In Me, In You

John 17: 22 – 23

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

There are so many pieces in this segment of Jesus’ prayer. He was preparing to go to the cross, his mission coming to an end. I am immediately struck that he said to God that the glory God gave to him, he has given to us. Did you ever consider that? If we have been given the glory of God, how does it show? How do we even perceive it for ourselves?

Jesus went on to say that the purpose was for us to become one – one with him and the Father and one with each other. It can be difficult for us to intellectually embrace what it means to be one with the Father and Jesus. Ivey Ministries slogan is, “Intertwined with Jesus,” but can we truly be intertwined with him while we live on earth? If we cannot, then what did Jesus mean in this passage? The end game for this is that the world will see that God loves us even as He loves Jesus and that He sent Jesus. So, this intertwining really is essential because it is through our life in and with Jesus that the world gets to see him.

Life integrated with him is not the same as us acting like him. That is a good start but Jesus is talking about something much more intimate. He means a shared life. Have you ever been so close to someone that your lives express elements of the other? Was it hard, sometimes, to see where your life ended and theirs began? Although we need healthy boundaries in our relationships, there are also those relationships which grow so close that they are intertwined. Jesus is offering that and more. Our lives can be hidden in him and he can live in us and give expression to our lives from within. Imagine for a moment, walking along holding someone’s hand. Do your hands swing a bit? Who causes that motion? Is it you, the other person or perhaps the union of the two of you? Jesus’ joining his life with ours is something like that only much more profound. He doesn’t take over and move our hands and feet against our will or even of his own will. He also isn’t stagnate like a lead weight we carry around in our hands. His life with us is an intertwining, like your fingers interlaced with his so that who you are and who he is evidences as an even greater self. The joining of his spirit and yours doesn’t take away who you are it just joins two beautiful items together like putting a diamond in a beautiful gold setting. Together the two are even more lovely to behold and more functional.

Now, how do we get there? How do we experience this integrated life with Jesus? That is the key question and we will look at that more closely tomorrow.