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In John 17:22 the Lord Jesus prayed, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one”:
A
After praying for the stages of oneness in the Father’s name by the eternal life (vv. 6-13) and of oneness through sanctification by the holy word (vv. 14-21), the Lord prayed for the third stage concerning the believers’ oneness being in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God (vv. 22-24).
B
Since the glory which the Father has given to the Son has been given to us by the Son, genuine oneness is in the divine glory—v. 22:
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Glory is the sonship given to the Son by the Father with the Father’s divine life and nature to express the Father in His fullness—vv. 1, 5, 22.
２
There are four aspects of glory: sonship, the Father’s life, the Father’s divine nature, and the expression of the Father in His fullness; these four things equal the glory that we have in the Son and that has been given to us by the Son—Eph. 1:5; 4:18; 1 John 5:12; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 21:9-11.
C
In the third stage of oneness, the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way—John 17:22:
１
It is only in the third stage of oneness that we will be absolutely perfected into oneness to manifest and glorify the Lord.
２
We will have the life of God, the nature of God, and even God Himself for the purpose of becoming the manifestation and expression of God—v. 22.
Morning Nourishment
John 17:22-23 And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.According to John 17, the first ground of oneness is regeneration, receiving the life of the Father, and the second ground is sanctification... When we have been separated from everything outside of God to God Himself, then we are on the ground of sanctification, being separated from all worldly places and worldly things unto one center. This one center is the Triune God, the Father in the Son as the Spirit. We have been sanctified unto this very center, and herein is oneness. The third ground of this oneness is even deeper and higher than this. It is the oneness in the manifestation of the divine glory. After we have been regenerated, we must be sanctified by giving up the world, and after being separated from the world, we must live, through the denying of ourselves, by Christ as our life who is the hope of glory within us (Col. 1:27). (Life-study of John, p. 485)
Today’s Reading
Since the glory which the Father has given to the Son has been given to us by the Son, genuine oneness is in the divine glory. What is glory? Glory is the sonship given to the Son by the Father with the Father’s divine life and nature to express the Father in His fullness. Notice that there are four aspects of glory: sonship, the Father’s life, the Father’s divine nature, and the expression of the Father in His fullness. These four things together equal the glory... The Father has given this glory to the Son, and the Son is privileged to express the Father in this way. This is the very glory which has been given to us by the Son. Today we all have the sonship with the Father’s life and nature to express the Father in all His fullness in the Son... It is in this divine glory that we are truly one.If we would be one in the divine glory, we must forsake and forget ourselves. It must be no longer I, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). The “I” has been crucified, and the self must be denied that Christ may live in us... On the one hand, we have been sanctified from so many worldly places and worldly things and have come home to the Father’s house. On the other hand, each of us has his opinions, thoughts, or ideas. If this is the situation, how can we be one? Once we were separated into various worldly places, but now, having come home, we may still have trouble with the self. For this reason, we must not live by our own life but by the life of glory, the divine life. After we have been regenerated, we must be sanctified, and after we have been sanctified, we must be glorified. In other words, after we have the life of God, we must give up the world, and after we give up the world, we must forsake ourselves and live by the divine life. Then, in the glory of this life, we shall be one. Hence, there are three grounds or steps of the oneness of the believers: regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. Having God as our Father by regeneration is the first step; coming to the Triune God by separation from the world through the holy word is the second step; and living by the divine life of glory through denying ourselves is the third step. It is in the very application and realization of the divine life of glory that we shall all be one.
It is only in the third stage of oneness that the Lord’s prayer will be fulfilled. Only in this stage will the Son of God be glorified that the Father may be glorified in and through the Son. It is only in this stage that we shall glorify the Lord and manifest the Lord in oneness. In this stage we shall be absolutely perfected into oneness to manifest and glorify the Lord. Then we shall realize the sonship because all that God is and has will be embodied in us. This means that we shall have the life of God, the nature of God, and even God Himself for the purpose of becoming the very manifestation and expression of God. Finally, we shall have the full glory which God has given to the Lord as the Son of God. (Life-study of John, pp. 495, 486-487, 497)
Further Reading: Life-study of John, msgs. 38, 40-41