THE LORD’S DESIRES FOR HIS OWN
In these scriptures we have the Lord’s own utterances, but there is this difference—in John 14 the Lord is speaking to His own disciples; in chapter 17. He is speaking to His Father, as we see from verse 1. In both these scriptures the Lord speaks from the standpoint of His own love for us, and if He speaks from the standpoint of His love for us, we must, in order to understand what He says, be brought in our souls to take that standpoint, because what He says can only be understood if we occupy that standpoint. The great difficulty with us is to take the standpoint of the Lord’s love for us. It is natural for us to reverse it and to think of ourselves, and try from some standpoint of our own—our love, or our experience, to reach the height of the Lord’s love for us, but this is a great mistake. The Lord speaks to us here so positively, so unreservedly and so unconditionally. There are no “ifs” about it, no room for anything on our side. The Lord speaks so freely and so absolutely here, and the more we occupy the standpoint of His own love the more we shall find that things become increasingly clear and certain to us. In both these scriptures (chapter 14: 1-3 and chapter 17) the Lord looks on to the future. It is not a question of faith or love on our part; He speaks in regard of the future, of what lies before us, vv 1-3. So, we do not speak of faith and love here, but we speak about hope.
In chapter 14 the Lord says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions ... I go to prepare a place for you”. Now that settles the question of our place in the future! What an expression of His love! He has gone in His great love and interest for us to prepare a place for us. He says, “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also”, v 3. How indescribably lovely it is, “where I am”. He is speaking from the standpoint of His own love, not from the standpoint of our desires. In Philippians 1: 23 Paul says, “Having the desire for departure and being with Christ”. That is wonderful! But beautiful as that is, the desire of Christ overshadows the desire of Paul. He is speaking purely from His own love. He has such love for us that He has no thought of going to fill the place for Himself. He says, “I go to prepare you a place”. The other day I picked up a tract by J N Darby about the Melchizedek priesthood5, and my heart was moved in reading it. At the end he said, ‘We have a better portion than reigning—our calling to be with Him’. Think of it! The Lord seems to say, ‘I love you so much that I cannot be content to remain without you’. “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. What place has that thought of His in your heart and in mine? There is in scripture a great deal that tells us about our part, both present and future; but whatever has been presented to us has been presented to affect us here and now. We may well challenge ourselves and say, ‘How am I affected by it?’ But the effect of what the Lord says here would be to put our hearts in the attitude of waiting for Himself. Has He lavished His love on us without stint and without measure, and has He not ground for counting on our appreciation of His love, so that when He expresses it there should be an answer to it in us? The Lord takes account of our love, He takes account of our response to His love. See the pains He takes to get an answer to His love. That is one great point in the breaking of bread; He is seeking to secure in us a response to His love. The point here (verse 1) is—the Lord counts on our hearts leaping up in response to His love. He is coming again to receive us. Do we say we want to get out of things here? That is not it; it is—“that where I am there ye may be also”. When Paul says, “absent from the body and present with the Lord”, his desire is “to be with Christ”. How few are longing “to be with Christ”! One recalls the last words of dear Mr J G Bellett, ‘Do not talk to me of crowns, and thrones, and kingdoms: I want to see the Man of Sychar’s well, the Man who met the widow of Nain’. It ought to be thus with us. That is His thought when He says—“that where I am there ye also may be”. I delight in that! The thought of being with Himself is beyond everything else. It is from the height of His own love for us that He says, “I am coming again ... that where I am there ye may be also”.
Now turn to chapter 17: 24. There, too, He expresses the desire of His heart. From verse 20 we get the part that applies to us directly, as those brought to believe on the Son of God. So He desires that we should be with Him where He is. What for? The Lord here goes beyond chapter 14, for there He only says, “I am coming again”, &c., but now, pouring out the desires of His heart to His Father He tells why He desires to have us with Him: “that they may behold my glory”. He had said in verse 22: “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me”. But here it is, “that ... they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. Everything that belongs to Him as Man has been given to Him by His Father: “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. We get that wonderful beginning in John 1. Think of it: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. That is His distinct personality, and yet “the Word was God. He [that Person] was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him”. He became flesh and came in human condition and dwelt among us. How exquisitely beautiful those words, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. And His desire is, “that they may behold my glory”. That is not the glory that He shares with us. The crowning privilege of being with Himself is to behold His glory. We are going to behold it. I cannot explain it. Who could? It was given to Him as Man—as belonging to Him as Man. He wants to have us there to behold it, and we shall behold it—a glory expressed in Him which will be an eternal witness to what He was with the Father. Think of that! and I ask do you not think it should have a place in our hearts beyond everything else? How these words of His ought to affect us! He had said in verse 22, “The glory which thou halt given me I have given them”, but this glory (verse 24) we shall not share, but He wants us with Him that we may behold it—and He connects with it: “For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. In that place there will ever be the expression of that which shall speak of the Father’s love for Him “before the foundation of the world”, and we shall behold it. How wonderful are these desires that fill the Lord’s heart, and at such a moment!
After expressing these desires to His Father He says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. I cannot expound that, but there it is! The inside of a Christian is better than the outside! The Father’s love for His Son is to be in them and He—the Object of the Father’s love, in them too! Christ dwelling in them would be the conductor to their hearts of the Father’s love.