Words From The Upper Room

We sometimes joke that certain people think they are “God’s gift to the world.”  Such people are often filled with pride and fail to realize that those around them would rather NOT be!! That is just the opposite of GOD’s goal for those who come to know Him. We sometimes, if not often, miss the central truth of a particular passage in the Bible, or of God’s Word as a whole, because we are too lazy to look beyond the surface. In our text for today, Jesus makes it easy! As He prays to the Father in chapter 17 of John’s gospel, Jesus reveals the intention and purpose of God in everything that He does: to gather for Himself a people who will know Him, love Him and serve Him … in short, who would live in an intimate relationship of “oneness” with Him, now and forever!! We say often that “Christianity” is more than a “religion,” it is “RELATIONSHIP!” Even then, most people spend little time on that aspect of the Christian life, and if they do it is directed toward living in relationship with other people, both inside and outside the church. The reality is that Jesus came to establish a relationship between GOD and the people whom the Father had given Him, those whom He chose before the creation of the world to be part of the Body of Christ. This was always the Father’s plan and desire, that they would “be one” with Him … and then, with other believers!! It is this spiritual “oneness” with God, and with one another, that Jesus now prays for in our text for today. Your relationship with God will determine your relationship with other believers in the Body of Christ. While salvation is an individual reality for those who are born again by the Spirit, it is God’s desire and intention that through the work of His Son and His Spirit, through the Word, we would become “ONE,” and so point to the power of Jesus Christ at work in us, for HIS glory! May we hear this message today and by God’s grace through His Word pursue with zeal the “oneness” Jesus came to create.