In chapter seventeen the Lord Jesus is at the incense altar. Here He offered a prayer. This prayer may be considered as a model prayer, and it is the focus of the Lord’s intercession. Many Christians talk about the Lord’s intercession. They say that He can save us to the uttermost because He is interceding for us. But not many have ever pointed out the focal point of the Lord’s intercession. It is not for you to have a better car or a better job or a bigger house. Listen to His prayer: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You; even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him” (vv. 1-2). Do you understand this kind of word? It is mysterious! He is giving you eternal life. When I was young I was told that eternal life simply means that we Christians will go to the heavens and enjoy a lot of blessings there which will last forever. They didn’t use the term eternal life; they said everlasting life. This is altogether too natural! Eternal life is just God Himself as the divine life to us!
He was given “authority over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him” (v. 2). What a blessing to know that the Father has given all of us, the entire church, as a gift to the Son! The Father has given all the chosen ones as a gift to the Son, that the Son may give the Father’s life to them.
Following this the Son also has given the holy Word, the truth. This holy Word sanctifies. You have the eternal life, yet you still need to be separated from the world. You need to be sanctified with all the reality that is conveyed in the holy Word. Many Christians think that the Bible only gives teachings. When they read the Bible they pick up the teachings in their mentality. They don’t realize that the holy Word conveys the reality of the divine Person. When we read the Bible all the reality should saturate our being. The Bible does contain teachings and doctrines, but the teachings and doctrines convey the riches of God’s Person. This is why the Bible tells us that we should not only read the Word, but also eat the Word (Jer. 15:16). To read the menu is one thing, and to eat the food is another. The menu could never saturate you, but the food can.
When the Lord gives us eternal life, we have the Father’s life. Now the Word saturates us with the Father’s nature. This is sanctification. We may use teaification as an illustration. If you put a tea bag into a glass of plain water, it will teaify the water. This means the essence and the nature of the tea will saturate the water. After a few minutes the water will be teaified. This is a picture of sanctification. The word of the Bible is like the tea bag. You need to put the heavenly tea bag in your glass and keep it there all day long so that the essential element of the “tea” will saturate your entire being. This will even change your nature. Firstly, the Son gives us the eternal life, and secondly, He gives us the sanctifying Word. The Word of God is truth that sanctifies us.
This is not all. Eventually the Son also gives us the glory of the Father. This also is mysterious. What is the glory? The glory is just the expression of God. Electricity in a room is glorified by its expression through the light bulbs. The Son has given us the glory of God the Father so that we can express God. How marvelous!
Suppose three brothers have been chosen by God the Father and given to the Son. The Son has given the Father’s divine life, the eternal life, to all three of them. All three have the divine life, but one likes to go to the beach to play in the water, another likes to go to the mountains to play in the snow, and another likes to go to the theater. All are one in the divine life, but eventually they are divided by the world. But all three love the Word to some extent. Day after day they pick up the sanctifying Word. Eventually, the first would no longer go to the beach, the second would no longer go to the mountains, and the third would no more go to the theater. Spontaneously, they would no longer be divided. Firstly, they had the oneness in the divine life. Secondly, they had the oneness in the divine nature through the sanctifying Word.
But still there may be some problems. One of the brothers likes to make a show of how much he knows the spiritual things. The other likes to control things, and the third thinks he is so smart and able to give the best advice. In life they are one, in the sanctifying nature they are one, but in the intention, in the goal, or in other words, in the expression they are not one. But one day the Lord shows them the glory of the Father. He shows them that the church life is not to express how much they know, nor some kind of authority, nor anything else. The church life is just to express the very God. So all three give up their goals and their intentions to have one goal, to express the very God. Then the three are really one—one in life, one in nature, and one in the glory, that is, in the expression. What is this? This is the Son glorified. The Son is glorified in this kind of oneness.
The oneness in John 17 has three aspects. The first aspect is to take the Father’s divine life as the factor. The second aspect is to take the Father’s nature through the sanctifying Word as the factor. The third aspect is to take the Father’s glory as the factor. By this the Son is glorified and as the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification.
In John 17:24 the Lord prayed, “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world.” What does the phrase “where I am” mean? Where is the Lord? The Lord is in a situation that glorifies the Father all the time, and He wants us to be there. He wants to bring us all into this kind of glorifying situation, to glorify the Son that the Son may glorify the Father. This is the intercession at the incense altar.
We all need to see this. This is the ultimate result of enjoying Christ as all the offerings. When we enjoy Christ as the sin offering, as the trespass offering, as the burnt offering, as the meal offering, and as the peace offering, we enter into the Triune God as our tabernacle. Then we will arrive at the incense altar where we will be one with Christ to pray the kind of prayer that is recorded in John 17. We will pray that the Father will glorify the Son and that He would be glorified in the Son. We will pray that all His believers may realize that He has given the divine life, the sanctifying Word, and the Father’s glory to them, that they all may be one in the Triune God to express Him. Then all the members of Christ will have a threefold oneness, and this is the proper church life. This proper church life is surely in the Triune God. It is by such a church life in this threefold oneness that the Son is glorified so that the Father might be glorified in the glorification of the Son. This is the result of enjoying Christ as all the offerings.
Eventually you do have a glorious consummation here. The believers are now in the Triune God, and the Triune God is now becoming the believers’ expression! So the believers and the Triune God, the Triune God and the believers, are all one. This is the living testimony of the Triune God even today on this earth. In eternity we will see this in full. This will transpire all the way by our enjoying Christ as our trespass offering and sin offering. This will lead us into the enjoyment of Christ as the burnt offering, as the meal offering, and as the peace offering.
This will usher us all into the practical tabernacle, the Triune God, where we will have a mutual abode. Then we will arrive at the incense altar where we, as the Body of Christ, pray with Christ for God’s eternal purpose, that the Triune God would be wrought into the believers and that the believers would be one in God and one with one another in God to be His glorification.
All of these matters should be brought into the meetings. How high this kind of meeting would be! We need to have this kind of meeting. This is the way to meet. The way to meet is to enjoy Christ as the initial offerings: the sin offering and the trespass offering. Then we enter into the full enjoyment of Christ, and we will be ushered into the tabernacle. There we will be one with the Triune God and with one another in the Triune God. We will be the church as a living testimony of the Triune God. Then the Lord’s prayer in John 17 will be fulfilled. May the Lord have much grace upon us, and may He grace us with all that we need so that we could be ushered into such a condition that where He is, there we will also be with Him to glorify the Triune God.