Holiness and Unity

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that 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 become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world (John 17:17-23).

Jesus prays for his Father to make his disciples holy, fit to minister in the world. His prayer reveals that holiness is possible only within the truth of the gospel (v. 17). Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world to save it (3:16), so Jesus sends his disciples to be apostles (“sent ones”) ministering his gospel (17:18). Holiness sets them apart from the Evil One’s realm (vv. 15–16), which is utterly opposed to God’s Word. It is precisely this setting apart that allows the church to infiltrate the world and preach the truth. Finally, the disciples cannot sanctify themselves, for only Christ’s death and resurrection sanctifies the church (v. 19).

Jesus next prays for the church’s unity, and his request teaches the profound oneness of the Trinity. When he asks for believers to be one “just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (v. 21), he implies that the persons of the Trinity exist in one another. Each of the three persons is fully God; the Son is not one-third God but is fully God, and the same is true of the Father and the Spirit.

Therefore, the three persons are in one another, as Jesus says here and in verse 23. Moreover, the Trinity not only indwells itself; there is also a sense in which believers and the Trinity indwell one another! Jesus prays that “they also may be in us” (v. 21). Without violating the distinction between the Creator and his creatures, believers are in the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Such unified harmony is what Jesus desires for the coming church, “those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20). “Their word” is the testimony of his disciples (soon to be apostles, including Paul) contained in the Gospels and Epistles. All true believers know the same Jesus and share in his Trinitarian life because they have heard and trusted the apostles’ testimony about him.

As the unified church lives and teaches the gospel, it will draw the world to believe that Jesus is God’s Son who redeems the world (v. 21). Jesus’ prayer implicitly recognizes the disunity of human hearts, our unwillingness to trust God and the ones who carry his message. Consequently, he prays that future believers would share in his glory (v. 22) by submitting themselves to the humble, sacrificial glory of his mission on earth.

Believers are united across time and space when, consecrated by Jesus, they also “take up [their] cross” (Luke 9:23) in his service so that the world can know that the Father sent the Son and loves him and all believers (John 17:23). Their humble glory participates in the humble glory of the Trinity, in which each member seeks the glory of the other.

Adapted from the ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible