Day 31

“My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them might be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”  — John 17:20-24

With His crucifixion only hours away, Jesus is praying for His disciples, and then for ‘those who will believe in me through their message’ – that is, for us. Of all the many things He could pray for us, what does He pray? ‘that all of them might be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you’. This is not an organizational one-ness, or an ecumenical one-ness, or even a doctrinal one-ness. It is a spiritual one-ness; that we will be one with Christ in the way He is one with His Father.

In John 14:9, Jesus said, ‘’Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” There was no margin of difference between the character and activity of Jesus and that of His Father. His remarkable prayer for us is that as people meeting Christ once saw the Father, so people meeting us will see Christ. Jesus talked to His Father about ‘the glory you have given me’, but He also says, “I have given them the glory that you gave me”. ‘Glory’ is the moral character of God. It is what we have fallen short of by nature, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), but which the gospel restores as, ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:29).

The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that our bodies become the dwelling place of Jesus Christ. He isn’t “up there”, and we “down here”, but He makes His home in us. That’s where His workshop is. That is where He will express Himself and, increasingly, as the process of sanctification continues throughout our lives, “we are being changed from one degree of glory to another into His image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is not that we become clones of Jesus. We remain unique in personality and gifts, but the source of our moral character and spiritual fruitfulness will be Christ in us.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the precious gift of your Son who has made reconciliation with you possible. I pray, dear Lord, for my family and friends, the whole world, in fact, that as many as you will, come to know you and love you and be with you forever.

To reflect upon: In what areas of my life have I felt myself changing the most in conforming to the likeness of Christ? Even though I’m aware of living every day in union with Christ, are there stumbling blocks that seem to put up a wall between us? If so, list them and pray about them.