Just The Same
I have identical mirror twin daughters. One is left handed and the other is right handed. When they were born we had to paint ones toenails just to make sure we kept up with who was who. The was how much alike they were.
As they got older differences in their personality made it easier to tell them apart. Eventually differences in how they each liked their hair and their taste in clothing helped as well.
There’s something about identical or same that we all instinctively get. No one needs to go to class to make such discoveries they know it when they see it or experience it. Knowing what it means to be the same comes easy.
Or does it?
Jesus prayed a prayer for us that uses the language of the same and yet it gets past many what it was He actually said.
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
There’s three things in this pray of Jesus that should stand out to every believer in Christ.
Jesus prayed that we would have the same unity with the Godhead that He had.
He prayed that we would be brought into the same fellowship He had with the Father.
He acknowledged that we are loved just as equally as He was loved.
Jesus died to give us the same unity, the same fellowship and the same love He knew with the Father and the Spirit. This is huge!
You are loved just as much as Jesus is loved by Father. As a new creation in Christ you have been made one with the Father just as Jesus was one with the Father. You are not God like Jesus but you are one and you have been made a son. You have been given the same access and fellowship too!
I challenge you to read this prayer over and over again out loud and hear yourself speaking it. I also challenge you to meditate upon it until it begins to take root as real faith with regard to your position in Christ. It will change you in ways you never imagined it could. Jesus did not go to the cross just to get you to heaven. He did so much more than that. He has given us the things that were and still are of greatest importance to Him! We are highly favored now that we are in Him!
