The Holy of Holies (6)

 

 

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:25 – 26).

 

Is this the conclusion of the Upper Room? Is it the conclusion of the Holy of Holies? Or is it the Beginning?

 

There are those who read these words of Jesus to the Father and move on with life, or with what they think is life. They turn the page and go to the next thing they read. Page after page they turn of the Bible, perhaps even memorizing verses, perhaps quoting long passages; but their knowledge is like that of someone who reads a travel guide over and over again but never visits the actual place, never lives in the actual country.

 

In a sense all that Jesus says in John 17:25 – 26 is a recapitulation of what we’ve experienced in John chapters 13 – 17, it is what we’ve seen in Chapter 17. But it is more than a recapitulation, it is an affirmation of God’s love for us and our calling as His sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. Verses 25 – 26 are Christ’s affirmation to us that we are to live in unbroken eternal koinonia with the Trinity – today, tomorrow, and forever.

 

We see that the Father is righteous, He is our righteous Father. The world does not know our righteous Father, but Jesus Christ knows Him and we know that the Father sent the Son. In 17:11 we see that He is our holy Father, keeping us in the Name that He has given Jesus Christ.

 

In the beginning of His ministry Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). Perhaps all of the Gospel can be encapsulated into these words, “Our Father,” for the Gospel is the Good News that our Father has redeemed us back to Himself in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus came so that we might say, “Our Father.”

 

Jesus came declaring the Name of His Father to us. Jesus came so that the Father, our Father, might bring many sons and daughters to glory (Hebrews 2:10 – 13). Jesus the Elder Son leaves the Father’s House to rescue His brethren from the pigpen and brings them back Home rejoicing to His Father and their Father, to His God and their God (John 20:17; 1 John 3:1 – 3).

 

God loves the world, He sends us into the world as He sent Jesus (John 17:18; 20:21), yet the world does not know the Father just as it did not know the Son and as it does not know us (as we’ve seen in previous reflections). We ought not to be surprised that the world does not know the Father, and we should not be surprised that the world (and religious systems) does not know Jesus or us, for we have been told that this is the way it is (John 15:18 – 16:4).

 

We can identify ourselves with our Father or with the world, we can be citizens of heaven or citizens of the world, we can live in Babylon or in the City of our God. This is fundamental to life, there is the City of God and the City of Man, which do we choose?

 

Jesus has made the Father’s Name known to us, and He continually makes it known. To know His Name is to know Him in intimate relationship, to know His love and acceptance, His care and warmth, His righteousness and holiness, His sacrificing heart. We can expect that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will reveal the Father Name in unfolding glory throughout our lives (John 16:12 – 15), leading us into that glorious Holy City of Revelation chapters 21 – 22 today, tomorrow and forever.

 

Jesus reveals the Father’s Name to us so that the Father’s love may live within us. “So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” Jesus reveals the Father Name so that He may live in us, “And I in them.”

 

We have seen these themes of God’s love for us and God’s indwelling us throughout the Upper Room. The Father loves us as He loves Jesus. We are to be one with one another in the Trinity just as the Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – is One. The Trinity is within us and we are in the Trinity and in us and through us God desires to manifest His love to the world – even when the world rejects us.

 

Consider when you awake every morning that “the love with which the Father loves Jesus is the love with which He loves you!” Do not doubt God’s eternal love for you in Jesus Christ but respond to His call of love by accepting His love and by loving others as He loves you.

 

When you awake every morning remember that Jesus desires to live within you, that this is why He reveals the Father’s Name to you – to draw you into intimate union with Himself, His Father, and the Holy Spirit (and with the communion of the saints).

 

O dear friends, let us not be so foolish as to believe what the world teaches us, or what religious systems often teach us, but let us embrace what Jesus reveals to us of our Father, let us confess what Jesus teaches us about who we truly are in Him – the precious and loved daughters and sons of God. We are not accidents looking for a place to happen, we are loved and redeemed and have been brought home to the Father’s House on the shoulders and in the arms of our Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.

 

John 17:25 – 26 is not the end of the journey, it is the Beginning – for it opens eternity (and eternal living!) to us in our Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.