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.
Righteous Father, -- and the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Near the end of His prayer before the cross, Jesus sums up: the world on one side, Himself and His own on the other. He also changes how He speaks to God — no longer "Holy Father" but "righteous Father."
Twice in this prayer Jesus adds a word to the Father's name. Each name matches what He is looking at as He speaks.
The world was sunk in ignorance of the Father. When Jesus prayed that His disciples would be kept safe in the world, He called the Father "Holy" (verse 11). His holiness was to govern how they were kept separate from the world. In verse 25 He looks at the world itself in its sin and blindness, so He calls the Father "Righteous." So the divine righteousness stands over against the world's sin.
The name fits what He now asks for. He wants the case between Himself and the world settled, and the answer came soon.
Now He says "Righteous Father." The Father was to decide between two sides: Christ with those who had received Him, and the world that had rejected Him. It was a solemn moment for the world. He had come in pure grace. He had faithfully shown the Father and glorified Him. And now He asked the Father Himself to decide in righteousness between Him and the world. The answer very soon followed, when Jesus sat down on the Father's throne.
The world's failure to know God is a verdict, not a gap in education. The Son displayed the Father in full, and the world had no appetite for what it saw.
Christ had declared the righteous Father, but the lawless world had no heart for that revelation. There was no affinity between the righteous Father and the unrighteous world. The world waits and looks for the man of sin; it will recognise him when he arises, and it will hurry to his banner; but the righteous Father — it will have none of Him.
The world has its own record of triumph. One writer holds it up against this one clause:
That world, with all its triumph, all its frightful sin and cruelty and all its darkness, is passed by in one phrase: "the world has not known You." Write that over all the exhibits of history, over all its kings and conquerors and empires. It comes to just this: the world is nothing in this setting.
Against that blank stands one Man. If the knowledge of the Father is not in the world, there is only one place to find it.
There is no knowledge of the Righteous Father in this world. So we would look for Him in vain in the schools of this world. But the Son could add, "But I have known You." Here is One who holds the full and perfect knowledge of the Father. That Father is the Righteous Father, the source of all, and righteous in all that He does.
The last clause is the surprise. After all the heights of this prayer, what Jesus credits to His disciples is very small. That is the comfort of it.
Does He here say, in speaking of His own in contrast with the world, that they had been true to Him? No. He says, "But I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me." After all the heights of this chapter, how blessed to find that He comes down so far. He speaks this way for a reason. Our hearts could get lost comparing what He says of us with what we are. Instead, He wants us to know that He comes down to the very least perception the Christian has of what He is.
Small as it is, it has grown — and the Spirit now gives that knowledge. Earlier in the same prayer the wording was different:
Earlier, in verse 8, He had said, "They have believed that You sent Me." Now He can say, "These have known that You have sent Me." How blessed for us not only to believe, but also to know that the Father sent the Son. Now the Son has gone to heaven, and the Holy Spirit has been given to us. The Spirit is the power within us that gives us the knowledge of the things of God.
- Righteous, not Holy — the name changes with the subject. "Holy Father" guards His own inside the world. "Righteous Father" faces the world itself in its sin and blindness.
- A verdict asked — the Son asks the Father to judge between Himself and the world that rejected Him. The answer came when He sat down on the Father's throne.
- No affinity — the world's problem is not a lack of information but a lack of appetite. It will run to the man of sin and will have none of the righteous Father.
- One who knew — the knowledge missing from every school in the world is full and perfect in the Son.
- He comes down — what He credits to His own is one thing: they knew the Father sent Him. He comes down to the least perception we have of Him. And their faith has moved from believing to knowing.
And I have made known to them thy name, and will make [it] known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.
These are the last words of Jesus' prayer before He goes out to the cross. They name the goal of everything He has revealed: that the Father's love for Him should live inside His people. Two things carry the weight — a name made known and still to be made known, and Christ Himself living in those who receive it.
Making known a "name" in Scripture is not handing over a label. It is opening up the whole reality of who someone is, and here that reality is a relationship.
Again, in Scripture a name always expresses the truth of what the person is. For example, when believers gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 18), it means they gather to the truth of all that Christ is — Christ as both Jesus and Lord. So the name of the Father is the revelation of all that He is in the relationship that name expresses.
Commentators differ on what the future half of the sentence points to. Some see it as the resurrection message sent through Mary — one finished act, with nothing left to add:
This clause applies to what was then future — the resurrection. It found its blessed fulfilment in the message sent to the disciples through Mary: "Go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." ... No one doubts that, once they had grasped this in some measure, they would go on to learn more of the Father's name. But the Name had been made known, and nothing more could be added to it.
Others tie it to what the disciples could not yet carry, and to the Spirit who would afterwards open it to them:
He had been already doing so through His life, but it does not stop there — quite the opposite. It was to be declared with still greater fulness afterwards. There were many things He had to tell them, but their condition would not allow it. They could not bear them then. When the Spirit of truth came, He would guide them into all the truth.
The claim is so large that a reader may doubt it.
We can well imagine someone saying: "But surely that love with which the Father loves the Son cannot be the same love with which He loves me." Yet that is exactly what the Scripture says, as though to shut out any other possibility... Our capacity is limited. How many an earthly cloud rises to hide Him from our eyes! But we are told that the love is the same.
One small word makes the difference.
Notice that it says "in" them, not "on" them. This shows at once that we are not simply the objects of the Father's heart — which we surely are. What is in view here is that the love should be known and enjoyed inside us. How we need constant watchfulness and self-judgment, then, so that nothing robs us of our heavenly portion!
And this enjoyment is not postponed to heaven:
It is certainly meant to be the present portion of God's children. Only their own state and capacity can limit it. This is the joy of the Father's house, and we enter it now, in a world where we must have trouble.
How can hearts like ours hold a love that great? The last phrase answers.
...so that the love with which the Father had loved Him might be in them — that their hearts might have it in this world. What grace! And Jesus Himself in them, the One who passes that love on, the source of strength to enjoy it. He carries it, so to speak, in all the perfection in which He enjoyed it, into their hearts, where He dwelt. He is Himself the strength, the life, the capacity, the right, and the means of enjoying it in this way.
What we take in then shows in how we live:
If we are enjoying this love, Christ will dwell in our hearts and show in our lives, as the Lord can say, "I in them." So the great prayer closes with the purpose behind all the Lord's last instructions to His disciples, and behind the prayer to the Father itself: that His people should represent Him in word, in acts, and in manner while He is away.
- Name — to declare the Father's name is to open up all that He is in that relationship, not merely to supply a title.
- Declared — the making known has a past and a future side. Commentators differ: does the future half point to the resurrection message, or to Christ's ongoing work by the Spirit?
- Same — the love the Father has for His Son is the love He has for His people; our capacity is limited, but the love is the same.
- In — that love is to be in us, not only on us; known and enjoyed inside, which is why watchfulness matters.
- Now — this love is the present portion of God's children, even in a world of trouble. Christ in us is the strength to enjoy it, and the reason it shows in how we live.