“ONE IN US”
I have no doubt, beloved brethren, that every Christian here is conscious of the peculiar character attaching to this chapter. I think it might be said freely that this chapter stands alone in the Bible. There is no other chapter just like it. I think a peculiar sacredness belongs to it. I do not know how Moses felt at the burning bush; or how Joshua felt when the Captain of Jehovah’s host addressed him; but both these great servants were told to remove their shoes from off their feet, because the ground whereon they stood was holy, and I think, beloved, that if one’s soul is with God one feels in looking into this chapter a sense of the importance of approaching it with holy reverence.
All the closing part of the Gospel of John is intensely interesting. In chapter 12: 36, what we might speak of as the Lord’s public ministry—His ministry as regards the world—ceased; and it ceased in a very striking, solemn way. The words are these: “These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them”. And from that moment to the present the Lord has been virtually hidden from the sight and gaze of this world. Then we find the Lord, in the opening of chapter 13, exclusively engaged with His own. He has them in separation from the world; He gathers them about His own Person. It is the scene of the “upper room”. Ostensibly, and really too, the Lord and His disciples are gathered together for the celebration of the Passover. In the opening of chapter 13 the Spirit of God brings very vividly before us what occupied the Lord’s heart. “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”. Mark: “the hour”. The knowledge of it fills the heart and mind of the blessed Lord. Then it goes on to say (and how it ought to touch every one of our hearts), “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. In those words, we find the Lord’s heart, the Lord’s love for His own, deeply stirred; His heart is thus engaged with His own. It is remarkable and well worth our attention, that what is on the Lord’s heart, on the point of His departure out of this world to the Father whence He came, is to set His own in right relation, and in right adjustment to each other. We sometimes, perhaps lightly, carelessly, say—Never mind the saints; let us be occupied with the Lord. That is not like the Lord. He is occupied with His own, and, I am bold to say, that His occupation with them here is in the way of adjusting them in right relation to one another.
He laid aside His garments. It is during the supper (“during” is the right word, not ‘at the close’), during the progress of the supper He rose; He laid aside His garments; He poured the water into the basin, and, girding Himself with a linen towel, He proceeded to wash the feet of His disciples. I would just like to ask you to contemplate this! Look at Him, beloved! His garments laid aside! Garments in Scripture are very significant. They are distinguishing and characterising. And at this moment the Lord laid aside His garments. We like to wear our garments and are fond of showing them. I wish we knew more how to lay them aside. Look at Him! There He is—the Lord and Master! He says, You call Me Lord and Teacher, and that is what I am. Look at Him—the Lord and Teacher! Look till your heart catches fire! His garments laid aside and with the linen towel girding Him, the water in the basin; He proceeds to wash and then to wipe the feet of His disciples. Look at the wonderful ending of it! He finished His service to them; He both washed and wiped their feet: and now He sets down the basin, ungirds the towel from His loins, puts on His garments and resumes His place. Then He says, ‘I have done this for an example to you, and you must do to one another what I have done to you”. You ought. It is the moral obligation put upon every one of us by our loving Lord and Teacher, who is none other than the Son of God. He says, “Ye also ought to wash one another’s feet”, John 13: 14.
Now that is the beginning, and you know how the chapter closes. It closes with that wonderful new commandment. He says, “A new commandment I give unto you”, v 34. Yes, He commands. Are you conscious of it? Does your heart rise up with divine delight and alacrity to obey His commandment? “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another”. But that is not all. Of course, we ought to love one another. But what He says is, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you”, John 15: 9. And how had He loved them? “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you”. There it is. See how it comes down like a divine chain, link in link; down from the heart of the Father it comes to reach your heart and mine. He says—As the Father loved Me, that is how I have loved you; and you are to love one another just as I have loved you. Well, beloved, there we are! Our feet washed and wiped; not a spot upon them; not a shade of distance between our hearts and Himself. What is it all for? That we may have part with Him. Peter says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet”, John 13: 8. And what does the Lord say, so gently, so graciously? “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”. Then Peter says, Wash me all over; “not my feet only, but also my hands and my head”. But Peter was as far wrong there as when he said, “Thou shalt never wash my feet”. You have absolutely to surrender your own thoughts and will, and to put your feet in His hands, and let Him have His own blessed way with you.
But I must not tarry on this, or I shall not get to chapter 17. If washed and wiped perfectly clean, they are now under His new commandment; they are to love one another as He loved them. Now He is free to minister. Do you say—I wish we could have some good ministry among us. It is His teaching we want. It is the blessed ministry that comes from Himself. Look at chapter 14—there is His ministry! He had set them in right relationship with each other, and in relationship with Himself in respect of the new commandment. What is to hinder now? What an opening of ministry there is from Himself to His own in chapter 14! I do not know how it strikes you, but the very first note of John 14 starts up music in my heart, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told, you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. How lovely! What a beginning! Let me add this practical, simple word—if we are in line with chapter 13, we may expect from chapter 14. Show me a company of saints that are rightly adjusted with each other, who are really going on in the power of the new commandment, and I will show you a company that are enjoying His ministry; it does not matter where the meeting is—Glasgow, Indianapolis, or any other place; it does not matter whether the meeting is large or small, it is not quantity, it is quality that the Lord looks for, and if the quality is what it ought to be amongst the saints to each other, you may depend upon it ministry will come.
Then in chapters 15 and 16, He is still engaged with His own. In chapter 15, it is in respect of fruit-bearing, and in chapter 16, it is in respect of testimony. You may distinguish each of these chapters, but the two are inseparable. There are two sides in these chapters—one is God-ward and the other is man-ward. Fruit is for the Father, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit”. Fruit is God-ward; testimony is man-ward, and where there is the one there is the other. Where there is no fruit there is no testimony, or very poor testimony, but where there is fruit for the Father you will always find testimony.
In chapter 13, as we noticed, the Lord is done with the world, and in chapter 16, in the way of His ministry, He is done with His own. He has nothing more to say to the world; He has nothing more to say to His own. But, oh! where did He come from? He came from the Father; He could not finish with the world, nor could He finish with His own; He could only finish with the One from whom He came, the One to whom He is about to go. And so chapter 17 opens: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven”. He turned those eyes of grace away from the world; turned those eyes of love which were upon His own in that upper room, and He now turns His eyes heavenward. He lifts up His eyes to heaven, and says, “Father!” And then what an outpouring from His heart to the Father! Is it not wonderful that the Spirit of God has put it on record in the Scriptures, so it has come down to us, and it is our privilege not only to read it, but to ponder it, to listen to the very utterance which fell from the lips of the blessed Lord which are found in this chapter? What a holy privilege to be permitted to stand by, as it were, and listen; to hear, and by the Spirit, to understand this marvellous outpouring of the Lord’s heart to His Father! It is indeed wonderful. How one loves to linger over this chapter! How often do you read it? I want to read it very often. I have prayed and wept over it; my heart has been ravished as I have read it. What an introduction that is—what an appeal! “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son”—what for?—“that thy Son may glorify thee”. Then, “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”. It is often asked, What is eternal life? Listen! not to me, but to Him. Let every other mouth be stopped and every tongue be still; but open wide the ears of thine heart and hear Him. Many dear Christians think themselves into a tangle—into a fog of uncertainty and doubt. It is not a question of thinking, but of listening. What we have to do is to listen to Him. Well, He says, “this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. That is His wonderful introduction. And on what ground does He base His appeal to the Father? “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it; and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. He can appeal to the Father to glorify Him that He may further glorify the Father in all that the Father has given Him to accomplish—and what is that?—to give eternal life to those given Him of the Father. And He grounds this appeal on the marvellous fact of His having glorified the Father on the earth.
Then He turns to speak of the “men” whom the Father has given Him out of the world—the disciples. There are eleven of them. One, as we know, had gone out—the son of perdition; Judas was ever that, but now it had all come out; the exposure is complete; he “went out immediately and it was night”; he went out into the night that yet lingers and remains with its deep darkness over this world. There are only the eleven with Him, and He privileges them to hear the desires of His heart poured out to the Father. That goes on to the end of verse 19.
Then in verse 20 He says: “I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word”. That means that the Lord now bears up in the desires of His heart to the Father every one who believes on Him—on “Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God”. What is all this Gospel of John written for? John says in chapter 20: 30, 31: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name”. That is the divine standard. Do not pull the standard down. It is like that passage in Ephesians 4: 13: “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”. I should like to have heard Paul’s first preaching. What did he preach? He announced as glad tidings that Jesus is the Son of God. The “light from heaven” (Acts 9: 3) revealed that to him.
I am quite prepared to speak of all believers in the widest way, and to go with anything that can scripturally be said about all believers. But seeing that the Scripture itself makes distinction between those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, I feel we do well to take account of these distinctions. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ”—what about that one?—he “is born of God”, 1 John 5: 1. But it is said further—“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he dwelleth in God”. And again—(I like JND’s translation of this passage) “And this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world”, v 14. Who gets the victory? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. If we are worldly we need not speak about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. If we truly believe that we shall be clear of the world.
I think there are a good many of us, as well as myself, who need a divine lift. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? If you do, I give you my hearty congratulations. But do you believe in your soul that Jesus is the Son of God? What is the Lord’s prayer for all who believe on Him through the apostles’ 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”. Listen to His words: “That they may be all one”. Is that oneness dogmatical, ecclesiastical? Oh, no! What was the oneness between the Father and the Son? It was the oneness of holy, divine, reciprocal affection. The Father loved Him, and He loved the Father. What a place He had in the Father’s heart; what a distinguishing place! The Father said of Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matt 3: 17. He was God’s only One. The expression in the King James Version, “only-begotten”, means in the original “God’s only one”. It is the same expression which is translated in Genesis 22: “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”. Again, Psalm 22: 20, it is translated “my darling”; and in Proverbs 8: 30, “I was daily his delight”—the literal translation of the same word is, ‘the nursling of his love’. He had that place in the Father’s heart; He was the Father’s delight—His ‘only one’. He was the One whom the Father, in that peculiar sense and way, loved. And He loved the Father. The Father was in His heart—in His affections. The Father commanded, controlled the affections of the Son. He absolutely reigned supreme in them, “That the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. He said to His own disciples—“abide in my love. If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love”, John 15: 14. There was that blessed mutuality of holy, divine, reciprocal love. Love in the Father answering to love in the Son; love in the Son answering to love in the Father.
Well, what does He pray for these? “That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee”—I need not say that no one would think of attaching to that word “as” the idea of degree or measure, but who would dare to detach the meaning ‘same kind’ from it. In what measure has God wrought in your heart and mine to produce that? That is the desire of His heart for us. “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us”. I want to emphasise this—Wherever there is breakdown and failure from the manifest unity contemplated by the Lord’s heart here and expressed in this desire to the Father, wherever there is breakdown and departure from it, let me tell you it is because we are not one in the Father and the Son. Oh! I wish I could dare to utter all that is in my mind and heart as to this. For His glory and for the gratification of His heart I will say this—it is only as this holy, divine, reciprocal affection exists in our hearts—in yours and in mine—that the truth will be maintained in every particular. I am so thankful for that one utterance of the Spirit: “Love never fails”, 1 Cor 13: 8. Never! never! It never has failed and it never will. As the truth of God, it stands! And it is unimpeachable: love never faileth.
The Lord lifted up His eyes to His Father, and said: “as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us”. The Son’s love for the Father will hold you as true as steel to the Father, and the Father’s love to the Son will hold you as true as steel to the Son. We think a great deal of circumstances and details. I wish we thought more of causes and divine principles. The devil is always at the bottom of everything that is wrong, and we know how it will be by-and-by, because Scripture has foretold the apostasy—has foretold what is coming to pass in the area of Christendom—where we are tonight, Glasgow included: the open public denial of the Father and the Son. We read in Scripture that antichrist is coming, and antichrist will deny the Father and the Son. The devil is on that line now—he is.
But I want to speak a word about this fourfold desire of the heart of Christ. There are the first two desires, and there are the second two. The first two have a bearing upon the world; the first one is that the world may believe; the Lord says in verse 22: “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one”. That is not like the oneness of verse 21: the oneness of verse 22 is quite distinct from the oneness of verse 21. You must read carefully, closely. The Lord says in verse 22: “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, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. Now, the oneness He prays for in verses 20, 21 is for the present time, it is now. “That they may be 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”. May the Lord draw up our hearts and exercise our consciences as to this—my heart and conscience is deeply exercised tonight as to this desire of the Lord. Remember it! You will leave this room tonight, you will go home and lie down to sleep; but, remember, you are under all the responsibility of that desire of Christ for you! How are you answering to it? One in the Father and in the Son. “One in us”. One in the Father’s love to the Son and in the Son’s love to the Father. Is that made good in us? In us, mark! Not to us. It is not something presented to us; it is something effected in us. “That they also may be one in us”. If your soul gets hold of this you will not brook for a moment any attempt to dishonour the Father. Why? Because the Son’s love to the Father is made good in you; and you will get equally indignant over every attempt to dishonour the Son. Do you ask, What do you mean? I mean what I say, Christ as the Son is over God’s house. Will you stand by and see any one trifling with the prerogative of Christ as the Son over God’s house? You will indignantly refuse it; you will wash your hands of it. Then there is the other desire, which is future. Verse 23: “That they may be perfected into one”; that will be in the glory. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”, Col 3: 4. Then the world will K—N—O—W—will know. “That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. That is the future.
Then there are two more desires. The first two have respect to testimony, and the world is in view—the first one that the world may believe, and the second that the world may know. But the last two desires belong to the inside—no question of testimony. It is a question of privilege conferred upon us, and that privilege can only be measured by the Father’s love to the Son and the Son’s love to the Father, which is inside. The first one is—“Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am 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”. Now, do you expect me to explain this? If you do, I must decline. It is too deep for me to explain. But most devoutly I believe it. We are going to behold a glory which He calls “my glory”. That is a glory that will never be shared by any others. Why? Because it is a glory that will express the love that the Father had for Him before the foundation of the world. That is going to be expressed in the glory the Father gives to Him as Man. And you and I are going to be with Him where He is. What for? That we may behold His glory. I wish I could say more; I cannot say much on this wondrous fact, it is beyond me; but I believe it. The moment is coming when we shall be there with Him, and then we shall behold that glory.
The other desire belongs to the present, and I shall finish with that. It is in the last verse. He says, “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. That is here and now; the other desire is there and then. “Father”, He says (and how beautiful that is!), “as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am 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”. Where is that to be known? In the Father’s house of many abodes, as to which He says, “I go to prepare a place for you”, John 14: 2. It is in the prepared place in the Father’s house. That is not exactly heaven; it is the universe; but this desire, has regard to the heavenly side of it. “That where I am they also may be”. That applies to there and then; but the last verse is to be known here and now—I have declared, “I have made known to them thy name, and will” (the verb is in the future tense, and looks on, doubtless, to what we get in John 20: 17)—“make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. Oh, how marvellous this is! Just think! The hearts of the saints are the present home of the Father’s love for the Son; and the present home for the Son of God Himself. “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”.
May the Lord add His blessing to my feeble words and make these wonderful things good to us, for His Name’s sake!