The great discourses of Jesus with His disciples, the last on earth prior to the cross, terminated with these glorious words, “I have overcome the world.” Other men had wrought righteousness, become mighty in war, made the armies of strangers give way, but Jesus overcame the world.
It was in vain that Satan offered Him the kingdoms of this world and their glory, He overcame him also by the word of His testimony, guided by it Himself in an obedience that was perfect and absolute. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
Again, at the end of the path, the prince of this world came, but “he has nothing in Me,” was Jesus testimony. It would only be a means of letting the world know that He loved the Father, with a love that manifested itself in obedience to His commandments. On each occasion His obedience gave Him the victory. A new weapon in the hand of man, but wielded by Jesus in the energy of the Holy Ghost, it reached the enemy himself. “Obedient unto death, even the death of “the cross,” “by death destroyed him that had the power of death.”
But there were other ways in which Jesus overcame the world, than by simply resisting the open attempts on the part of the adversary. Besides its glory, there were the principles and the spirit of the scene of this present evil world, which Satan had formed around man. Which of these had any place in Him? When the prince of this world came, he found nothing in Jesus, neither will nor lust, he found God there, and presently proved that His weakness was stronger than his own power. Jesus overcame the world in its spirit and principles as perfectly as in its prince.
But the end was near, His teachings were ended, and He lifted up His eyes to heaven. The hour was at length come, the lonely hour of all time, when Jesus must be alone, rejected by man, forsaken of God. But these precious communings of the Son with the Father preceded what He called their hour and the power of darkness, at least in their full application. “Father, glorify Thy Son,” comes before “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and again, these last words were preceded by, “Father, if Thou wilt remove this cup from Me: but then, not My will, but Thine be done.” With the sensibilities of a perfect Man, and rightly estimating the true character of the cup He had to drink, He refused to know any will but the Father’s.
But this is not the character of His communings in this place; here they are those of the Son with the Father, at the close of His service and work on earth. In the beginning of these great themes (John 13), when Judas had gone out, Satan having entered into him, and it was night (all virtually over as to present blessing for “His own,” or for the world as such, John 1:10-1110He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:10‑11)), He thinks of the mighty work before Him, the foundation of the new order of things, the new creation, in fact; of His glory as Son of Man in connection with the cross.
Judas was a sample of what man had become under the power of the adversary. But here was a man “out of heaven,” the Second Man, so taking up the whole question of sin as it affected God’s glory amongst His creatures, as by His atoning death on the cross to cover Himself, so to speak, with eternal glory. But not apart from God’s glory, that could not be in Jesus thoughts. If the Son of Man was glorified, God was glorified in Him; and could God be glorified in Him, the Son of Man upon the cross, and not glorify Him in Himself, at His right hand on the throne? But what a wondrous truth, Man glorifying God in the place of sin, and then glorified in God Himself! and seated at His right hand.
But here, there is a difference in the thought and words. It is not God glorified in the Son of Man, nor the Son of Man glorified with God, but the Son of the Father demanding to be glorified by the Father, that He might still be glorified by the Son, the place alone changed, the mind unchanged. Would it have been “robbery,” the Son taking that eternal glory He had with His Father (John 17:55And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:5)), when His work was done, without seeking it from His Father’s hand? His title to the place was equally perfect on every ground, personal and relative, but, “Father, glorify Thy Son,” reveals thoughts and affections belonging to that place of Son, whose sweet and hidden depths man may not see. God only knows the love of God; but His words reveal His thoughts, and these are precious unto His people.
Verse 2. “As Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh, that as to all that Thou hast given to Him, He should give them life eternal” (New Trans). He was Himself the eternal life which was with the Father (and the Head of every man), but He will not give it without authority received from the Father. So with regard to a place in the kingdom of glory. It “is not Mine,” He said, “to give, but for whom it is prepared of My Father.” Again, when it was a question of the time of restoring Israel, “It is not for you to know the, times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:77And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts 1:7)). It is the same thing everywhere. He makes His Father’s glory known, but in doing so, His own shines forth by a divine necessity. It was eternal life to know the Father and the Son. “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)). “He who confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:2323Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. (1 John 2:23)). The Antichrist will deny both.
Verse 4. “I have glorified Thee on the earth.” He is bringing His offerings, as it were, “I have glorified Thee.” I have finished the work which Thou gavest in His path, and the cross would be the finishing of the work. Neither men nor angels, this present evil world nor the world to come, are in view here. He desires the place of glory He had with the Father before the world was, that was the glory His heart went after, glory with His Father.
It was not the time to ask for the nations for His inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. This will be His portion in another day, in connection with relationships belonging to time (see Psa. 2), “This day have I begotten Thee.” In this character the Father will set Him upon His holy hill of Zion. But the kingdom of the Son of His love (its present form, or when manifested in power) is not the same thing as the glory of the Son with the Father, though He receives that also, for dominion over Jews and Gentiles is part of His glory in that character. “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified,” He said, when the Greeks desired to see Him. He appreciates that at the right time and place; but it is most interesting to see where His heart was when His work was finished.
Verse 6. Now He tells His Father of His work amongst the saints, the excellent of the earth, in whom was all His delight. It is a wonderful thing, that we should be permitted to hear Him when He speaks to the Father of His work amongst His saints; one recognizes that the only-begotten Son and the “holy Servant “are one.
Seven distinct acts complete this blessed service amongst them, and everything is in connection with the Father.
1: I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world.
2: The words which Thou, hast given Me, I have given them.
3: I kept them in Thy name; those Thou hast given Me I have guarded.
4: I have given them Thy word.
5: As Thou hast sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
6: The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them.
7: I have made known to them Thy name, and will make it known.
He has caused them to understand that all was from the Father; yet “All that is mine is Thine, and all that is Thine mine,” reveals His divine glory and Godhead. He had ever made it known, that whatever He gives He receives first from the Father, and thus He makes His glory known.
He reveals His own position in humiliation then gives it to them, and then imparts that through which He was sustained by the way, “The words which Thou hast given Me I have given them.” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. “The words which Thou hast given Me,” may be explained by Isaiah 50 “He openeth Mine ear morning by morning.” What can be more blessed and wonderful than to have the words that Jesus fed on, morning by morning, ministered unto us? The word (vs. 14) was the Father’s testimony, which necessarily revealed the Father, as Jesus did personally. In ministering these things to us (the words and word), He feeds us with the mighty’s meat.
Can we not understand what He meant when He said, “These things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in them” (and this in face of the world’s hatred), the glorious secret of the hidden life of Jesus? All these flowed from heavenly springs unknown to man; the tongue of the learned; the opened ear; the word for the weary. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him”; well may we sing when we know these things, “Rise, my soul, thy God directs thee.”
We have been looking a little at the details of His service in making the Father’s glory known. We come now to His requests for the disciples. They are five in number.
1: Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one as We.
2: That Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
3: Sanctify them by the truth.
4: And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on Me through their word; that they may be all one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.
5: “He desires that where He is, they also may be with Him, that they may behold His glory which the Father had given Him,” which could not be separated from that love from eternity, of which He was the Object.
The first demand implies that those thus kept are holy also; but “one as we,” is a wondrous thought. When the Holy Ghost works in us, being ungrieved, we “follow after love,” which always leads to “oneness,” for love does not seek what is its own, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and “never fails.” God Himself is love. Such is the path that leads to unity, and this path alone; but what a measure! “as we are.” Yet are not all God’s measures for His saints found in Himself and His ways? We may wonder and adore. One can easily see that this unity is only realized as we walk in holiness and love. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” “Let us love one another, for love is of God.”
“Sanctify them by the truth,” and so forth. The separation, inwardly, of the heart from the corrupt and perishing things of time and sense as effected by the truth (through the Spirit’s power), especially by the Father’s word in testimony. With what a glorious character the truth is invested here! The “Father’s word”! Is not the Son Himself the great subject of that word? Alas! for the multitude of His people by whom, apparently, this precious means of sanctification, with its blessed fruit of joy in the Holy Ghost (in the strength of which the world is forgotten or overcome), is practically neglected. Where are the perfect (full grown), who occupy themselves with that “hidden wisdom” which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory, embracing things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, but which God has revealed by His Spirit?
Having prayed for their sanctification through the truth, He says, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, they also might be sanctified by the truth.” Jesus’ sanctification has but one object and meaning, whether in heaven or on earth, the glorification of the Father; for His people’s sanctification would but subserve the Father’s glory. He was going to change His place His purpose He could not change. “I have glorified Thee on the earth” — “Glorify Thy Son [in heaven], that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” His position and ways on high, humiliation exchanged for glory, would but illustrate, in scenes new to man, the holiness and separation in which He had walked on earth. But what an object for the heart of His own, the “man of sorrows” in the glory of God, and ministering, to that glory, as in the day of His rejection!
Verses 20-21. “May be one in Us.” This is the realization of unity in its source, through fellowship with the Father and the Son, partaking of the divine nature (and having the Holy Ghost) (1 John 1). “As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” It was the manifestation of this unity that would lead to faith in Him as the sent One.
In verse 11, it is “one as we are,” in thoughts, purposes, ways; it is important to note that this prayer is for the apostles. The Son, in His blessed work of making the Father known, had accomplished this service, not by word only, but in His own personal ways, and in all that revealed the Father was absolutely one with Him. Thus they were to be one in their service of testimony, a unity actually realized, as in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.
No one scripture can be found to contradict another. The Spirit of grace and truth accomplished this miracle, that there should not be one discordant note to mar the blessed harmony of their testimony. Every scripture is divinely inspired. This was in no wise the result of human contrivance or combination; any such effort would have betrayed its merely human source, and become manifest at once. “We are of God,” the Apostle John says, “he that knows God hears us [the apostles]; he who is not of God does not hear us.” We should note the place the apostles hold in these scriptures.
We have now had two of these blessed unities in verses 11, and 20-21.
(1). “One as we,” one in thought, purpose, and so on; a wondrous thing, and realized in the apostles testimony.
(2). “One in us,” the divine source of unity, that the world may believe in
Jesus as the sent One.
(3). Verse 22. The third unity is realized in glory, so that the world knows that the Father has loved the saints even as He loves the Son. “The glory which Thou halt given Me I have given them. That the world may know . . . that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.” This would be through unity also, “perfected in one.” The Father in Christ, and Christ in the saints. The world, seeing us in the glory of Christ, will know that the Father has sent the Son, and has loved us as He loved Him.
This looks like the climax of blessing, to share the glory which the Father has given Him, and the love of which He is the Object — “hast loved Them as Thou hast loved Me.” What more can even the Spirit of Christ think of for His own? Yes; something yet remains, but outside all this weight of blessing — one supreme Object for the heart, when all that God can give has been given. To be with Him, and see Him in the glory that tells of that eternal love — the Father’s love before the foundation of the world.
This will be fellowship with the Father too, and in the highest way! That glory and that love will be from Him — “The glory Thou hast given Me”; “Lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” We cannot contemplate Him without thinking of the Father; Jesus cannot display His glory without letting us know that it is from the Father. Jesus glorified is the link between our hearts and the Father’s, as in Jesus crucified we had been reconciled. The glory and the love are each of eternity. “The glory I had with thee before the foundation of the world.” “Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The thrones and kingdoms will be wondrous scenes, when the everlasting doors have lifted up their heads to let the King of glory in, and we shall be with, Him there also.
“That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them”! How the wonderful thoughts and ways of God which are to usward make us as conscious of the nothingness of the creature as of His own glory and grace!