The Lord Who Wants to Be One
Contents 11-26” show the three prayers of Christ. ① Disciple preservation and holiness 11~19. ② They become one 20~23. ③ It is to share in the glory of the Lord. 24-26. The church on earth is the body of the Lord by gathering between regions, generations, and classes. And this church must imitate the spiritual church in heaven.
1. Building up with the Gospel 20~
“...not only for these men, but because of their word I believe...” Jesus' prayer is a prayer for future saints through the gospel of Christ through the apostles. “Because of their word” is what the disciples preach, and when they say, “Verse 14, I have given them your word,” it means the gospel of the Lord. The gospel is Christ Himself (Mark 1:1, John 1:1-4, 14) and the way of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18). The church may have various opinions, but in the past, the church must be established with the gospel of Christ in order to meet the Lord's prayer. We build up the church by preaching the word of Christ, and by beating ourselves in front of the word and making it obedient, when we become a church of one word, we will be revived (Acts 6:7). We must build up the church by loving each other as the gospel of love (John 13:34), without being demeaning or scornful of others.
2. It is the will of the Lord 21~
“Father in me, I in the Father… They too may all be one in us…” Just as the Father and the Son are one unity, the saints were all united in Christ and prayed to the people of the world (verse 11). It is Junimi's earnest wish as he prays for all the churches in the world to become one. There is only one intangible church, the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). We just need to imitate the close unity of the Father and the Son and strive with the help of the Holy Spirit, who has united us in the person of faith (Ephesians 4:3). If we yield the truth and artificially try to become one, we will be divided and we cannot expect the fruits of evangelism.
3. It is to receive the blessing of glory 22~
“The glory that was given to me, I have given them, so that we may become one.” The glory God has given to Christ is the glory of the only begotten Son (John 1:14). Giving this glory to the saints means that the saints are adopted by God (Romans 8:15) and becoming like Christ and forming his image (Galatians 4:19; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Having received this blessing of glory, we must give glory to God (John 9:24). God foreordained our glory before the ages (1 Corinthians 2:7). The glory we will enjoy through the Lord begins with the earthly life of becoming God's children through union with the Lord and is fully realized in the future heaven. We must show this life to the world.
4. It is a truly blessed relationship 23~
“Immediately, I have made them perfect in them, and the Father is in me, so that the world may know that they also loved them...” The resulting revival cannot be expected. The reason we can be united with the God of the saints is because Jesus is in the saints and also in God. No one can come to the Father, that is, God except through the Son, who is Christ (John 14:6), and it cannot but be called a blessed relationship. “Perfect” means “to carry out, to complete,” and is used to indicate “fulfillment” (John 19:28). Just as the unity of the saints is the “complete” oneness of God and Jesus, our unity must be “completely” devoted to becoming one. The evidence is that God loved us as he loved Jesus and sent Jesus (John 3:16), and we must make this known to the world.
[Conclusion] Since the church centered on grace and truth is the very nature of the living God, each work is one and the same (1 Corinthians 12:20). We must form a unity centered on God. This is because the church is united through spiritual worship and the beautiful image is known to the world, so the church is revived (Acts 3:37-47).