Spiritual Oneness.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20, 21).

There appears to be considerable confusion in the minds of many today, as to the meaning of "that all of them may be one," so much so that some of God's dear children are in danger of espousing a view which is very dishonoring to Christ. Whatever is the real and full meaning of this petition in our Lord's high priestly prayer, it certainly must not be interpreted in any such manner as to repudiate His own words to the Father in John 11:42 "And I know that You hear Me always." Yet, those who constantly emphasize the differences which exist among God's people come perilously near to committing this very sin.

Now it is obvious at the outset that, in order to understand this petition of Christ's, attention needs to be carefully directed unto the following points—first, for whom was He here praying? Second, what was the precise character of the "oneness" for which He here prayed? Once these questions are rightly answered, much uncertainty and mistaken conception will be cleared away. Nor is it at all difficult to discover the right answers to these inquiries—they call for no protracted searching—but lie right on the surface itself; and once they are pointed out, the simplest believer should have no difficulty in perceiving their correctness. It is our desire herein to call attention to what is quite plain, and very satisfying to the hearts of those who desire their thoughts to be formed by what God has revealed in His Word, rejecting those human ideas which are contrary thereto.

First, then, for WHOM was our Lord praying when He asked "that they all may be one?" Let us begin with the negative answer—Christ was nothere supplicating for the union or unity of professing Christendom. It seems strange then there should be any need for us to make this assertion, yet for generations past not a few have deplored the divisions in "the professing Church" as being contrary to that upon which the Savior here set His heart; and zealous efforts have been made to unify discordant elements under the idea they were promoting the accomplishment of His desire. But such "zeal" was "not according to knowledge" and therefore we need not be surprised at the absence of God's blessing upon such labors; rather should the lack of His benediction at once make us suspicious of the Scripturalness of their enterprises.

"I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours" (John 17:9). There is no ambiguity about these words, no excuse for not understanding their purpose—they plainly enough define the objects Christ had before Him, when interceding with the Father. Neither the profane world, nor the professing world, came within the scope of His high priestly requests—as He declared by the Spirit of prophecy centuries beforehand, "Their sorrows shall be multiplied, who hasten after another god—their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into My lips" (Psalm 16:4). Solemn indeed is this—Christendom, as such, never has been the object of Christ's intercession—His petitions are limited unto those whom the Father "gave Him" before the foundation of the world. So it was in the type—on the breastplate of Aaronwere inscribed not he names of the nations of Canaan—but only the twelve tribes of Israel.

It should be clear, then, from what has been pointed out above, that the divisions of Christendom, the conflicting systems and parties which claim to be Christian, in no wise clashes with this request of the Redeemer's "that they all may be one," nor is the present "strife of tongues" in the religious realm any proof that His prayer yet remains unanswered. Far from it, for the simple but sufficient reason that it was not for the oneness of Christendom that the Lord Jesus here prayed. We say again, that once this simple and incontrovertible fact be grasped—much uncertainty and error disappears like the morning mists before the rising sun. If the divisions of Christendom were a hundred times more marked and bitter than they are now, that would in no wise conflict with Christ's petition; and if all those breaches were closed and the whole of Christendom united in belief and practice, that would not to the slightest degree evidence the fulfillment thereof.

Secondly, exactly what was the "oneness" for which Christ here prayed? Again we will begin with the negative—certainly not for any external or organized oneness. Christ was not here supplicating for any visible or ecclesiastical union or unity, such as many have supposed is the great desideratum. It is to be deplored that there should be any need for us to assert this, yet, for many years past there have been those who decried the sectarian differences in Christendom, as being opposed to what Christ so much desired; and various devices have been resorted to for breaking down the separating walls—in the belief that this would secure the answer to the Savior's prayer. But this is as far from the truth as is the idea that the Lord was here praying for Christendom as a whole.

"That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." (John 17:21). There is nothing dark or uncertain in this language; it clearly signifies the nature of that "oneness" for which Christ is interceding. It was a spiritual and Divine oneness, such as existed between Himself and the Father; a mystical and invisible union. This is brought out with equal explicitness in an earlier verse of the same chapter—"Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:1). Thus, that union and communion among the elect for which Christ prayed, had for its pattern or similitude, the union and communion which existed between the Mediator and the Father, and that is neither a material nor external one.

"That the world may believe that You have sent Me" (v. 21). It is failure to understand this last clause which has led many to an erroneous interpretation of the whole verse. It has been supposed that the divided state of Christendom, is the principal hindrance in the way of the world's acceptance of the Gospel, and that if only the spirit of sectarianism could be banished from the earth, unbelief would be at an end. Such daydreamers seem to have forgotten that at the beginning of this dispensation there was a manifested unity among all those who bore the name of Christ, "And the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and of one soul—neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common" (Acts 4:32)—yet that was very far from effecting any change in the world's attitude toward God and His Christ.

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