by the Sacrifice which He willingly gave. They will fully comprehend the enormity of that Sacrifice when they finally realize that Jesus shared this Glory with His Father long before time began, even before the foundation of the world.
Earlier, Jesus had addressed His Father as Holy Father. Now, He addressed Him as Righteous Father. These sacred expressions give us a deeper understanding of the Son’s declarations of His Father’s exalted position.
This Holy and Righteous God cares so much for the lost that He sent His only Son to suffer sin's penalty making salvation available to undeserving sinners. The Son Who came forth from His caring Father also cares so much for the lost that He made an earnest supplication for those whom the Father had given Him to share in His Glory and to be united with Him in His eternal Love. In all of this, Jesus entreated His Father that His Love for Him would unite His own with Him even as they are one. What is more, Jesus prayed that His Father's eternal Love which is also in Him would flourish in the hearts of believers so that God Himself would dispense His Love to the lost through the words and deeds of His children.
Notes/Applications
We have come to the end of this remarkable prayer. The true Lord's Prayer: the High Priestly Prayer offered by Jesus Christ to His Father on behalf of sinners saved by Grace. Through these sacred supplications, Jesus mediated the great rift between God and rebellious man. But words alone would not mediate this unfathomable chasm. It would require the shedding of the blood of a guiltless victim to pay for sin's penalty under God's just Law.
Based on the unshakable foundation of His eternal oneness with the only true living God, Jesus petitioned the Father for the eternal security, preservation, and safety of His Disciples and all who believe through the proclamation of the Word. He also appealed for the Glorification of all believers with Him, earnestly pleading that they would also dwell with Him in the Glorious realm of the heavenly kingdom, from which He had been dispatched by the Father to become the Lamb of God. Redeemed man would enter the very courts of Heaven and there see his Redeemer face to face. Never again would the Shepherd be taken away from His sheep. Instead, the sheep would dwell securely within the Shepherd’s fold forever. This is divine Favor, divine Grace settled in the courts of heaven by divine Prerogatives. True, immutable, and unearnable settled forever between Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It was probably a night like every other night in the region. But it was also a unique and uncommon night. God's Son was making His way to the appointed site where He would willingly surrender Himself to the wicked hands of sinful men to fulfill His Father's Will. He was quietly going to the Cross like a sheep to the slaughterhouse. He was on His way to lay down His Life willingly, to atone for sin under God's just judgment. He Who knew no sin was on His way to become sin in lieu of real sinners; in real-time, in real-life.
But He took time on his way and paused to commune with His Father. His heart was burdened for you and for me. He talked to His Father about us because He loved us while we were yet sinners. He committed us to His Father's Care. He was on His way to face the fury of His Father's judgment. But He paused to pray for us because we mattered to Him. Yes, to Him, we mattered so much. Does He matter to us?
We have the Promises of His Joy, Love, Unity, and Eternal Life. But behind those Promises is the Lord Himself; Jesus Christ our Savior. Without Him there could not be any Promises. Yes, to Him, we matter so much. Does He matter to us more than His Promises? The Love of Christ: revealed in real-time, in real-life, in real-prayer.
