II. THE BELIEVERS’ ONENESS INCORPORATED
WITH THE ONENESS OF THE TRIUNE GOD
John 17 reveals the believers’ oneness incorporated with the oneness of the Triune God. Our oneness, the oneness of the Body of Christ, is the oneness of the Triune God. The Triune God (the Father as the source, the Son as the element, and the Spirit as the essence) within us is our oneness. (Eph. 4:3-6).
A. Christ’s Closing Prayer
In the Gospel of John, chapter 17 is Christ’s closing prayer to His discourse in chapters 14 through 16.
B. Indicating the Economical Trinity
The Son lifting up His eyes to heaven to pray to the Father indicates the economical Trinity working together—the Son praying on earth and the Father hearing in heaven (17:1a). One prayed and the Other listened. This is the economical Trinity not the essential Trinity.
C. For the Glorification of the Son
Christ’s prayer was for the glorification of the Son that the Father might be glorified as the Son has glorified the Father in His earthly living and ministry (vv. 1b, 4-5).
D. Based upon the Oneness of the Believers
This traffic of glorification, where the Son prayed asking the Father to glorify the Son that the Son may glorify the Father, is based on the believers’ oneness (vv. 2-3, 6-23a). If we are not one, the Son cannot be glorified, and the Father cannot be glorified by the Son. When we are one, Christ is glorified. When Christ is glorified, God the Father is glorified in Christ the Son’s glorification.
1. By the Father’s Eternal Life
The oneness of the believers is by the Father’s eternal life conveyed in the Father’s name and in the Father’s word (vv. 2-3, 6-12).
2. By the Father’s Sanctifying Word
Our oneness is also by the Father’s sanctifying word as the truth—the divine reality—through the coinhering of the Triune God and the believers (vv. 13-21). The sanctifying God is in us and we are in the sanctifying God; therefore, we are spontaneously sanctified.
(Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
