In the final part of the conversation (John 17:1-26) Jesus prays for His followers and the coming church… Jesus prays for His followers and the coming church… Jesus prays to the Heavenly Father that His followers “may all be one as we are one” and that “the love with which you love me may be in them, and I in them”.
The Seven Petitions:
– That the Son may be glorified. This involves our Salvation. He glorified the Father in His life and His finished work, foreknown in verse 4. In this our salvation resides. He had power to give eternal life to so many as the Father has given Him, verse 2. Our Lord defined salvation, verse 3.
– Restoration to His preincarnate glory in union with the Father, verse 5. This involves the glorious person. He alone could be an efficacious Saviour.
– Safety of His own from this world (verse 11), and the ‘evil one’ (verse 15). This involved the security of the saved sinner.
– Sanctification of the believers, verse 17. This insured their fellowship with God and usefulness in this life.
– The Spiritual oneness of believers, verse 11, 20-21. This involved the advent of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4; 11:14-16) to baptize all believers into vital union with Christ (Roman 6:3-4) and with one another in Him. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
– That the world might believe, verse 21. This involved recognition of the oneness of the church in it’s union with Christ and with all born again believers, verse 20.
– That believers might be with Him in Heaven to behold and share His glory, verse 24. This involved the security and assured eternal felicity of all who are His.
This prayer is not only for the eleven, but for all true believers. In this case, there is little distinction made as to the benefactor of this petition, and simply a change of emphasis in the requests which are made. Verse 6-9 deal more with protection, and verse 20-26 with unification.
Photo by Jared Erondu on Unsplash
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