Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
746 words, 4 minutes read time

We Are One!

Scripture: John 17:9-11

In the previous lesson we looked at those who received the word from the Lord and kept it. In this lesson we will see that we are to allow Jesus to be glorified in us.

^{Jn 17:9} I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

These that the Father have given to Jesus are the ones Jesus is praying for, not those of the world. These that Jesus is praying for were chosen out of the world and adopted as his children. It is these children that were given to Jesus who gave to them eternal life. These children were redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus and now belong to both the Father and the Son and are indwelt by the Spirit. All that the Father had chosen and caused to be born again and adopted as his children, he has given to Jesus, and in these Jesus is glorified.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV). It is Christ living in us that he is able to be glorified in us. He is glorified in us occurs primarily when he returns for us: “when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV).

When Jesus said, “I am no longer in the world,” he was speaking of the time after his ascension. After his work was finished on the cross and he has returned to his Father, we are left behind to continue ministry. While Jesus was on earth with his disciples, he kept them in the Father’s name. He kept guard over them and kept them secure except for Judas the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12). Now that Jesus is leaving, he is asking the Father to keep them in his name. He wants them to be kept from the evil one (John 17:5). He wants them kept so that he can receive them when he returns for us. The Fathers keeping is seen in Matthew 10:28 ESV: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We may suffer while we are here on earth, but our salvation is secure.

The request that we may be one is the idea of gathering sheep together to form one body, in perfect harmony with one another and with God. The glory that the Father gave to Jesus, he has given to us that we may be one even as the Father and the Son are one (John 17:21 – 22). We are individually members one of another, but we are one body in Christ (Romans 12:5). “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call” (Ephesians 4:4 ESV).

Just as God is one, he is three persons: Father, Son and Spirit, and so we are one body yet many members. That body of many members is united by the Spirit to function in perfect harmony in agape love. It will be a unity with one another and with God that is beyond our imagination today.

Conclusion

Our time on earth is a time of imperfection because of the presence of sin, but one day all who are born spiritually will form one perfect body that will function with perfect harmony and will be perfectly united with God. I don’t think we understand how much a part of God we really are as a result of our spiritual birth and the presence of the Spirit in us.