John 17:22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The Lord was saying, “Just as in You I am glorified along with Yourself, so I pray that in You they also will be glorified with You. Just as You desire that in You I have Your nature and be with You, so I pray that in You they also will have Your nature and be with You.” Only in such a condition can all the believers be one as the Triune God is one.
Verses 23 and 24a say, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me.” I would like to ask you brothers and sisters what the Lord meant when He said, “Concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me.” I believe that by now you surely understand. What the Lord meant was that He was now in the Father and He also would like His disciples to be with Him in the Father.
Therefore, what the Lord spoke in chapter fourteen is fully fulfilled. In chapter fourteen the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes...for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (vv. 2-3). Now it is clear that this where does not at all refer to heaven, a place, but refers to being in God, that is, to being in the Father.
I repeat, what the Lord accomplished in His incarnation was only to bring God into man. He still had to go through death and resurrection to bring man into God. In His incarnation He only caused God to be made lowly. If He did not go through death and resurrection, He could not cause man to be glorified. His incarnation was for man to see how He lowered Himself as a man. His death and resurrection was to bring those who believe in Him into God that they may see the glory with which He is glorified in the Father and that they may be glorified along with Him and God.
Therefore, the Lord prayed, “Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me.” What is this glory? This glory is to be with God and to express God, that is, to be in God. The Lord seemed to be saying, “I was in You and I was with You. Now they have beheld how I became the Son of Man and how I lived as a lowly man, but they do not see how I am One who is in God and how I am glorified along with God. So now I ask You to bring them into You even as I am in You. In this way they can behold how I enjoy the glory with You.” This was what the Lord meant, and this was what the Lord would accomplish in His death and resurrection. Through His death and resurrection He brought us into God just as He was in God. The more we learn to live in God, the more we know the glory of the Lord.
Verse 24 concludes, “For You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” This means, “In eternity You loved Me and glorified Me along with You and in You.”
Verses 25 and 26 say, “Righteous Father, though the world has not known You, yet I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. And I have made Your name known to them and will yet make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” This portion seems to be saying, “Just as You have loved Me and caused Me to be in You, to be one with You, and to enjoy the glory with You, so You will also love them and cause them to enter into You to be one with You and to enjoy the glory with You.” This is what was meant by, “That the love with which You have loved Me may be in them.”
We have finished reading John 14, 15, 16, and 17. I will now pause briefly and ask the brothers and sisters to consider: In these four chapters, is the emphasis on the Lord’s bringing us, the saved ones, from earth to heaven? Is there such a thought? In these four chapters can you recognize such a concept that the Lord’s intention is to save us who are on the earth and bring us to heaven? The answer clearly is no. These four chapters concern the Lord’s going through death and resurrection to save us who are outside of God into God, that is, to save us, who had absolutely nothing to do with God, to a point that not only do we have a relationship with God, but we even enter into God. I say again that His incarnation was to bring God into man. When He was incarnated, there was at that point one person on the earth who had God in Him. But if He had not gone through death and resurrection, man could not be in God, for man had not yet entered into God. Therefore, before John 14 you cannot find any verses in which the Lord told the disciples, “You are in Me” or “I am in you.” You can at most find verses saying that the Lord was among the disciples. It is only after He said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself” (14:3) that He could say, “You are in Me” and “I am in you.” Do not forget 14:20, which says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
I hope the young brothers and sisters can take the time to count how many ins there are in John 14, 15, 16, and 17. Just in the last sentence in the concluding prayer in John 17, “That the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them,” there are two ins. You need to see that the central thought of the Lord’s message and His concluding prayer is that a group of people who belong to Him—whom God chose before the foundation of the world, whom God set apart from the world, whom God would use to build His dwelling place—were outside of God and alienated from God, and they had not entered into God to be built with God. Therefore, He had to die on the cross and thereby deal with their sins, their flesh, their enemy, and the world within them so that He could open a way for them to enter into God and live in God. This is what is meant by His going to prepare a place for them. When He had prepared the place in such a way, He would come again, which is to resurrect and come not only to be among them but also to enter into them that they might receive the life of God. In this way He would bring them into God to be joined to God as one. Then they would receive the eternal life of God, know who God is, receive God’s word, and thereby be separated from the world. Moreover, they would fully live in God, enjoy God’s glory, and become one entity with God. This is the temple that the Lord built up after He resurrected and ascended to heaven. This temple is built with the resurrection life in His resurrection.