The Unity of God
Speaker: Dr. John Clayton Series: Trinity Sunday Scripture: John 17:20–26
Dr. John Clayton's sermon on John 17:20-26 from our service on May 26, 2024, Trinity Sunday.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20–26).[1]
In Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, contained in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus prays first for himself, then for his disciples, and then for “those who will believe” in him. Yes, prior to Judas’ betrayal, prior to Peter’s denial, prior to his mock trial by the leaders of Israel, prior to his suffering and crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, Jesus prays for you and me. What does Jesus pray for you and me? He prays, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (21). He prays for a unity of the church that testifies to the unity of the Trinity.
What ultimately does Christian unity testify to? It testifies to the love of God. God does not love you or me because we are loveable. On the contrary, he knows the deepest, darkest wretchedness of my soul and still loves me and sent his Son to die for me, and you too: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).
Our testimony to the world then is two-fold: First, when a sinner is saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, it reveals the love of God. It is extraordinary that God would justify, adopt, and sanctify sinners like you and me, but we serve as living testimonies that he does. We, along with every believer throughout the world testifies that the unlovable are divinely loved. And this then helps us understand the second aspect of this unity that testifies: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). In fact, the apostle John explains, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21).
What does God’s love for us and our love for one another have to do with unity within the Trinity? Theologian Robert Letham explains it this way: “The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father. The Father loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves the Father. The Son loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves the Son. This reciprocal love of the three persons exists in the unbreakable union of the undivided Trinity.”[2] Such is the perfect and complete love of God within himself. But note what Jesus says about this same divine love: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (23). All who are in Christ, are in union with God and in union with one another, knowing the very same love that the Father has for the Son.
By God’s grace, we are made, as the apostle Peter puts it, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), but what God has done already is not yet complete. Our union with God in Christ and one another is perfect and inseparable, but how we live it out remains tainted by sin, which is evidenced not only in our lives individually but corporately. The apostle Paul describes our sanctification as being “from one degree of glory to another” by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18), which includes our unity within the church, in which our communion with one another should be like our communion in the love of God. And it was this unity, this oneness that Jesus prayed for: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (21a).
The Glory of Unity
In his prayer for our unity, Jesus introduces the word “glory,” confessing to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (22). The “glory” that God the Father has given God the Son he gives to us. But what is this glory we have been given? The apostle Paul describes it using the metaphor of light: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The glory we have been given is the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its transforming power through the Holy Spirit in us. We look not to ourselves but to Christ alone, who perfectly obeyed the Father in all things, including death upon the cross, and as he resurrected from the dead in glory, so our glory is in him, our Lord and Savior.
This is not to say that we always look glorious or display glory. We are indeed a work in progress, but the one who is doing the work has guaranteed its completion by the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit. And as we see the Holy Spirit’s work in ourselves and one another, we get a glimpse of the glory of God. Because what the Spirit is doing in us is no little work: He has taken wretches like you and me and is making and molding us into the image of Christ, supernatural work to be completed in perfection on the day of our Lord’s return (Phil. 1:6).
But this does not negate the reality of our unity in Christ today. Jesus prayed to the Father, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (23). He also said, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), so our unity is not in looking to one another but Christ. We are one in Christ with brothers and sisters both near and far, sharing oneness that is not based on a common tongue, common culture, or common country but Christ alone. It is easy of course to fixate on our differences, differences we will have until our Lord’s return, but I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ discovery; after studying the writings of many of the great Christians throughout history, from Thomas a Kempis to Thomas Aquinas to Martin Luther, he was astounded that despite their differences there was a unique oneness in their testimony, because central to them all was the truth of the gospel.[3] We will not know a complete oneness in the universal church this side of glory, but that does not negate our glorious oneness together in Christ.
The Love of Unity
Such unity, as Jesus describes it, is rooted in the unity of God himself. “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4), the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, “and these three are one God, the same in substance equal in power and glory.”[4] There is no strife or conflict within the Godhead but perfect union in love. Jesus says that just as the Father is in the Son and works through him (John 14:10), the Son is in the Father, and as God is love (1 John 4:16), then the love of God is known by all who are in Christ. It is also a love witnessed by the world.
We don’t typically think of unity as something witnessed but experienced, nor do we think the world even cares. But Jesus says that the world is watching, and what they see is telling, specifically that God the Father sent his only Son, and that God the Father loves his church as he loves his Son (21, 23). Of course, the church is made up of sinners saved by grace, which means that when our sinful flesh gets its way, there will be not love but strife and conflict. We should not be so naïve to think that it will be absent amidst us.
When strife and conflict do occur, we must see them for what they are, evidence of our sinful nature and contrary to the love of God in Christ. We must learn to look in love to one another as God in Christ has loved us. No matter how much you have been offended, no matter how much you have been hurt by your brother or sister, it pales in comparison to your offenses against God. And yet, how did your heavenly Father treat you? In love, he sent his only Son for you. He did not hold a grudge against you because of your past offenses, but “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The one who you have offended the most, forgave you, redeemed you, even adopted you as his own child in love, with the same love his has for his Son. Brothers and sisters, unity grows in the garden of God’s love flowing through each of us to one another.
The Mission of Unity
Toward the end of his prayer, Jesus’ transitions from petition to description, confessing what God the Father has done in him and what he has done in his disciples and what he will do through us. What he describes is not a static oneness but a gospel-centered, missions-mobilizing unity. As God sent his Son, and in him we are one, so the Son sends us into the world (17:18). Our mission to the world is a Great Commission from our Lord Jesus, who said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). As commissioned, so we send, support, pray, and go in the name of Christ, under his sovereign authority. We carry the gospel to the nations, making disciples, planting churches, faithful to the ordinary means of grace ministry of Christ’s appointment.
Now, because of Christ’s Great Commission, consider the unity we enjoy in Christ throughout the world. Around the world, every Lord’s Day we assemble in worship as one. Around the world, every Lord’s Day the Word of God is read, sung, and preached, in worship as one. Around the world, baptism is administered setting apart a people unto the Lord with sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace, in worship as one. Around the world, the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, in which the visible testimony of Christ’s propitiation is seen and tasted, and we are nourished in the spiritual presence of Christ, in worship as one. Around the world, every Lord’s Day prayers are sung and spoken as the people of God offer prayers to God our Father, through Christ his Son, by the Holy Spirit, in worship as one.
Though there are differences and varying nuances to what we believe and how we worship, we must not lose sight that God the Father has answered his Son’s prayer even today, as the gospel is advanced, to unreached people groups, or in nations that have forgotten the gospel, in lands friendly and hostile to the gospel, even to our neighbors here at home. The apostle Peter says that God is building a temple, not in modern Jerusalem but spiritually out of living stones, like you and me, and believers very unlike you and me, all over the world, and yet one in Christ. For this reason, we should have a heart for the ordinary means of ministry of this church, as we are the result of Christ’s Great Commission, but we should also have a heart that faithful churches be planted throughout the world. For, in advancing the gospel we are doing more than evangelism but welcoming saved-by-grace worshipers into the kingdom to worship our risen Lord in union together with us. And one day, we will all come together, in a new heaven and earth, united as one in worship of our one God, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer.
The knowledge of Unity
Jesus concludes his prayer distinguishing between his Father, who is righteous, and this world, which is not, praying for us, whom God has saved out of the world. He confesses what he has done, and will continue to do, has been done and will be done in love: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (26). To make God’s name known is to say that he revealed the character of God in his incarnation. We may remember Philip’s plea to see the Father, to which Jesus responded, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Or as John begins his first epistle, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” (1 John 1:1-2).
Jesus’ life was indeed glorious, as recorded in the Gospels, but to this confession Jesus adds that he is not finished but will continue to make the name of God known, a promise made shortly before his death. And as we see on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts, Jesus kept his promise to the Father by sending his Spirit to us. As we are one in Christ, it is his Spirt who enables and empowers us to live, to make his name known in word and deed, a testimony to our one God who loves us. Michael Reeves says, “So it is with the Father and the Son; so it is with us. The Spirit catches us up to share their pleasure, and it is that delight in them that fuels us to want to make them known. The Spirit-caused enjoyment of the fellowship, the increasing love for the Father and the Son: It turns us to share their outgoing love for the world. We become like what we worship.”[5]
And so, united in Christ as one, we worship the Lord our God in spirit and truth, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, “the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity,” [6] who loves you and me …
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.[7]
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/god-love-letham
[3] R.C. Sproul, John (Lake Mary: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009), 332.
[4] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 6, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 360-361.
[5] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 106.
[6] https://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html
[7] Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, Inc., 1990), 252.
other sermons in this series
Jun 4
2023
God-centered Worship
Speaker: Dr. John Clayton Series: Trinity Sunday
Jun 7
2020
The Unity of One God
Speaker: Dr. John Clayton Scripture: Ephesians 4:1–6 Series: Trinity Sunday
Jun 16
2019
Covenant Confidence
Speaker: Joshua Dickens Scripture: Psalm 23:1 Series: Trinity Sunday