"I have made Your name known to them, and I will make it known; that the love wherewith You love Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26).
Who can but marvel at the hope of these words? Jesus prays to his Father. He shares his heart. He lets his own desire be made known. Father, I desire that the love that we have known from all eternity in the freedom and joy of the Holy Spirit would be in them, that they could taste and feel and experience our relationship. Life. Eternal, abounding, overflowing life. Indeed, it is even deeper. We have been prayed over by Jesus himself. Father, I desire that I would be in them. Jesus himself, and all that he is and has with his Father, in us, as much ours as it is Jesus'. The gift of all gifts.
The heart of the universe is here before our eyes. The gospel itself is right here. This is the conversation that predates the creation of all worlds. Here is the agenda behind our existence. Here is the eternal word spoken over the human race before we ever came to be. Away with external religious systems. Jesus desires to be in us—and is. His prayer has been answered. He heads to the cross to meet us in our shame, in our rejection, in our treachery—and he did. He made his way into our humanity, into our broken humanity, into our sinful, black, blind, obstinate, and hopeless humanity. That is what he did on the cross. He made his way into our lives, into our hearts, into the soul of our broken being.
Jesus desires to be in us—and he is. Now comes the best part. "I have made Your name known to them, and I will make it known." He is declaring to us, to the black pit of our shame, to our despairing and broken parts whose only word is utter silence, "I will make Your name known."
Jesus is saying, I take responsibility for meeting you in your sin and revealing My Father to you. I will meet you. I will find you. I will enter into your terrorized inner worlds and make contact with you hiding in the bushes of your great fear. I will cross all worlds, all illusions, all delusions, into the abyss of evil's lie and embrace you—and I have. And I will not rest until every leaf of your gnarled darkness is turned over, until you see with my eyes, until you know with my heart who My Father is, and you are liberated with the freedom of our Holy Spirit.
"I have made Your name known to them, and I will make it known."
Prayer
Lord Jesus, beloved and faithful Son of the Father, anointed One, I have nothing to give to you but my brokenness.
Can you not hear Jesus say, 'I take your brokenness and in exchange I give you My heart to know My Father? I embrace you in your great sadness, now take sides with me against the way you see My Father, and against the way you see yourself, and against the way you see others?'
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9 comments:
Thank you so much for this, it has been on my mind of late. I read the following by St Athanasius recently in his work "The Incarnation of the Word of God" (§ 45, chapter 7, Refutation of the Gentiles) which says "For I take up now the point I made before, namely that the Saviour did this in order that He might fill all things everywhere with the knowledge of Himself, just as they are already filled with His presence..."
This sentence has caused me to change the way I think about the closeness of the Father, Son and Spirit to all humanity. This, along with what you have just said seems to fly in the face of most modern, western theology.
Could I ask, would you say John 1:1-13 is stating that not only is the Word the creator and light of men but that for every person He remains in them to sustain them by filling them with His presence?
This would seem to make sense with what you and St Athanasius are saying
Yes, we all breathe Christological air and are sustained every single second by Jesus himself. Created and sustained by Jesus. This is John 1:1-3. Now, where are we in knowing who we are in Jesus? (!Cor 8:6-7). His presence in us and in our darkness is light, seeking always to enlighten us so that we can know the truth and be set free.
Who can resist the embrace of our lover God?
Yes! I'm still resonating with the Tweet today from my friend who introduced me to your writing. It said "God posted that He was "In a relationship" with you before you even friend-requested Him. #fbgospel.
I am reading both Athanasious and MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons as I have time. Enjoyed "The Greatest Game Ever Played" -- husband wasn't ready for it, but Papa's got us all and is at work in powerful ways I can't yet see.
Know you'll have a great time in September and December ... So grateful for the conference in June.
Be blessed ...and happy festivities this month for your family. :-)
Peggy
Life to my soul!
Excellent, Dr. Kruger! He has truly translated us out of the dominion of darkness (the place where we feel we are lacking); into the kingdom of the Son of His love where we see how complete His work of redemption was and how completely & absolutely innocent and blameless we are in the sight of our Father God. Religion seeks to keep men in darkness--teaching mankind is separate from God. But how can that be, when the Scriptures shout, "Christ in you;" "you in Me and I in you?" You can't get much closer than that!
James Hollis has a new book out called 'Hauntings' which talk about those issues deep within our souls that stop us living the way we were designed.
Sometimes we don't always see Jesus as praying FOR us, though we do (subjectively) see him as accepting our prayers (with a dash of heavenly salt) and presenting them to the Father (with apologies I'm sure).
But to see him as praying FOR us so we can have the SAME relationship as the Father and Son have together, is amazing!
Just took a first baby step and finished The Great Dance...and am reeling in wonder. A revolutionary book to be sure. Every wounded believer should have TGD as a textbook.
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