Christ and His Church (John 17:20-26)
In the final section of this prayer, Christ reveals that this same oneness of mind, love, spirit, and purpose will be equally vital for all those coming after the disciples—those who will, likewise, embrace the message and the mission: “I do not ask or pray on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word” (John 17:20). The question is, Just who does he have in mind? You know, no matter how many times I consider the answer, I am always amazed. On the night before Jesus died, he prayed specifically for me, and he prayed specifically for you. Indeed, he prayed not only for his apostles, but for all those, like us, who have or will someday come to know him through their word. For from the oral and written testimonies of the first apostles, the Gospel message has gone forth. On and on it has been extended for two thousand years down to the present day with the result that you and I now believe. Yes, from the Father to the Son, to the eleven men in the room with him that night, to and through the countless hands of untold saints throughout the centuries, the message and the mission of the Gospel has come down to you and me. Indeed, the race is now ours to run; the baton has been passed to us.
Such understanding, however, leads to a second and equally profound question: Just what did Jesus Christ pray for us on the night before he died? Remarkably, he prayed just one thing and one thing only: three times in three verses (17:21-23), he prayed that we would be one. Now as both scholars and students of the Word know, any time something is repeated in the text, it is done so for emphasis. Stressing the importance of his words, then, Christ prayed first that we would “be one” (John 17:21), then a second time that we would “be one” (John 17:22), and finally, that we would be “perfected in unity” (John 17:23). Let’s break this down for a moment.
First, Christ prays that “they may all be one.” As mentioned earlier, he is speaking of all those who would come after the disciples who would believe in him through their word. Quite simply, this refers to any and all who would later embrace him by faith and receive eternal life, regardless of who they were, from where they had come, or in what century they lived. All those who believe, then, have been called to be one and, as we are fond of saying at Mosaic, "All means all!" In addition, the word perfected is translated from the Greek word teteleiomenoi (the perfect-passive subjunctive of the word teleo), which, in this context, means “to become mature or, completely one.” According to the Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, “use of the perfect [tense] indicates a permanent state as the goal and final result.”1 In other words, Christ intends for us (believers) to become mature in our faith, completely united as one and one with the Father (John 17:21). Yet there is something even more profound to be revealed in the exegesis of this passage. Indeed we must ask, Why does Christ pray so fervently for future followers to be completely united as one?
It is significant to realize that Christ prayed we would be one for two very specific reasons, or “so that” two things will occur. The words so that in verses 21 and 23 are translated from the Greek word, hina. This word, a preposition, is used linguistically to introduce what Greek scholars refer to as an “hina clause.” When used, the word points to the intended result or purpose of something and, in a broader sense, is used to introduce a “purpose clause.” According to H. E. Dana and J. R. Mantey, writing in A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, “The function of a ‘purpose clause’ is to express the aim of the action denoted by the main verb. This aim may be of a deliberate design ... or merely of contemplated results.”2
In other words, an hina clause introduces an “if–then” propositional truth. In essence, the proposition can be stated as follows: If X occurs (though there’s no guarantee that X will occur), but if X does occur, then Y is the guaranteed result. With this in mind, we can paraphrase John 17:21–23 to read:
"I also want to pray for those who, in time, will come to believe in Me through the witness
of My disciples ... I pray that those who come after them will be completely united as one.
There is no guarantee that they will be one; but if they will, then two things will certainly result. First, men and women throughout the world will recognize that I am the promised Messiah. In addition, Father, men and women throughout the world will recognize that You love them. Consequently, they will respond to Your love
and receive eternal life through faith in Me."
On the night before he died then, Christ prayed specifically that future generations of believers would be one so that the world would know God’s love and believe. In this way and by this means, Christ stated that his mission would be accomplished through others and, ultimately, his Father glorified. What Jesus intends for us (the local church), then, is clear: we have been called to be one for the sake of the Gospel. It may not be easy, but it is biblical, and it is right. Therefore, we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (Ephesians 4:1).
Indeed, when men and women of diverse backgrounds walk together as one in Christ in and through the local church, they uniquely reflect the Father’s love on earth as it is in heaven. More than that, their oneness of mind, love, spirit, and purpose proclaim the Gospel in a most powerful and compelling way. For as his own union with the Father uniquely empowered Christ to proclaim God’s love for the world, our union with fellow believers uniquely empowers us to do the same. Yes, in pursuing the “perfection of unity,” we will see the world saved.
1. Fritz Rienecker and Cleon L. Rogers, Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1976, 1980), 256.
2. H. E. Dana and J. R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (New York: MacMillan, 1927, 1955), 283.
This article is reprinted in part from the book, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church (Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2007) by Mark DeYmaz.
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