The Oneness
And I have declared unto them thy name
John 17:26
And 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 17:26)
The Son of God begins Chapter 17 as He remembers His time in the Godhead before the world was. There are three separate ministries here: 1 – the Son reveals the Father with His glory before the world was, 2 – He also reveals the great I AM drawing the complete Godhead into a single name, and revealing that name unto the world: 3 – He also declares the Father’s name unto those who the Father had given to Him. In verse 1 of Chapter 17 we have the Son of God beginning His address to God the Father. Although He is on the Mount of Olives, by His speech we have Him in a heavenly realm. This entire scene on the Mount of Olives takes place in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and a heavenly host witnesses who later ministers to God’s beloved Son. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:43)
In verse 1 of John’s Gospel Chapter 17, we have the eternal Son asking the Father to minister unto Him in His hour of need. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: (John 17:1) The hour of His departure was at hand for the cross laid before Him, and He knew that His time had come; now was the time of the cross, but the beginning of His agony was taking place in the garden. All the weight of Calvary lay upon Him for He knew every step that He would take to the cross where He would give His life for the sin of the world. He requests that the Father glorify Him, His beloved Son, in the inseparable glory that the Son had with the Father. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:5) As the Son of God He knew the glory before the world was, and as Jesus Christ, the man, He was about to experience the glory that He had with God the Father before the world was. This is the eternal glory of the Godhead revealed in Jesus Christ. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3) Christ is the complete brightness and the complete expression of the glory of God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9)
It is a mystery to man to understand the fullness of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. Even His disciples then and now could not then, and cannot now comprehend the fullness of God in Jesus Christ. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, (Ephesians 1:22) Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23)
In verse 2 of John’s Gospel Chapter 17 God the Father has given God the Son power over all flesh. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. (John 17:2) He is also to give eternal life to those who were given to Him by the Father. These are His beloved, they receive not only the glory of Christ, but the love of God in that glory that is brought by His Son to us; as many as were given to Him by the Father, — this must be a set amount. It is the gift of the Father to the Son that the Son would go and prepare a Bride for Himself. The Holy Spirit ministers the salvation of Christ to the hearts of men. When I am born of God I enter into Christ’s glory. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13) I enter into Christ’s glory, I become a part of this glory of the Body of Christ and of Him who fills all in all. This is the Body of His Church. He will present this Body to Himself, not having spot or wrinkle, but a perfect Church in the divine order. The Body of Christ is made up of all those who are born of God from Pentecost to the translation of the Church — past, present, and future. For the present, I am part of you, and you are part of me. This is the working of the Spirit of God who is Omnipresent, and who is working to bring those who have been given of the Father to the Son in perfect unity of Spirit. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21) Remember, we are in the presence of Deity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus declares to the Father that they (speaking of the redeemed) may be one, as He is One with the Father; therefore, we have this oneness, but it cannot be oneness without Christ and the Father ministered by the Holy Ghost. This is the supernatural working in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. He is from above, and as Christ was not of this world so also the Holy Spirit is not of this world, and this brings us to ourselves in Christ. We are not of this world, and we must be kept by the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Jesus Christ. The unity that Christ gives us is forever. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord for we have received His glory and this glory cannot be removed for He is glorified in us. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. (John 17:10) God the Father is not going to give glory to the Son and then remove glory from Him — this is impossible; therefore, we are glorified in Him and this glory is inseparable. In understanding this intimate conversation in the Godhead concerning the glory of Christ, this brings us into a position where we are glorified in Him. This changes a lot of things for the believer; the believer is recognized as part of the glory of Jesus Christ, and Christ is glorified in His own with that glory which the Father had given Him before the foundations of the earth. And we receive His glory because of who He is, the Son of the Father’s love. He is the brightness and the fullness of God’s glory. When studying the Gospel of John we immediately see that it is a supernatural book, with a supernatural Being, with a supernatural power, and a supernatural mission to call His own out of this world. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14) Those in Christ are not of this world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16) By the power of God we have been taken supernaturally out of this world in Christ Jesus; yet, the Father has left us in this world to testify of the glory of the Son of God in whom we have our glory.
Father, 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. (John 17:24) God the Father has left us in the world, we are no longer of the world, we have been marked by God and His salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, that we might be where He is.
As the Holy Spirit reveals Christ’s glory in us, that glory is seen both in the Son of God, and in us continually. It is the Omnipresence of the Son of God with His own through out all eternity. In the supernatural we are hid with Christ in God.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2)
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
The Lord affirms that His own should share where He is, that we may behold that glory by being in the presence of Christ. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21) And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22) Understand that the glory that was given to the Son has been given to us in the Son. We are partakers of that glory, and that glory defines our unity in Christ, and this unity is unbreakable. He is the supernatural Being with the supernatural power, and He has declared us as His. And the only one who was lost among those who the Father had given was the son of perdition. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)
By the way, in this seventeenth Chapter of the Gospel of John, we have the very root of the unity of Christ and the believer. As He is in the Father, He is also in us, and as we are in the world, we are also in Him. John 17 assures us that we are not on our own, for we have the presence of Christ within us. This cannot be taught of man, this cannot be given by man, this can only be given supernaturally by the Spirit of Christ; therefore, in this world we are not on our own because of the presence of Jesus Christ within us. The Father has displayed His love by giving His beloved Son to us for a sacrifice for our sin; therefore, Christ has loved us in that sacrifice in Himself, and the Holy Spirit loves us in declaring Christ in us. Once again, because of the unity of Christ, and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that all those who believe might be one in Him.
The Two Seeds – The Two Sons – after the flesh and after the spirit
Let’s turn to Genesis . . . Abraham was four score and six years old (86) when he has Ishmael by Hagar. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. (Genesis 16:16) Later when Abraham was one hundred years old (100) Sarah gave birth to Isaac who was the seed of promise. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. (Genesis 21:5) We have two sons, these two sons are both born to Abraham; however, one is born to a bondwoman Hagar who was Ishmael, and Isaac was born to a free woman who was Sarah. Paul in the Book of Galatians describes these two sons as Ishmael being the flesh, and Isaac being of the spirit, and of the promise.
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. (Galatians 4:22)
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. (Galatians 4:23)
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. (Galatians 4:24)
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (Galatians 4:25)
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:26)
For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. (Galatians 4:27)
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Galatians 4:28)
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. (Galatians 4:29)
Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. (Galatians 4:30)
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Galatians 4:31)
Ishmael is the son born after the flesh, and his life would be as a wild man doing all things by guile and by emotions of the flesh. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. (Genesis 16:12)When Isaac was weaned Abraham gave a great feast. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. (Genesis 21:8) In this day of the feast, Ishmael mocked the child of promise, or the son born after the spirit. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. (Genesis 21:9)
This led to the bondwoman and her son being cast out at the demand of Sarah; however, remember Sarah did not have faith concerning the birth of the promised seed, so it was Sarah who took it upon herself to give Abraham her bondwoman Hagar; not believing God and His promises brought about this situation. In Galatians 4, Paul separates the two sons. He affirms Ishmael as the son of the flesh, and Isaac as born after the spirit. Paul uses these two sons to differentiate between those of the world, and those of God. Paul brings us up to date in (Galatians 4:29) But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. This doctrine of the two seeds is also found in the Gospel of John in Chapter 17.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (John 17:15)
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16)
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. (John 17:18)
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19)
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (John 17:20)
In this section we see the battle between flesh and spirit: they who are of the world versus they who have been taken out of the world. The Lord declares that He has given us His Father’s word, and because we have the Word of God within us, the world hates us. This is strong language; and yet, it is the truth from the Lord Jesus Himself. When we become a new born babe in Christ, we desire the sincere milk of the word of God. The whole Godhead supports us with the Word of God in this world. We are no longer children of Adam, or children of the world, but we are children of God in Jesus Christ. He gives us His Word and clarifies that He has received these words from the Father. In John 17:17 the Lord Jesus declares thy word is truth. We respond to the Word of God because our eyes and our hearts and our souls has been opened by God to the light of the glorious gospel. The living Word guides us with the Holy Spirit through the written Word — why — because we are free in Christ and we are no longer of this world. For our knowledge of the Word of God, the Lord Jesus proclaims that the world in it’s enmity hates us for the Word of truth. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)
Why and how are we not of this world? As Christ is not of this world, He has taken us through divine purpose out of this world. When Christ was in the world He was still in the presence of the Father, and in Him. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21) This unity of Father and Son can never be broken, can never be separated for the Son is continually in the bosom of the Father. This now leads us to those who belong to Christ. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22) The Lord Jesus speaking to the Father confirms that the glory that the Father had given Him has in turn been given to His beloved by Himself. (And if that doesn’t get a Hallelujah examine yourself in prayer.)
Christ Liveth In Me
The Son of God has given us this glory which, once again, brings us into oneness with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This glory in turn brings all believers in Christ as one. We are one with God, and one with each other in the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We now get ‘Christ liveth in me,’ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) The Son of God is in us, and lives within us. I 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. (John 17:23)
Oneness in Perfection
We have just opened a treasure chest of oneness in verse 23. Not only are we one with Him, but in that oneness we are made perfect. Now, the word ‘perfection,’ when something is perfect can you take anything away from it? Can you mar it, or change it? It would be impossible, for the article is perfect; therefore, we enter into a relationship with the Son of God in His perfection, and we are made perfect in Him. What is the reason for the perfection? That we may glorify the Son of God, that the world may know that the Father sent His Son to be the savior of the world. Christ is and always will be God’s beloved Son. When He is LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS He will still hold the position of Sonship with the Father. This is confirmed in verse 24 of John 17, Father, 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.
At the end of this verse, we have the eternal love of God the Father for the Son of God before the foundation of the world. Notice, the two small words I will. This is one of the biggest blessings to us because the Son of God wishes our presence where He is; that we as believers would be in His presence where He is. He is talking about His eternal presence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. (John 3:11) The Lord Jesus defines the three Persons of the Godhead, read carefully and you not only see the Godhead, but you see the Omnipresence of all three.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:12) These are not earthly things, but heavenly things and can only be revealed through the Word of God and God the Holy Spirit. Verses 11 and 12 deal with that which is supernatural and not of this world. In verse 13 of John 3 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. The Lord Jesus brings before us His Omnipresence which we have been viewing in John 17. He, as the Son of God and the son of man, is Omnipresent on earth and in heaven, He is traveling through the essence of eternity as one with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Father, 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. (John 17:24) We are reminded that we have been taken out of this world, but now with the indwelling of the Spirit of God we are allowed to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I realize that it is truly in a spiritual sense; however, God would have our hearts and souls in this position of oneness with Christ. It is His will that we should feel His presence. He said, ‘I will,’ and this glory has been given before the foundation of the world.
Now listen closely to the Son of God. He said that the world has not known the Father. The Jew used the term, ‘father Abraham,’ in a relationship to them; however, they had no knowledge of God as Father. When the Lord Jesus was asked to teach them to pray, the prayer began with, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9) The Jew received a new revelation from Jesus Christ that God was their Father. The eternal Son of God proclaimed that the world did not know the Father, but the Son both knew and declared Him. And in His testimony to those He loved and loves, we know the Father sent the Son into the world to be the Savior. And 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 17:26) The Lord Jesus finalizes this chapter by stating that it is He who has come forth from God to proclaim the Father’s name, and He has proclaimed it to us, and He will continually declare it through us; that the love of God which was in God the Father, and God the Son be in all those who believe in Him — for He is most precious. Amen.
(Just a few thoughts on the Gospel of John, Chapter 17, may the Holy Spirit use these thoughts and many more on this crowning chapter in the Word of God.)
© Copyright 2016, Michael Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the Authorized King James Bible. (KJV)