I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one [and] that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and [that] thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Jesus is praying aloud to His Father on the last night before the cross. He asks for a oneness among His people so complete that the world will one day know two things: that the Father sent Him, and that the Father loves His people just as He loves His Son.
This verse is not repeating what came before it. Writers on this chapter count three separate unities in the prayer. This one stands apart: it belongs to the day when the world sees believers in glory.
This is not the simple, perfect oneness of verse 11, nor the two-way communion of verse 21. It is Christ in all believers, and the Father in Christ — a unity put on display in glory, not just an inward communion — a oneness in which everything is perfectly linked to its source. And Christ, whom alone they were to show, is in them; and the Father, whom Christ had perfectly shown, is in Him.
Much hangs on the word translated "perfectly one." Its Greek root decides the sense.
The Greek word teleioo (from teleios, 'perfect') means 'to make perfect, complete,' not just to bring to an end. See John 17:23; Heb. 2:10; Heb. 5:9; Heb. 10:1; Heb. 11:40; James 2:22.
That raises an honest question about the divisions among Christians today. One writer names the cause, and then says how much it will take before this unity appears.
What has spoiled the unity, and scattered and divided God's people on earth? Is it not that we allow so much in our lives that is not of Christ? Yet even so, suppose every believer on earth expressed Christ alone at any given moment. That would still fall short of the unity the Lord speaks of in these closing verses. It will take nothing less than the whole company of God's people in glory to set out the full greatness of Christ.
Christ living in His people is a present fact, but the phrase points forward to something the eye will see.
If Christ is in us now the hope of glory, He will be in us then the display of glory. He will be glorified in His saints, and admired in all who believe. This is not mutual communion here, but display. The display comes through the fullness and excellence of the One shown living in the one who shows Him: the Father in Christ, and Christ in us.
Two verses earlier, the aim was that the world would believe. Here the word changes to "know."
So only then will they be "perfected into one," and only then will the world "know" that the Father sent the Son. For how else could people who were once sinners stand in heavenly glory, except by the Son He sent to save them? And how else could the world learn that the Father loved them even as He loved the Son, except by seeing them shown with Him in glory? Today the question is whether the world will "believe." In that day the world will "know," because it will see the glory in which Christ and the church shine together.
That same sight overturns the world's old verdict on Christ and on His people.
When the world sees Christ displayed in glory in His people, they will know that the One they despised and hated really was the One the Father sent. They will also realise that the Father loves the people of Christ, whom they threw out and persecuted, with the same love He has for Christ.
The world's discovery is future. The believer's is not; the last clause is something faith can rest in today.
Yes, the Lord Jesus wants the world to know our wonderful link with Him. It reaches even into the deepest thing of all — His place in the Father's love. We do not wait till then to know it. We know it now, "to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:6)
That love has a stated measure.
We are told that the Father loves us as He has loved Jesus… The Father's love for the Son is infinite, eternal and unchanging. That love is the measure of His love for us, His children.
- Distinct — this is a third kind of oneness, unlike verse 11 and verse 21: a unity the world will see when believers appear in glory.
- Indwelt — "I in them and you in me" is the order of display: the Father shown in Christ, Christ shown in us.
- Perfected — the word means completed, not just stopped. Everything in us that is not Christ spoils the unity now; in glory it will be whole.
- Known — today Christ asks the world to believe. On that day it will know, because it will see the glory.
- Loved — the Father's love for His Son is the measure of His love for His children. We can enjoy it now, long before the world sees it.
Father, [as to] those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before [the] foundation of [the] world.
Jesus opened this prayer by asking the Father to glorify Him. He closes it by asking something for His own: that they stand where He stands and see what He is.
Through the chapter Jesus asks. Here the wording shifts, and one writer weighs the change:
"Father, I will," He says. This is no prayer. It is the assertion of the same will that, moments later, would give way to the Father's will and the necessity of the cross, when He prayed in the shadows of the garden: "Not My will but Yours be done"... The "will" of verse 24 goes beyond prayer, or petition, or demand. It is a claim. Demands had come before. This one matches the Father's own good pleasure. It is a righteous title to those who are "His own," resting on everlasting love. The result is sure.
This writer follows an older translation. Where the ESV reads "I desire," it reads "I will."
Everything else is finished. One writer names the one thing that is left:
He has finished everything, accomplished everything, glorified His Father in everything. Only one thing remains: to have us with Himself... And this is because love never tolerates absence. That is one of love's distinct marks. Love may bear absence, and have to endure it, but it is impatient with it.
Grace moves in two directions, and the second is the greater:
It is wonderful grace that the Lord Jesus should come down to us where we are. It is even more wonderful that He should take us up to be with Him where He is. When He comes down to us He supplies our wants, and meets the needs of our hearts. When He lifts us up into His own home to be with Him, He goes beyond all the needs and desires of our hearts, and meets the deep longings of His own heart.
Two verses earlier, the glory goes to His own for everyone to see. Here something changes:
Some things will be displayed in the world to come, but some things will never be displayed... The glory given to Christ as man is given to the assembly, and they will show that glory to the universe. But in verse 24 we come to something beyond display. In Christianity there is always something hidden that the world will never know... The secret joys known in the Father's house will never be put on display.
He also assumes something about His own:
How wonderful this is — that Jesus counts on the delight of our hearts in seeing His glory! Think of Him counting on us like that! We know what we are, how easily selfish and cold; and yet He counts on this — our joy in seeing His glory! He keeps the best wine for last... No one else's eye will be there. No one will interfere with that joy.
The chapter speaks of glory more than once, and the differences matter:
There is a glory we will neither see nor share: that is in verse 5. There is a glory we will share: that is in verse 22. There is a glory in verse 24 which we will see but not share... We will be given to look at Him in all the sweetness of His lasting place in the Father's affections, but we will not share that place... and we will not be jealous, but we will thankfully own that He alone is entitled to it.
The verse ends with a reason, and one writer draws out what it implies:
This is the love of the Father for the Son; He speaks of that love being set on Him before the world was brought into being. It seems almost superfluous to have to say that we cannot have the love of relationship without the relationship.
That love does not stay closed. It reaches to everyone who belongs to Christ:
It is a glory that flows from love, the Father's personal love to the Son, but which of necessity includes in that all that are His.
- Love first. The verse ends where everything begins: the Father loved the Son before the world existed. Love of that kind implies a relationship of that kind — eternal.
- Love gives. Out of that love the Father gave people to the Son, and gave the Son a glory that flows from that same love.
- Love claims. Jesus does not just ask. He states His will. It is a righteous title to His own, resting on everlasting love, and the result is sure.
- Love gathers. Love will not tolerate absence. Grace brought Him down to where we are; greater grace lifts us up to where He is.
- Love shows. In the end He brings us to where He is. There He shows us a glory we can only gaze at — hidden from the world, kept back like the best wine, His alone, and our joy forever.