Section 5
Verse 23 continues, "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." Here we see that being perfected into oneness still pertains to being in the Father and in the Son. If we take care of all these verses, then we shall be able to see real oneness.
In verse 24 the Lord said, "Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world." The Lord was in the divine glory and prayed that all whom the Father had given Him would also be with Him in glory. We need to pay close atten tion to the tenses of some of the verbs in this verse. Here it does not say that they "shall be with Me" or that "they shall behold My glory." Accord ing to the natural, religious concept, glory is in the future, in "the sweet by-and-by." According to this concept, in "the sweet by-and-by" the glory will shine and we all shall come into that shining and be in glory. But the Lord Jesus did not use the future tense, but the present tense, saying, "I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may