I Pray that They All may be One

A Word of Truth #080 (John 17:20-21) 

When Jesus went to the cross He had you in mind—You personally. As Jesus lived a perfect life and then died on the cross, He wasn’t doing so for a faceless crowd of people. He was doing it for the whole world, but the whole world is made up of individual sinners, with individual faces and names known to God (cf. Isaiah 43).

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed for each of you. In a prayer to His heavenly Father Jesus said, “I do not pray for these [the twelve disciples] alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word…that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me” (John 17:20-21).

The Gospel of salvation works faith in the hearts of sinners and brings them to a common ground in Jesus their Savior and in the truth of His Word. Jesus prayed for this. His prayer is answered when sinners abide in Him and treasure His Word.

“Not My will, but Yours, be Done”

A Word of Truth #081 (Luke 22:42) 

As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night, He knew full well what lay ahead of Him on Good Friday. He had been sent by His heavenly Father to be the substitute for all of mankind—to bear the eternal burden and punishment of all sin upon the cross. Even though Jesus was the Son of God, what lay ahead of Him was frightening to contemplate. Consequently, He prayed that if it were at all possible, His Father in heaven would remove the necessity of His upcoming suffering and death. Yet, in view of His great love for us, Jesus concluded His prayer, “Not My will, but Yours be done!”

Such love cannot but move us to exclaim with the hymnwriter: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a tribute far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!” (TLH 175:4)