the believers are being made one in the divine glory for God’s expression

The third level of oneness in John 17 is the believers’ oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God.

The glory which the Father gave to the Son, this glory the Son gave to the believers that they may be one even as the Triune God is one. This is so that the world may know that the Father has sent the Son and has loved the believers even as the Father loved the Son (see John 17:22-23).

For the accomplishing of this oneness, the Father gave the Lord Jesus six things: the authority (17:2), the believers (vv. 2, 6, 9, 24), the work (v. 4), the words (v. 8), the Father’s name (vv. 11-12), and the Father’s glory (v. 24).

For us believers to participate in this oneness, the Son gave us three things: the eternal life (v. 2), the holy word of God (vv. 8, 14), and the divine glory (v. 22).

Oneness in the divine glory

The highest level of oneness is the oneness in the divine glory, in the expression of the Triune God. This glory is nothing less than the Father’s life with His nature to express His divine virtues – the expression of God.

God gave us not a “sudden beam of light shining on us and around us outwardly” but He gave us His life and His nature within, which – once lived out by us – express a kind of divine radiance and splendor. It is in this expression of the Triune God, in this splendid expression, that we are ONE.

This splendid expression delivers us from our self and makes us fully one in the divine glory.

We are now being perfected into one in the divine glory. The more we deny ourselves and live by the Father’s life and according to the Father’s nature, the more we are one in the expression of the Triune God.

We must be saved from our self (including ambition), self-exaltation, and from all our opinions and concepts (Rom. 5:10; 1 Cor. 1:10-13; 3 John 9).

If we still live by our natural life and according to our nature, we express ourselves, and there’s no glory to God, but rather there’s division and mixture. But if we live, act, behave, and have our being in the Father’s divine life and with the Father’s divine nature to express the Father, this is GLORY – and in this glory we are all being made one!

This oneness is the Body of Christ

In a very real sense, the Body of Christ is the enlargement and expansion of the Triune God in humanity, and this oneness is the Body of Christ. The real and practical church is the oneness. When we as believers in the Triune God live out this oneness, we are the church.

This oneness is firstly in the Father’s name and life, which delivers us from the natural realm. This oneness is also in the reality of the Father’s sanctifying word, which delivers us from the world. Finally, this oneness is in the Father’s glory, which delivers us from our self and causes us to become FULLY ONE in the Triune God.

This oneness is the church. This oneness is the Body of Christ.

The oneness the Lord Jesus prayed for in John 17 is not something out of us or made by us. This oneness has God as the source, His life as the essence, and there is a radiance and splendor in divinity which are fully expressed through God’s life and nature lived out of us in a sanctified realm.

In the church life we need to practice this – we need to live by the Father’s life and nature, and in the realm of the Father’s sanctifying word – and we will experience the building. We all need to treasure this oneness and pursue this oneness.

Praise the Lord, we are being perfected into one in the divine glory for God to have a corporate expression in humanity in glory!

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us the Father’s name and the Father’s life that we may be one! Thank You for the Father’s sanctifying word which delivers us from the world that we may be one. Thank You, Lord, for giving us the Father’s glory to be delivered from the self that we may be one. Lord, perfect us into one in the Father’s life, the Father’s word, and the Father’s glory, that You may be fully expressed!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure (by Witness Lee, page 15), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Oneness of the Body, the Proper One Accord in the Church, and the Direction of the Lord’s Move Today, week 1.
• Further reading: John 17:22, footnotes 1 and 2;
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / We’re His sons, oh, what a blessing! / We His glory are expressing.
  # The Triune God has now become our all! / How wonderful! How glorious!
  # We stand as one, and cannot be divided, / Because our oneness is of Christ alone.