Final Prayers

To receive notice of each days Bible Study,
please go to my twitter page and sign up.

Final Prayers

John 17:22-23

22 And [kai] the glory [doxa] which [hos] thou gavest [didomi] me [moi] I [ego] have given [didomi] them [autos] ; that [hina] they may be [o] one [heis] , even as [kathos] we [hemeis] are [esmen] one [heis] :
23 I [ego] in [en] them [autos] , and [kai] thou [su] in [en] me [emoi] , that [hina] they may be [o] made perfect [teleioo] in [eis] one [heis] ; and [kai] that [hina] the world [kosmos] may know [ginosko] that [hoti] thou [su] hast sent [apostello] me [me] , and [kai] hast loved [agapao] them [autos] , as [kathos] thou hast loved [agapao] me [eme] . KJV-Interlinear

22 'And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. NASB

Jesus gives a very specific sequence of potential with respect to man receiving His glory. Christ gives His glory to us. He keeps on giving His glory. It is not a one time gift because glory has different meanings. First there is His glory from the Cross. This is salvation. Second there is glory from advancing in ones spiritual life. This is an ongoing glory reflected by the content of Bible doctrine in ones soul.

The glory is potential. Christ gives, but man has to believe in order to receive. Man has to be consistent in his daily study, and compliant with Gods procedure for learning and growing up, in order to actually grow up in the spiritual life.

The sequence is man, Christ, God the Father. Why this sequence. Because there are a lot of alternative beliefs in this world. Many religions which profess to be from God, or from some form of higher plane. And by the way, one has to question these higher plane beliefs. Where did they come from? Who invented them? If man invented them then how did man discover these higher planes. And if some deity invented them, then who is he and where is he, and why is he not a part of these higher planes? Well, so much for Hinduism and Buddhism, and many other beliefs which enjoy exercise and humming tunes and otherwise becoming one with the universe.

Then there is Islam, which took all of its original ideas from the Bible, and then added a lot of dream ideas which reject outright the relationship of God and Son and superimposed a lot of weird moral standards (most of which are anti-female), and suggesting that there is a direct access to Allah. A name which is used to identify God the Father.

Finally there is Judaism which began with the scriptures and just went off into left field with all its regulatory life style as the primary foundation for salvation, rejecting Christ as the Messiah, and they are still looking for the Messiah. They reject the New Testament which is the incarnate Messiah of which the Old Testament speaks.

Many get confused with the gap in prophecy which is eluded to in the Old Testament. Many prophecies speak of the Messiah, then the Kingdom, but there is always a gap between the two. Today we call this a literary parenthesis. An example of this gap is found in Isa. 9:6-7. It is not there per se, but it is there in that there is a jump between the Messiah and the Kingdom. Many priests and scribes missed this detail, but the prophets did not, as Peter states in 1 Pet. 1:11. They sought to understand the gap. To them it was obvious, but there was no answer to their question. That is, not until the Church Age began.

So, there is but one God, one Christ, one Word, one salvation. Hummm, haven't we said this before? But then there are still those who won't commit to a daily Bible study. There are still those who will allow little compromises into their life, because they, well, just want to.

God the Father authored a plan for history. Jesus Christ carried out that plan, and we are the gift recipients. The plan is one plan, and 'not' a hodge podge of several plans modified and 'improved' over time as some would like to believe.

Now for the objective, 'that they may be perfected.' 'May be,' means potential. We know that we are body and soul when we are born. Our soul at birth is an empty vessel, and as infants we need to learn as we grow up. It is not fulfilled until it grows up and learns the ways of the world. That is the academic view anyway.

When we believe in Christ then we receive our third component of our life, or that component which gives us access to eternity and God. Without that third component then we are missing something - our link to eternity and God.

To be perfect we need to fill up our soul with truth (Bible doctrine), and then replace our earthly body of dust, with a heavenly resurrection body which will live forever.

With an indestructible body, and spiritually mature soul, eternal life, and God (all three members) dwelling inside of us, then that is the quintessence of perfection.

'That we might be made perfect.' This is potential. God offers it to all, and to anyone who will simply get themselves into fellowship, and keep on keeping themselves there, to anyone who will study consistently on a daily basis, and learn, and use what they learn, and eventually understand, and thus grow up spiritually, then that perfection will become a reality - guaranteed.

Eventually the world, the concept which we studied before, will recognize the truth of these words of scripture. History will prove God true and everything else false.