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Chapters 14 through 17 form a distinct section of the Gospel of John. In this portion of the Word, the Lord first gave a message to His disciples and then offered the prayer recorded in chapter 17. At the beginning of this section we have the subject of the Lord’s last words to His disciples before His crucifixion: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (14:3). Here the Lord revealed His intention to bring His disciples to the place where He Himself was.
The place where the Lord is actually is not a place; it is a person. In John 14:4 the Lord said, “Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas replied that they did not know where the Lord was going, and he asked how they could know the way (v. 5). Then the Lord said to him, “I am the way” (v. 6). This indicates that the way is a person, Christ Himself. The Lord also said to Thomas, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This reveals that the place is the Father. Therefore, the way is a person, and the place is also a person. Not many Christians have seen this. The way is the Son; and the destination, the place to which the way leads, is the Father.
Although the Son is the way, He can be the way only through crucifixion and resurrection. An uncrucified Christ could not be the way. As a whole, the New Testament reveals that Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to become the way for us to enter into the Father. By Him as our way we can be in the Father, just as He is in the Father.
In chapters 14 and 17 of John there are two where s. The first, which we have already considered, is in 14:3, and the second is in 17:24. In this verse the Lord prayed, “Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me.” The where in 14:3 refers to the Father, but the where in 17:24 refers to the glory of the Father. The Son is first in the Father and then in the Father’s glory. The glory of the Father is the Father Himself expressed; hence, glory is the expression of the Father.
The Gospel of John speaks of the glorification of the Father in the glorification of the Son (13:31-32; 17:1). At the beginning of His prayer in chapter 17, the Lord prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). This is the subject of the Lord’s prayer in this chapter. The Son was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle for God’s dwelling on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory was concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the Mount of Transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, as seen by the three disciples (Matt. 17:1-3). But it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He had predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (John 12:23; 13:31-32). Now He was going to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken for His divine element, His divine life, to be released. He was also to be resurrected so that His humanity might be uplifted into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed so that His entire being, both divinity and humanity, might be glorified. Thus the Father would be glorified in Him.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was in the Father, but, in a sense, He was not in the Father’s glory. John 7:39 says, “Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 12:16 also indicates that Jesus was not yet in the Father’s glory: “These things His disciples did not understand at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him.” When the Lord was crucified and resurrected, He was glorified (Luke 24:26). This means that after His resurrection, Christ was not only in the Father but also in the Father’s glory.
To be in the Father is to have the life and nature of the Father and to be one with Him in that life and nature. Glory, however, does not refer to life and nature; it refers to expression. Therefore, when we are in the Father, we have the Father’s life and nature; but when we are in the Father’s glory, we express the Father. We have pointed out that, in a sense, prior to His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus was not in the glory of the Father. However, in another sense, on occasion He was in the Father’s glory, as He was on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). During that time on the mountain, Peter, James, and John beheld the Lord’s glory. Furthermore, glory was evident both when the Lord fed the multitude and when He raised Lazarus from the dead. What people saw in Him at such times was the expression of the Father. After His resurrection Christ was always in the glory of the Father. In every sense Christ today is both in the Father and in the Father’s glory.
We need to ask ourselves whether or not we are in the Father and in the Father’s glory. Although we may have the confidence to say that we are in the Father, we may not have the boldness to say that we are in His glory.
Many Christians think that the place spoken of in John 14:3 is the heavenly mansion. But if we consider this verse in its context, we will see that this place is the Father, not the heavenly mansion. We were born in Adam, not in the Father. However, it is a basic concept in the New Testament that God’s intention is to put us into Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. The fact that Christ’s death and resurrection have opened the new and living way for us to enter into the presence of God is revealed in Hebrews 10. To enter into God’s presence is to enter into God, for the Holy of Holies is actually God Himself.
When the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples the night before He was crucified, His disciples had not yet been brought into the Father, although they had been following the Lord for three and a half years. At that time, only the Lord Himself was in the Father. However, the Lord told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them and to cut the way into that place so that they could be in the Father where He was. The highest definition of God’s salvation is that to be saved is to be brought by God into Himself. When we repented to God and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into God the Father, although we might not have realized this at the time. According to the context of John 14, this is God’s highest intention. Through the crucified and resurrected Christ, God has brought us into Himself.
Entering into the Father is for oneness. Today many Christians are talking about oneness or unity. There is a difference between unity and oneness. We are not united, but we are one. For example, although the fluorescent lamps in the meeting hall are not united, they are one in the electricity and in the shining of the light. In a similar way, we are not united, but we are one in the indwelling Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is our oneness. We are not united to express God; however, we are one in God’s expression, just as these fluorescent lamps are one in the shining of light. We are one in the Father and in His expression. Outside the Father and His expression there is no place for us to be one. Therefore, in order to have the genuine oneness, we must be brought into the Father.
Ephesians 4 tells us to keep the oneness of the Spirit. The way to keep the oneness is to remain in the Father. In ourselves we are separated from one another. But as long as we remain in the Father, we are in the oneness.
In His prayer in John 17 the Lord did not pray that the disciples would be brought into the Father, for He assumed that they were in the Father already. By being in the Father the disciples had the genuine oneness, but they still needed to be perfected in this oneness. The reason you may not have the boldness to say that you are in the glory of the Father is that you have not yet been perfected into one. To be perfected into one means to be rescued from worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts.
John 17:23 is a difficult verse to understand: “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” As you read this verse, you may wonder what “I in them” and “You in Me” have to do with being perfected into one. Here the Lord does not say, “You in Me, and I in them.” This seems more logical than saying, “I in them, and You in Me,” for then the Father would be working in the Son, who would in turn be working in the believers to perfect them into one. But looking at this verse according to our experience, I believe it means that while Christ is working in us, the Father is working in Him. In other words, while the Son moves in us, the Father moves in Him. This twofold movement causes us to be perfected. “I in them”—this means that the Son is living and moving in us. “You in Me”—this means that the Father is living and moving in the Son. By this twofold living and moving, we are perfected into one.
Recently, in one of the meetings in Anaheim, the saints were praying and sharing about the renewing of the mind. In order for our mind to be renewed, we must drop our concepts and opinions. However, in ourselves it is difficult to drop our opinions. The more we try to forsake our opinions, the more opinions we have. Actually, every thought is an opinion. None of us can stop thinking; we think even in our sleep. Even a little child has opinions. When the Son lives and moves in us with the Father living and moving in Him, we are rescued from opinions and are thereby perfected. Genuine oneness does not come from being taught or from holding certain doctrinal concepts. Real oneness comes from the Son living and moving in us with the Father living and moving in Him. Through this twofold living and moving we are perfected into one, and we express the Father.
It is a matter of great significance to be one where the Son is. None of the fallen people are in the Father; they are in themselves. Because they are not in the Father, they are not in the expression of God. On the contrary, they are in worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts and opinions. In the previous chapter we pointed out that the world is constituted of ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts, not merely of such superficial things as fashion and entertainment. The fallen people are altogether in themselves and in the world. In a sense, not even all those who have truly been saved are actually in the Father, for many still live in themselves, expressing worldliness, self-exaltation, ambition, and concepts. These four things are in the very fiber of our being. Even among the Christians who seek the Lord, not many are truly living in the Father and in the Father’s glory. As a result, the genuine oneness is lost.
We all need to have a proper understanding of oneness. It is possible for us to meet together and still not be in the genuine oneness. We have true oneness only by living in the Father and in His glory.
Many Christians speak about the oneness in John 17 with no real understanding of what they are talking about. To a certain extent, this may be our situation also. The oneness in John 17 is not a matter of gathering, union, or organization. The oneness here is the living in the Father and in His glory. Such a living rescues us from worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts.
Often we break the oneness unconsciously, perhaps even by our way of speaking. Our talk may be worldly, filled with ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts. Thus, in our speaking we may not be in the expression of the Father. Those who live in the Father’s glory can sense this. Because the unbelievers live in themselves and in the world, they do not have oneness. Instead, they have Babel, that is, confusion with division. However, even seeking Christians, including us, may also be in Babel. We may have the correct terminology and we may know that the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the genuine oneness, but we may not actually have this oneness. If we are still in ourselves, not in the expression of the Father, the oneness is damaged.
As the indwelling Christ lives and moves within us with the Father living and moving in Him, we are rescued from our ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts. Sometimes when I am with the leading ones, I have the impression that they are too quick to express their opinion or to make decisions. This indicates that they have not been perfected into one. If we have been perfected, we will not be bold in expressing our opinions or in making decisions. We would be restrained by the indwelling Christ, and we would spontaneously check whether what we are about to say is of Christ or of the self. This is the perfecting. If all the leading ones are perfected in this way, there will be no dissension among them.
The Lord’s prayer in John 17 reveals that we need to be brought onward from being just in the Father to being in the Father’s glory. According to the book of Acts, it is possible to be brought into the glory of the Father within a very short period of time. In the Gospels the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, asked the Lord to give them a high position in the kingdom (Mark 10:35-41). The fact that the other ten disciples became indignant with them over this indicates that all twelve were competing for position. Therefore, among the disciples there was worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and concepts. In the book of Acts, however, the situation is altogether different. In Acts 1 the one hundred and twenty prayed in one accord (v. 14). Thus, on the day of Pentecost they were not only in the Father but also in the Father’s glory. At that time there was no worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or concepts. Instead, there was only the expression of the Father. The genuine oneness had been perfected among them.
Oneness is possible and prevailing only where the Son is. The Son is in the Father and in the Father’s glory. Without doubt, Peter, John, and the other early disciples could boldly testify that they were in the Father and in His glory. Therefore, in the early chapters of Acts, the Lord’s word in John 14 through 16 and His prayer in John 17 were fulfilled among them, for they had all been perfected into one. The Lord Jesus could boast, “Father, I am in You, You are in Me, and all these are in Us and in the glory. They are with Me where I am.”
We need to be delivered from a false understanding of oneness. Oneness does not mean that we have the same concept or that we merely gather together without dissension or division. Genuine oneness is our living in the Father and in the Father’s glory. Whatever we think, say, and do must be in the Father and in His glory. When we live in this way, we are perfected into one. This is not a matter of outward behavior but of inward reality, and we need to devote our full attention to it. Instead of living in ourselves—in our goal, purpose, ambition, feeling, or concept—we should live in the Father and in His expression. Then we will be one where the Son is.
