The Prayer He Prayed for You (2 of 2)

Three things Jesus asks for every future believer, including you:

First: That You Would Be One

The unity Jesus prays for is modeled on the unity of the Father and the Son: “just as you are in me and I am in you.” This is not organizational unity — shared bylaws and merged denominations. It is the unity of mutual indwelling, of shared life, of love so complete that the distinction between persons does not preclude the most intimate possible unity of purpose and heart.

And it is missional: “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The Church’s unity is not primarily an internal organizational value. It is an apologetic. It is the primary argument for the truth of the gospel in a world that knows perfectly well what human community looks like and is watching to see whether the community that claims to follow the Prince of Peace actually lives differently.

The Church’s chronic disunity — over politics, over worship styles, over eschatology, over personalities, over buildings and budgets and bylaws — is not merely an internal failure. It is a testimony problem. Every public conflict in the Body of Christ is a watching world’s reason to disbelieve the gospel. Jesus knew this. He prayed against it. His prayer has not yet been fully answered. That is not His failure. It is the Church’s ongoing assignment.

Second: That You Would Be in the Father and the Son

“May they also be in us.” (v. 21) This is the prayer for union — the same union that Volume II exists to cultivate. Not the union of organizational membership but the union of mutual indwelling: Christ in you, you in Christ, both in the Father. This is what the vine-and-branches metaphor of John 15 describes. This is what “abide in me” means. This is the present-tense content of eternal life as John 17:3 defines it.

The fact that Jesus prayed for this is the disciple’s greatest assurance. The prayer of the Son, offered to the Father at the moment of greatest sacrifice, for the union of every future believer with the Godhead — this prayer is not unanswered. Hebrews 7:25 says Jesus “always lives to intercede” for those who come to God through Him. He is still praying this. Right now. For you. The God who hears and answers His Son’s prayers is actively working to bring you into the union Jesus asked for.

Third: That You Would Know You Are Loved as the Son Is Loved

The closing verse of John 17 is almost too large to receive:

“I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”

— John 17:26 (NET)

The Father’s love for the Son is the love Jesus asks to be placed in the disciple. Not a lesser version. Not a diluted form appropriate for created beings rather than the divine Son. The same love. The eternal, infinite, perfect, unwithholding love with which the Father has loved the Son from before the foundation of the world — that love, Jesus prays, may be “in them.”

You are loved by the Father with the same love with which He loves Jesus. This is not a metaphor. It is not an approximation. It is what Jesus prayed for you the night before He died. If you receive nothing else from the Upper Room Discourse, receive this. The God of the universe, the Creator who spoke galaxies into being, the Judge before whom every human being will stand — this God loves you with the love with which He loves His own Son.

The Father loves you with the same love with which He loves Jesus. Jesus asked for this for you. He asked for it the night before He died to make it possible. Receive it.

He Is Still Praying

John 17 was prayed once, on one specific night, in one specific upper room in Jerusalem. But its content is not limited to that night. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for those He has saved. Romans 8:34 says He is “at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” The High Priestly Prayer of John 17 is not a historical document that was completed and archived. It is the content of a continuing intercession that the risen, ascended, glorified Son makes before the Father on your behalf right now.

When you are in the darkest part of the battle — when you have failed again, when the cultural opposition feels overwhelming, when your children are far from God, when your faith is attenuated and your prayers feel hollow — Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, interceding. Not reflecting sadly on what might have been. Not passively observing your struggle. Actively, presently, persistently praying for your protection, your sanctification, your unity, your knowledge of the Father’s love, your union with the Godhead.

You are not alone in this war. The Commander is fighting for you from the highest possible position, in the presence of the Father, with the full authority of His completed atoning work behind every request. The enemy has no answer to that intercession. He cannot out-pray the Son of God. He cannot out-argue the One whose blood speaks on your behalf (Hebrews 12:24). He cannot snatch you from the hand that holds you or separate you from the love that was poured into you by the Father at the Son’s request.

Know this. Fight from this. You are the object of the Son’s intercession. You are inside the prayer He prayed on the night before He died. You are loved with the love the Father has for the Son.

Now go and live like it.