JESUS PRAYED IT ALL

If any prayer of Jesus in the New Testament should be called “The Lord’s Prayer,” it is the one recorded in John 17. The one that is usually so designated, the one Jesus taught his disciples to pray and that begins with “Our Father, who art in heaven,” cannot in one important respect be rightly called the Lord’s prayer. He himself could not and would not have prayed that prayer! Since he was “the holy one of God” and was without sin, he could not have prayed “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” But since it was Jesus who crafted the prayer and taught it to his disciples, it may be called the Lord’s prayer in that sense, as it is and always shall be. I would not want to change that. I am only saying that Jesus’ prayer in Jn. 17 may more significantly be viewed as Jesus’ own prayer, which is sometimes referred to as his high priestly prayer. It is by far his longest prayer recorded in the Scriptures.

The prayer in Jn. 17 is especially significant because of what it says about unity. It is more than a prayer for unity, for it is a revelation of the nature, means, and purpose (or end) of unity. It should impress us as enormously significant that Jesus would pray about unity the way he does as he makes his way toward Gethsemane and the Cross.

What is amazing is that our Lord not only prayed for the oneness of his own apostles but also for all who would become believers through their testimony, that they too would be one. While Jesus may not have in that moment been conscious of unborn generations for centuries to come, he was also praying for us all in the twentieth century who believe in him as Lord, that we too will be one. That is not all. There is interlaced in that prayer a profound philosophy of unity. Once we are informed about the nature of unity, the means of realizing it, and what unity is intended to accomplish, there is little need for further information. That is why we are saying that in this appeal to the Father Jesus prayed it all or said it all—all we need to know about unity.

What is unity or what is its nature? It is oneness with Christ who is one with the Father, and consequently oneness with all others who are in Christ. Our Lord said as much in that prayer: “Holy Father, keep through your name those whom You have given Me, that they maybe one as We are one” (verse 11). He goes on in verse 20 to use that penetrating phrase “as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, may they be one in Us” to pinpoint the nature of unity.

Christ is in God; God is in Christ; we as believers are in Christ and in God. That is what unity is, and it is the only kind of unity there ever can be. It is both that simple and that profound. A black preacher sought to catch the beauty of this imagery by an apt illustration. Removing an iron poker that had long been in the fire, he held it up, the tip of which was red hot, and cried out, ‘The fire is in the poker and the poker is in the fire. That’s unity!”

But there is really no way to understand the mystery of our oneness in Christ. Paul so described it in Eph. 5. After saying, “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,” he goes on to say, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and his church.” We accept the mystery by faith, and we can exult in it as the apostle does in Col. 1:27, again referring to it as a mystery, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

This is the only test we should ever make in Christian fellowship: that we all be one in Christ. And we must be non-judgmental as to precisely when and how one becomes one in Christ. In the light of Scripture we can say that this usually occurs when one believes in Christ, repents of his sins, is baptized, and receives the Holy Spirit, and in that order, but we cannot be dogmatic about the order since even in Scripture there are variations. But we can be absolutely certain that being one in Christ is related to faith in Christ as Lord and obedience to him in all things according to our understanding.

And this is the nature of Christian unity. All who are in Christ are united to him and to each other. It is a personal relationship that we have with him as our Lord and Savior, and because of that relationship we are united with all others who have that same relationship. This allows for great diversity, whether national, racial, sexual, cultural, ideological, and even doctrinal. People can be wrong about some things and still be one in Christ together. They can disagree, even substantially, and still accept each other in love because of their common bond to Jesus Christ. This is why the prayer of our Lord for the unity of all believers is an answerable prayer. If unity means that we have to see everything alike then Jesus prayed an impossible prayer. Jesus did not pray for unity by conformity.

The second major facet of this prayer is that Jesus identifies the means to unity: “The glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one” (verse 22). As important as Christian doctrine is, Jesus did not point to a body of doctrine as the means to oneness. It wasn’t any of the ordinances or church membership, however important these may be. The means to unity is the glorious presence of God in our lives. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” the apostle says in 2 Cor. 5:19, and this is what made God and Christ one. We can think of this in terms of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit came upon Christ at his baptism, God became present in a special way. The glory (presence) of God filled the heart and mind of Jesus, and this is what made them one.

This is why the Bible refers to “the fellowship of the Spirit” (Philip. 2:1). The word koinonia, the Greek word Paul used for fellowship, means sharing a common life. When the Spirit is in you and the Spirit is in me, we share the life of the Spirit. It is thus the mutual indwelling of the Holy Spirit that makes us one. This is the means to unity. That is why Paul goes on in Philip. 1 to speak of “being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (verse 2). To be like-minded is to be Christlike in common. All this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is with us and in us, we cannot help but be united, for it is the Spirit’s fruit.

Unity is thus a gift to be received, not a condition to be attained. It is the work of God, not our work. The means to unity is the presence of God in our lives, realized in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The third dimension of this amazing prayer from the lips of our Lord is that it names the purpose of unity or the end to be realized. Jesus prayed it this way: “May they be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they maybe one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (verse 21).

That the world may believe! It is a remarkable petition. Is Jesus saying to God that he realizes that a divided and quarreling people cannot win a lost world? Is he saying that the church must be ONE for the world to be WON? If so, there is a necessary relationship between unity and evangelism. Jesus may be saying that unity of believers is a kind of evangelism in itself, for the witness of a united, loving community of believers will have such power as to bring the lost to Christ.

In verse 23 of this prayer Jesus joins unity and love: “that they might be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” Love and unity are inseparable. Without love there can be no oneness, without oneness there can be no love.

How will the world know without any question who are truly Jesus’ disciples? He had already answered that in John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It isn’t how right we are or how big we are or even how good we are. It isn’t programs, projects, or professions. It isn’t even gimmicks. The only real power we have is in being bound together in that love with which Jesus has loved us, a love that unites us to him and to each other. When lost humanity sees that it will say, “That is what I have been looking for.”

It is remarkable that all we really need to know about unity is in our Lord’s prayer for the oneness of all believers. The nature of unity (in Christ), the means whereby it is realized (the Holy Spirit), and its purpose (conversion of the world to Christ) are all in that prayer. What more do we need? What are we waiting for?—the Editor