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. (John 17:20–23)
William Sangster wrote that for John Wesley, “John 17 was a verbatim prayer of his Savior, that the believer might be united to the Father and to Him, and that devout might thus be ‘perfected into one.’”((Sangster, The Path to Perfection, 47.))
Wesley listed this prayer as one of the prayers in Scripture that God would save us from all sin.((Wesley, BE Works, 13:66.)) He said that such prayers for entire sanctification, were there no such thing, would be mere mockery of God.((Wesley, BE Works, 13:162.)) But in neither reference to John 17:20–23 in his Plain Account of Christian Perfection does Wesley exegete the text.
This high priestly intercession of Jesus Christ is a prayer for world evangelism, for church unity, for entire sanctification, and for final glorification. But Dr. Dennis F. Kinlaw, with his emphasis on relationships, pointed out that in verse 3 “God wants me simply to know Him. That is what Christianity has to offer the world, a personal relationship with God, not an escape route from judgment.”((Kinlaw, We Live as Christ, 16.)) Dr. Kinlaw continued to point out that Scripture utilizes metaphors that describe salvation not only judicially but also as friendship, as marriage, as indwelling, as identity. Perhaps we attempt evangelization, unification, and sanctification without first establishing this personal relationship.
For our purposes we are most interested in the phrase that states Christ can so indwell us that we can reflect him to the world. However, we must first be indwelt by him if we are ever going to reflect him. In his Explanatory Notes, Wesley explains that Christ in us is a “similitude and not of sameness or equality.”((Wesley, Notes, 263–64.)) Thus, the indwelling of Christ does not elevate us to deity. We are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4), but we share his nature, not his essence. This, then is not to be interpreted as a pantheistic union of God and humanity. We can become godly, but not deity.
There is an interpenetration within the Trinity that theologians attempt to describe with the word perichoresis. This mutual indwelling of the persons within the Godhead is primarily stated in John 10:38, 14:10–20, and 17:21. Wesley was saying this interpenetration of God into humanity is similar but not exactly the same. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are so united that if we have one, we have all. But the abiding presence of the Trinity within humanity does not elevate us to deity. This divine presence, however, does restore humanity from sinfulness to holiness.
When the divine Spirit indwells humanity perfectly, humanity is not obliterated. Our unity can and should be perfected, but the result is not the loss of identity. We do not become infallible—yet the more perfectly he indwells us, the more perfectly we reflect him.
The result of Christ dwelling within us is also that we are sanctified. In verse 17 Jesus prays that his disciples be sanctified. Jesus needed no inward cleansing from the sinful nature, but he sanctified himself in the sense that he maintained separation from sin and consecration to his mission. That mission included our sanctification—our separation from the world and our cleansing from inward sin.
The agents of our complete sanctification, mentioned in this prayer, are the written Word and the living Word. The written Word is declared to be truth. Jesus does not say that Scripture merely contains truth. Rather he makes a statement of direct equivalency. The Word of God = truth. Grammatically, the predicate nominative of Word is truth. It cannot be wholly true, however, if it contains error.
The Scriptures are holy because they are come from a holy God. And the process of inspiration involved the Holy Spirit conveying the Word of God to holy men (2 Pet 1:21). The reliability and consistency of the sanctified life are tied to the reliability of the Word of God, which is an extension of the very character of God (Ps 138:2). It is this relentless, penetrating truth of God’s Word that reveals our sinful plight. The Holy Scriptures, inspired by the Holy Spirit, serve as the seed of new life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet 1:23; Jas 1:18) or the indirect object of our sanctification. The same Holy Spirit now uses the Word of God to perfect the people of God.
Yet some theologians believe that the Holy Spirit can transmit truth inerrantly but cannot sanctify believers wholly. According to the majority evangelical view of Romans 7, the Holy Spirit can produce a manuscript without error but not an apostle without sin. The polar oppose position affirms the possibility of perfection in the life of the believer while denying that it is possible for God’s revelation to be perfect.
The second agent mentioned is the atoning work of Jesus Christ. He is the living expression of God. “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Heb 13:12). He shed his own blood so that we might experience the Father’s love.
Asbury Lowrey spoke of four agents of entire sanctification: the atonement, the truth, faith, and the Holy Spirit.((Lowrey, Possibilities of Grace, 342.)) Actually, the plan of the Father is the originating cause. The blood of Christ is the meritorious or procuring cause. The work of the Holy Spirit is the efficient or administrative cause. The Word of God is the instrumental cause. Faith is the conditional cause.
Sermon Suggestions
- What does the world see reflected in you? Do they see Jesus at all? Do they see a distorted view of Christ that is blurred by our own unresolved spiritual issues?
- God has revealed through the Holy Scriptures that we are in need of a cleansing from all sin. Has the Holy Spirit revealed to you your need for this entire sanctification?
- Jesus Christ made atonement for your sin. He shed his blood to cleanse us from all sin. Do you believe the promises of God’s Word?
Exactly as we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith. Faith is the condition, and the only condition of sanctification, exactly as it is of justification. It is the condition: none is sanctified but he that believes; without faith no man is sanctified. And it is the only condition: this alone is sufficient for sanctification.((Wesley, “Scripture Way of Salvation,” Sermon #43, 3.3.))