The Father loves the Son, moving him to share glory, so that the Son, if we draw in other theological statements from the New Testament,

the Son becomes the effulgence of the Father's glory, or the express representation of his glory, the image of his glory,

the radiance of His glory, so that they are in each other in a marvelously unified way

and become one.

Do you long for a love so powerful it unites hearts and reveals glory.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to John 17, 20 to 23, where Jesus

prays for his people to share in God's love and display his glory.

This teaching was originally delivered on a Sunday evening at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 9, 1986.

Well, I invite you to open your Bibles for half an hour or so with me to John chapter 17 verses 20 to 23 I am not asking on

behalf of these only so he's going to enlarge his prayer now to pray for somebody

beyond the 11 who he was gathered with that night when he was praying I'm not

asking on behalf of these only,

but also on behalf of the ones who believe on me through their word, that they all might be

one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also might be in us,

that the world might believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave to me, I have given to them, that they might be one just as we are one.

I am in them, and you are in me, that they might be brought to complete oneness, that the world might

know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me. Now, what are the levels

of the argument in this prayer?

You might think it's funny to even speak in terms of an argument in a prayer.

But what I mean by argument is not when you go back and forth and get upset with somebody and argue.

An argument is a sequence of thoughts that builds from premises to conclusions. Let me give you an example of what I mean by levels of argument. Now this is not scholarly stuff. We talk like this all the time. Here's a sentence or a compound sentence that has five levels of argument in it.

I went two days without food and I got this horrendous hunger and I ate a whole loaf of bread

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