1 ver. 11, 22,

23. ch. x. 16. Rom. xii. 5. Gal. iii. 28.

m ch. x. 38. & χίν. 11.

m

as thou,

21 That they all may be one; Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also

who believed through the word of the Apostles themselves. Believers in all ages are thus combined in a single body. "This saying of Jesus assigned a capital part in the life of the Church to the Apostolic word. Jesus did not recognize in the future any faith capable of uniting man to God, and of preparing Him for glory, except that which should be begotten and nourished by the teaching of these eleven Apostles." (Godet.) The teaching of St. Paul, it may be added, was in no respect different, but entirely founded upon the original tradition; so, at least, he most emphatically asserts in 1 Corinth. xv. 1, &c.

21. "That they all may be one." Is it possible that so immense a body of persons should be one? It is not impossible, for here the Lord prays for it: so that we may be sure that no divisions of the Church are of necessity, all come from the perverseness of man, and are contrary to the will of God and the prayer of Christ.

66

"As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be [one] in us." The unity of the members of the Church is not a unity of mere opinion, or of purpose, or of mutual agreement, but it is a unity with one another, because they are in God and in Christ. It is a unity, the increase and perfection of which depends upon many things. It depends, for instance, upon holiness, for wilful sin cuts off from Christ, and therefore from oneness with Him and God. It depends upon our abiding in the faith or word which was once for all delivered unto the saints," or St. John would not have been inspired to write, "Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father" (1 John ii. 24). St. Paul calls men to it by the consideration of certain great unifying truths, “There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephes. iv. 4, 5, 6). It depends, one may say, almost necessarily on the realization of the grace of sacraments. That by baptism we are grafted into one Body, and by the Eucharist are partakers of One Bread, and so are

may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are

one:

n

n ch. xiv. 20. 1 John i. 3. & iii. 24.

21. "One in us." "One omitted by B., C., D., some Old Latin (a, b, c, e); retained by N, A., C., L., later Uncials, nearly all Cursives, Vulg., Syriac, &c.

continued in One. Body. This unity was realized for a short period in the Pentecostal Church, for they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, and in their fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers, "and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts ii. 42, iv. 32).

"That the world may believe that thou hast sent me." It is to be remarked that this wonderful prayer is not for the holiness of the Church, or its zeal, or its activity, but for its oneness; for the Lord here prays for the conversion of the world, but the conversion of the world as, in the counsels of God, depending upon the unity of those who present Christ's message to the world. The holiness and goodness of Christians, if they have not unity, is distracting to the outside world. The world asks, "If such holy men differ, what are we to believe?" They have asked, and are unceasingly asking this in such immense fields of labour as India and China, and can they do otherwise? It stands to reason that the sight of one Holy Catholic Church, immense in numbers, purifying itself from sin, rich in good works of faith and charity, and withal presenting one undivided front, would be overwhelming. Men may call this a dream, but it is a dream for the realization of which Christ here prays.

22. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.” This glory is most probably the glory of being sons of God by the indwelling and leading of the Spirit; for the especial grace of Christ to those who receive Him is described in the exordium as, "power to become the sons of God." And by St. Paul in the words, "God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law... that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. iv. 4, 5). This view agrees best with the contents of verses 22 and 23. Christ's true Sonship involves His Unity with the

EE

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made • Col. iii. 14. perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

P ch. xii. 26.

& xiv. 3.

P

24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou

1 Thess. iv. 17. hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me:

q ver. 5.

" for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

23. "And" omitted by B., C., D., L., some Cursives, some Old Latin (a, e, g); retained by A., later Uncials, almost all Cursives, and Syriac.

24. "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me," &c. “That that (neuter) which thou hast given Me, they also may be with Me." So N, B., D.; bat A., C., L., later Uncials, all Cursives, Vulg., and Syriac as in Rec. Text.

Father, the sonship of His followers involves their spiritual unity with Him and with His Father.

23. "I in them, and thou in me . . . loved them, as thou hast loved me." Here the Lord, as it were, advances in His demand, that His Church may be perfect in one, that the world may not only believe, but know that God has sent Him.

"And hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." What is the proof to the world that the Father has loved the Son? Evidently that the Son so fully partakes of the goodness and wisdom and love and holiness of God. Such gifts can only come from the Author and Giver of all goodness, and so the more the character of Christ is reproduced in His followers the more certain will the world be that they are true sons of God by belonging to Christ, and so partaking of the filial gifts which are characteristic of God's Son.

24. "Father, I will that they also, whom thou." Notice the word "I will "—not "I pray," but it is My wish, simply expressing the desire. This accords with what we said before, that this chapter is an act of converse as much as a prayer. How very human this request is!

These men had been witnesses of His humiliation: He naturally desires that they should behold His Glory, the Glory which He shared with the Father, as He had shared His love, before the foundation of the world. As they had seen the humiliation of the Divine Son in His human nature, and acknowledged it, and be

r

25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have knownch. xv. 21. that thou hast sent me.

& xvi. 3.

8 ch. vii. 29. & viii. 55. & x.

26" And I have declared unto them thy name, 15. and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

t ver. 8. ch. xvi. 27.

u ver. 6. ch. xv. 15.

x ch. xv. 9.

26. "Declared." "I have made known unto them" (Alford and Revisers); notum feci eis (Vulg.).

lieved, notwithstanding His lowliness, that He came from God, so He wills that as the reward of this they should see His Divine Glory shining through the same human nature. It was only right that He and they should be thus rewarded, and so He says,

"O righteous Father," O Father, Who givest to all what is right and just, "the world hath not known thee," and so Thou mightest justly leave them in their ignorance, but I Whom Thou sentest into the world under the same conditions of human nature as My brethren, "I have known thee," and these have progressed in Thy knowledge which I have given them, so far as they were able, even so as to have known that Thou hast sent Me.

26. "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it," &c. I have declared unto them Thy Name of Father throughout all My past intercourse with them.

"And will declare it" still more fully at Pentecost, and will continue to make it known to them, that "the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." This is the counterpart of what He had said before, "If a man love me, he will keep my sayings, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." God loves the true believer as being not in Himself but in Christ, and because Christ is in him; and so the final mystery of God's love to believers is, that God loves them as one with His Son.

W

CHAP. XVIII

HEN Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth

a Matt. xxvi.

36. Mark xiv.

32. Luke xxii.
39.

We now come to the testimony of the beloved disciple to the Lord's condemnation and Sacrificial Death. The differences between his account and that of the Synoptics are very considerable, and yet not only is his narrative capable of being reconciled in almost every point with that of the first three Evangelists, but is their necessary supplement, rendering much in the older narratives intelligible, as we shall notice as we proceed.

St. John recounts very briefly the events from the departure to Gethsemane to the delivery of the Lord to Pilate, and seems to hasten to the examination before Pilate, in his account of which he reports certain matters which are in remarkable accordance with the characteristic features of this Gospel-in fact, are what is called Johannine, and yet are absolutely necessary to the right understanding of much in the Synoptic accounts.

1. "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with... and his disciples." It is impossible to say, with anything like certainty, where the words of the Lord, as contained in the 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters, were spoken. At the end of the discourse in the 14th chapter the Lord had said, "Arise, let us go hence.” They must then have left the room where He had instituted the Eucharist, and where He had washed their feet. The part of the discourse which follows could not, we should think, have been delivered as they walked through the public roads to the place where they crossed the brook. The words seem too solemn, and to demand too much attention, to have been uttered as they passed through places of public resort. It is conjectured that the prayer in chap. xvii., being an act of priestly intercession, would most fittingly have been said in the Temple, which, it is also conjectured, lay in their way. But the Evangelic writers are not careful to inform us respecting thousands of such matters of time and place.