John 17:21

John 17:21. That they all may be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they themselves also may be in us. The petition on behalf of all believers follows in these words, and their last clause expresses it in its highest form. The second ‘that is neither parallel to the first, nor is the sentence to be inverted, as if it ran, that they themselves also may be in us as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee.' It is dependent on the words coming immediately before, and thus brings forward the final purpose of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son, and of that whole work of His by which our human nature was perfected into union with the Divine nature, that believing men may be taken into the same glorious unity. The unity spoken of, then, is not merely that of Christians among themselves, whether outward or inward. It is unity in the Father and the Son, effected by that ‘word' regarding the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son which has been appropriated in faith, and which produces a result corresponding to itself. It is what is known by divines as the ‘mystical union;' yet in it believers maintain their own personality and freedom, for such is the force of ‘they themselves.'

That the world may believe that thou didst send me. The first ‘that' here is not to be connected with a verb so far removed as ‘I ask' of John 17:20. It is a word of purpose, marking the ultimate result of the fulfilment of the prayer. And this result is that the ‘world' now the enemy of the truth, may be brought to faith. Although (John 17:9) Jesus had not prayed for the world, because He was praying for those who were to act upon it, He was not forgetful of its need. It was the world that He had come to save; and, although it rejected and crucified Him, He looked onward to a time when, as ‘greater works' were done by His disciples than He Himself had done (chap. John 14:12), the world would own the Divine power appearing in them, and the Divine origin of His mission. It is the spiritual life of the Church, however, that (so far as has yet been spoken of) is to effect this end. Her unity is included, but it does not receive its special emphasis till we come to John 17:23. Her spirituality is mainly before us here, that life which her members live, not conformed to the world, not coming down to the level of the world, with the vain idea that thus they shall bring the world nearer them, but ever rising as far as possible above the world, dwelling in the Father and in the Son, a city of God, from which even now there streams light that shall kindle light in hearts that have been formed for light and life like its own.