The oneness of the Father and the Son is absolutely crucial in our relationship to them. We step into everything that they are for one another and we live that. It’s a place of absolute joy because joy is the atmosphere of heaven. It’s a place of intentional love. It is a place of deepest affection. And you’re in that place, and you’re in Christ and He’s in you, and you stand in the relationship of their oneness. So they both look at you in the exact way that they both look at each other.
When the Father sees you, He doesn’t see anything wrong with you. He’s not obsessed by sin… He is consumed by Life and He has dealt with sin once and for all… So when God looks at you He’s not dealing with sin, He’s dealing with righteousness… There’s now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Your role is to be the beloved.
~Graham Cooke
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. The glory that you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that you have given Me because You loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent Me. I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.
~ Jesus, King of the universe, Talking to His Dad in John 17
Oh beloved, it is true. The King of the universe prayed directly for you (and me). He did it often, and often by name. This, though is one of the only places we see in scripture the passion with which He plead for those who would be reborn by the work He was about to do.
He prayed that The Word would set them apart from the world.
He prayed that we – the body of believers in Him – would have complete unity.
He prayed for our protection.
He prayed that we would be able to see and experience the infinite beauty and overpowering goodness of G_d.
He prayed that the very Love of the Father would be within us.
He prayed that we would – literally – know the Father personally.
He prayed that we would understand that the Love the Father has for the Son, and the Son for the Father, and both for the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit for both in return – is the very same Love with which we are Loved. The very same Love which holds the Trinity together in unity is the same Power which draws us into oneness with the One who is Love.
And that prayer is happening right now.
Can we see it? The Love He is talking about is not simply current, it is timeless. And the One’s having the conversation are timeless too. This same Jesus praying in John 17, reminds all who will listen in John 8 that “before Abraham was, I AM.” This is a prayer that began in the depths of eternity – it is a prayer that simply has no beginning and has no end.
Beloved, we are already in eternity. All time is contained within this context. The prayer was given human voice in the temporal moments before Jesus allowed Himself to be slain for us on this planet. But the words were simply the manifestation of the wonderfully unchanging heart of G_d.
Said simply again: Jesus is praying for you, right now. Jesus is praying for all of us, right now. And as the prayers of a righteous man avail much, the answers to His pleas are unassailable.
So thankful it is true!
