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In this message we come to the second factor of genuine oneness. The first factor is being in the Father’s name by the eternal life, and the second is being in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word (John 17:14-21). The holy word is the sanctifying word. The second stage, or the second ground, of oneness is separation from the world by the word. Although we all have been born of the same Father and into the same family, it is regrettable that many of the brothers and sisters are not home, but have been attracted to worldly things such as surfing, movies, sports, and even gambling. If we have been attracted by such worldly things, although we are all children of the Father and have the same life, it will be difficult for us to keep the genuine oneness because we are still in the world and are unsanctified. After we have been born again as the children of God, we must be separated from the world by the holy word of the Lord. The word of the Lord has the sanctifying power to separate us from the world. Once we have been separated from the world by the holy word, we shall be centralized to realize genuine oneness.
In verse 14 the Lord said, “I have given them Your word.” The Lord has given the believers two kinds of words: the logos, the constant word (vv. 14, 17), and the rhema, the instant word (v. 8). Both kinds of words are holy, having the sanctifying power to separate the believers from the world. The more we take either the Lord’s constant word or instant word into us, the more we are sanctified. The more we are nourished, saturated, and permeated with the Lord’s constant or instant word, the holier we become. And the more holiness we partake of, the more we are in the genuine oneness.
First John 5:19 says that the whole world lies in the evil one. The evil one is the devil, and the world is an evil system arranged systematically and ruled by the devil, Satan (John 12:31). Satan has systematized all the things on earth, especially those related to mankind, and the things in the air into his kingdom of darkness to possess people, to distract them from the enjoyment of God, and to frustrate them from fulfilling God’s purpose. Every aspect of the world, regardless of what it is, belongs to this satanic system. Since the whole world lies in the evil one, the believers must be kept from the evil one (v. 15), and they need to pray to be delivered from the evil one (Matt. 6:13).
The believers are not of the world (vv. 14, 16) but are separated from the world (v. 19). They have not been taken out of the world (v. 15) but have been sent into the world for the Lord’s commission (v. 18). Verse 18 says, “As You have sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” The Father sent the Son into the world with Himself as life and everything to the Son. In the same way, the Son sends His believers into the world with Himself as their life and their everything. The Son sends us, the believers, in the same way as the Father sent Him. When I came to this country, I had the deep sense within that the Lord had sent me, and I could say to Him, “Lord, You sent me to this country. Since You have sent me, You must come with me. Lord, if You won’t go, I won’t go either.” This is the way the Lord sends us into the world for His testimony.
In verse 17 the Lord prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The Father’s word carries with it the Father’s reality. When the word says, “God is light,” it conveys God as light. Hence, it is the reality, the truth, unlike Satan’s word, which is vanity, a lie (8:44). The word, being the truth, works as reality in the believers to sanctify them.
God’s living word works in the believers to separate them from anything worldly, separating them from the world and its occupation unto God and His purpose, not only positionally (Matt. 23:17, 19) but also dispositionally (Rom. 6:19, 22). This is what it means to be sanctified by the Lord’s word as the truth, the reality. This sanctification not only changes our position but also our disposition, our inward being. In the Bible, sanctification has these two aspects — the positional aspect and the dispositional aspect. In Matthew 23:17 we see that the gold is sanctified by being put into the temple. When the gold is in the market place, it is common, unholy, but when it is put into the temple, its position is changed and it is immediately sanctified, becoming the holy gold in the holy temple. But this kind of sanctification does not affect the nature or element of the gold; it merely changes the gold’s position. Hence, the gold is sanctified positionally. Some Christians only see this much regarding sanctification; they do not see the matter of dispositional sanctification. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we are told that our spirit, soul, and body are to be sanctified. This does not refer to positional sanctification but to dispositional sanctification. The sanctification mentioned in John 17 implies both aspects, for in order to maintain the proper oneness we must be sanctified both positionally and dispositionally.
Verse 19 says, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” Although the Son is absolutely holy in Himself, He still sanctified Himself in His way of living while He was on earth in order to set an example of sanctification for His disciples. Consider the way He contacted the Samaritan woman (4:5-7). The Lord did not meet her at night in a private home but during the day in the open air. As far as the Lord Himself was concerned, He could have met with the Samaritan woman, who was an immoral person, at any place and at any time. But as a man a little over thirty years of age, it would not have been a good example for His disciples if He had contacted her privately in her home at night. If He had done that, the disciples might have been confused. But, in order to set a good example for His disciples, He behaved in a sanctified way. This one example was a great help to His disciples in the future. It is not right for any young preacher to contact a woman privately at night because there is too much temptation there. To do such a thing is not holy; it is worldly. Look at the example of the Lord Jesus: He talked with Nicodemus, an elderly gentleman, late at night in a private home (3:1-2), but He talked with the immoral Samaritan woman during the daytime in the open air. In doing this the Lord sanctified Himself and set an example for His disciples to follow.
Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” The word “Us” in this verse refers to the Triune God. All the believers are one in the Triune God. In order to be one in the Triune God, we must be sanctified by the holy word. After we have been sanctified, separated from the world by the holy word, we shall enjoy the Triune God and be one in Him. In order to be in the Triune God we must firstly be separated from the beach, the movie theater, the football stadium, the gambling house, and from all other worldly places, and be separated unto the Triune God. Many Christians have not yet been separated to God. Since they still remain in the worldly places, how can they be one? Although you are a brother in life, where are you? You must be sanctified from all worldly amusements to God. In the Triune God, that is, in the Father through the Son as the Spirit, we shall be one.
The oneness in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word is the second aspect of the believers’ oneness. In this aspect of oneness, the believers who have been separated from the world unto God enjoy the Triune God as the factor of their oneness. In order to maintain this oneness, we must firstly take care of the reality of the divine life and then of the sanctification of the holy word. The holy word separates us from the world and restores us to the Father and to the Father’s home. Although many of the brothers have been distracted by the world during the past years, we thank the Lord that a good number of them have been recovered to the church life through the holy word. Both the divine life and the holy word are necessary for having the genuine oneness which results in the true building up of the church.
Now we come to the third factor of genuine oneness: in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God (vv. 22-24). As we have seen, the first ground of oneness is regeneration, receiving the life of the Father, and the second ground is sanctification, being separated from everything other than God. The world is simply everything outside of God. When we have been separated from everything outside of God to God Himself, then we are on the ground of sanctification, being separated from all worldly places and worldly things unto one center. This one center is the Triune God, the Father in the Son as the Spirit. We have been sanctified unto this very center, and herein is oneness. The third ground of this oneness is even deeper and higher than this. It is the oneness in the manifestation of the divine glory. After we have been regenerated, we must be sanctified by giving up the world, and after being separated from the world, we must live, through the denying of ourselves, by Christ as our life who is the hope of glory within us (Col. 1:27).
Verse 22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” What is the glory given to the Son by the Father? It is the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (5:26) to express the Father in His fullness (1:18; 14:9; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3). The Lord Jesus has the life and nature of God, making Him the Son of God and the manifestation of God. Hence, the glory which God gave to the Son is the life and nature of God which make the Son the expression and manifestation of God. The Father’s life and nature were given to the Son that the Son might express the Father in His fullness. Suppose the President of the United States appoints his son to visit us as his representative. When the President’s son arrives, he will have with him a certain amount of glory, the glory of representing his father, the President of the United States.
The Son has given to His believers the very glory which the Father has given to Him, that they also might have the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (John 17:2; 2 Pet. 1:4) to express the Father in the Son in His fullness (John 1:16). The glory which was first given to the Son has now been conferred upon the corporate sonship. As the many sons, we have the divine sonship with the divine life and nature to express the Father in the Son with all of His fullness. What glory this is!
Many Christians have a vain, fanciful concept of glory, thinking that it is merely an objective shining or radiance in the air into which we shall enter some day. According to this concept, when we are brought into that radiant shining, we are brought into glory. This is just a dream. What is glory? Glory is the sonship with the divine life and nature to express the Father in all His fullness. Often when we are in a good meeting we have the sense that we are in this glory.
If we would be one in the divine glory, we must forsake and forget ourselves. It must be no longer I, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). The “I” has been crucified, and the self must be denied that Christ may live in us. We must not only renounce the world but also ourselves. On the one hand, we have been sanctified from so many worldly places and worldly things and have come home to the Father’s house. On the other hand, each of us has his opinions, thoughts, or ideas. If this is the situation, how can we be one? Once we were separated into various worldly places, but now, having come home, we may still have trouble with the self. For this reason, we must not live by our own life but by the life of glory, the divine life. After we have been regenerated, we must be sanctified, and after we have been sanctified, we must be glorified. In other words, after we have the life of God, we must give up the world, and after we give up the world, we must forsake ourselves and live by the divine life. Then, in the glory of this life, we shall be one. Hence, there are three grounds or steps of the oneness of the believers: regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. Having God as our Father by regeneration is the first step; coming to the Triune God by separation from the world through the holy word is the second step; and living by the divine life of glory through denying ourselves is the third step. It is in the very application and realization of the divine life of glory that we shall all be one.
In order that the believers might participate in this oneness, the Son has given them three things: the eternal life for the first aspect of oneness (v. 2), the holy word for the second aspect of oneness (vv. 8, 14), and the divine glory for the third aspect of oneness (v. 22). We may have the divine life and be separated from the world through the holy word and still not be shining with God’s glory. When we realize that we have the divine life and the divine nature with the sonship to express God the Father in His fullness, we shall shine with glory. At such a time, our oneness will not only be in the eternal life and by the holy word but also with the divine glory for the expression of God. Now we see that our oneness has a goal — to express God the Father in His fullness, even during this dark age on this corrupted earth. Sometimes in the local churches we have experienced this glorification. We have been in His holy glory, in His divine glory, expressing the Father in all His fullness. As we read the Lord’s prayer in John 17, we need to see that genuine oneness is by His life, by His word, and in the divine glory for the expression of God.
In verse 23 the Lord says, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” How can we be perfected into one? Only in the glory of the divine life. We must live by this glorious divine life so that we may be absolutely perfected in the very glory of the divine life. By denying ourselves we can experience the divine life to such a degree that we are perfected into one. If the brothers in the church life argue and debate with one another one day and then confess and apologize to one another the next day, it means that they have not yet been perfected into one. On the day they realize in full the matter of crucifixion, that the “I” has been crucified on the cross and that they are living by the life of the divine glory, that will be the day when they all will be perfected into one. On that day we shall no longer debate or quarrel because there will not be the self and the opinions. Then we shall be perfected into one.
If we have not come to the point of being in the divine glory, we have not yet been fully perfected into one. But when we reach this point, we shall be on the highest level of oneness, having been perfected into one by the divine glory given to the believers to express the Triune God in a corporate way. When we reach this point, we are willing to forsake everything. We shall not only forego all the worldly attractions but also all the doctrines and concepts. We shall abandon everything and be for just one thing — the glorious expression of the Triune God. This expression is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there will be no worldly attractions, doctrines, teachings, concepts, or opinions. There will only be the glorious expression of the Divine Being. We all shall be in that glory to express Him in an adequate way forever. In the past, we did reach this stage in some of the local churches. By His grace, we can also reach such a stage today. Such oneness is the real enjoyment of the divine glory in the corporate expression of the Triune God. When we enter into such a glorious oneness, we are willing to lose everything, even our lives. When we are in this oneness, nothing else means anything. This third aspect of genuine oneness is oneness with a commission, with a goal — to express the Triune God in a corporate way.
The third aspect of the believers’ oneness is the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God. In this aspect of oneness, the believers, having their self fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness to express God in a corporate, built-up way. This is the oneness of the divine commission which fulfills the Son’s prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers, and that the Father also be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son’s glorification. Hence, the ultimate oneness of the believers is in the eternal life (in the Father’s name), by the holy word, and in the divine glory to express the Triune God for eternity.
In order that the Son might accomplish this oneness, the Father has given Him six things: the authority (v. 2), the believers (vv. 2, 6, 7, 24), the work (v. 4), the words (v. 8), the Father’s name (vv. 11, 12), and the Father’s glory (v. 24). The Father has given all these things to the Son that He might perfect such a oneness.
The latter part of verse 23 says, “That the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” Here we see the Father’s love shown toward the Son as well as toward the Son’s believers. The Father has loved the Son in that He has given the Son His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory to express Him. What love this is! In the same way, the Father has also loved the Son’s believers by giving them His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory that they might express Him in the Son. This is a story of love as well as of glory. Not many of us appreciate this love, the love in giving us the Father’s life, nature, fullness, and glory to express Him. This is real love. It is much better and much higher than anything else.
Verse 24 says, “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world.” The Son is in the divine glory for the Father’s expression. Therefore, if the Son’s believers are to be with Him where He is, they must be with Him in the divine glory to express the Father. The fulfillment of this began with the Son’s resurrection, when He brought His believers into participation in His resurrected life, and it will consummate in the New Jerusalem, when His believers will be fully brought into the divine glory for the ultimate corporate expression of the Triune God for eternity.
We are where the Son is. The Son is in the Father, and we also are in the Father. The Son is in the Father’s glory, and we also are in the Father’s glory. The Son went through death and resurrection that we might share the Father’s life, nature, fullness, and glory, expressing the Father with Him in the very place where He is. This is marvelous! The Son is in glory for the Father’s expression, and the believers will also be in glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God for eternity. To me, this is vastly greater than going to heaven. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven (Rev. 21:2). I do not want to be in an empty heaven; I want to be in the New Jerusalem, in the glorious corporate expression of the Triune God.
In verses 25 and 26 the Lord prayed, “Righteous Father, indeed the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them and will make it known, that the love with which you have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” The world neither knows the Father nor wants to know Him, but the Son and the Son’s believers do. The Father is righteous in loving the Son and His believers, giving His glory both to the Son and to His believers. In sanctifying the Son’s believers, the Father is holy (v. 11), and in loving the Son and His believers and giving the Son and His believers His glory, the Father is righteous. The Father will reveal nothing regarding life to the worldly people because they do not know the Father. However, the Father has revealed everything concerning life to the Lord Jesus and to His believers because the Lord and His believers know the Father. Hence, the Father is righteous in His discernment, for by His righteous judgment He reveals to us the matters of life. God is righteous in this matter.
The love mentioned in verse 26 is the love of the Father in giving His life and glory to the Son and to the Son’s believers so that the Son and the believers might express Him. The Son prays that, along with the Son’s abiding in His believers, this love may also abide in them, and that they may always have the sense of this love by knowing the name Father, by realizing the Father’s love toward the Son, and by abiding with the Son.
