#DailyDevotion The Church Is One With Jesus & The Father
Joh 17:20-23 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, (21) 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. (22) The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, (23) 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.
Ever wonder what Jesus is praying for at the right hand of God for you? Well this is one of those things. He prays that we would be one with one another. This oneness is not about happy clappy let’s all just get along and ignore the differences. Jesus continues that we be one even as Jesus and the Father are one. This consist of the Father being in Jesus and Jesus in the Father, just as we confess the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God but there are not three gods but One God. So too, Jesus’ prayer is we be one like that.
We see glimpses of this in the early Church. Act 4:32 “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” Paul says, 1Co 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” The Church indeed is one for all of its members are members of the one body of Christ and we all have the one and the same Spirit. All believers in Jesus are one body with him and we are one Spirit with one another.
Paul also teaches us concerning our oneness, Eph 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6) one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Now this takes us beyond our oneness with one another as Christians but also brings into it our oneness with Jesus and the Father. For Jesus also prays that just as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father, that we would be in them in the same way.
Because of Jesus’ incarnation, his becoming man, and his ascension to the right hand of the Father, all who have been baptized into Jesus and who have faith in him are in him and therefore in the Father as well. He and the Father are in us and we are in them. This is further illustrated by Paul in chapter five of Ephesians Eph 5:29-32 “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, (30) because we are members of his body. (31) “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (32) This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
This oneness and unity with Christ and God of the members of the Church is an article of faith. It cannot be seen in this age. It can only be believed and worked on being an outward manifestation. Yet Jesus’ prayer will be manifested to all on the day of his return. On that day, the world will see the Church’s glory and its oneness with God. On that day, the world will see how God loves us. Until then we join with Christ in his prayer that all who confess his name and believe in him would be outwardly one as we are inwardly one.
Heavenly Father, remove all the sad divisions in the body of Christ and bring us all to a single confession of faith so the world may see your great love for us and know that we are one with you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.