In our Lord’s prayer (John 17), Jesus desires that those whom the Father has given him may be one, as the Father and the Son are one (John 17:11). These are the Old Testament saints who are now following Jesus as the Messiah. The Lord also prays for “them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20). His prayer is the same: that they all may be one; as the Father is in him and he in the Father, that they also may be one in us (John 17:21).

Our being of one mind requires us to have the same word, preserved for us. Our being one with the Son is accomplished through the Spirit of Christ. If we have not his Spirit, we are none of his (Romans 8:9). But, if we hear the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believe that gospel: we are sealed with that old Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The redemption of the purchased possession is the day of adoption, for which we now wait, to wit, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23). It is the day of the adoption of children (Ephesians 1L5) to which we became predestinated the moment we received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and were sealed with his Spirit.

The Lord Jesus prays for us to be one in mind and in voice “that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21). Believing that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is salvation (1 John 5:1).

God’s Spirit reproves the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on Jesus as the Christ; of righteousness, because the Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (John 16:8-11).

Christ’s first purpose in praying for our unity is that the world believe that the Father has sent him. If they will not believe, if they walk away from the conviction of the Spirit of God as Cain walked away (Genesis 4), the Lord purposes that they will know that the Father has sent the Son (John 17:23). This will happen when it is too late to repent and to believe the gospel. Like the devils, who know and tremble at their judgment, the unbelieving world will know and tremble. Every knee shall bow to the Lord Jesus Christ!

Twice we read of every knee bowing: Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10. in Romans 14, every knee shall bow to Christ and every tongue shall confess to God. Every one of us, Paul writes, shall give account of himself to God. The Apostle is speaking of the brethren: “Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way (Romans 14:13). This “every knee” is of the Church Age at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The second passage (Philippians 2:10), where every knee shall bow, includes things in heaven and in earth and under the earth. It also includes a specific confession: that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.the Father (2 Philippians 2:11). This is the great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15).

The world will know that the Father sent the Son, and at the same time, they will know a third purpose of our Savior: they will know that he has loved “them” who have believed upon his name!

The Apostle John, regarding the gospel that God gave to him, testifies that “these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:31).

From the catching-up of the body of Christ known as the Church, the Church Age saints will ever be, with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). When he comes to Armageddon, we will be among his armies (Revelation 19:14). When he rules from Jerusalem for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4), we will be kings and priests unto God (Revelation 1:6). And when he judges this wicked world at the White Throne, our Redeemer will let them know that he has loved us.

Calling them the synagogue of Satan because they had denied that Jesus is the Christ, they will be made to come and to worship before our feet. They will be made to know that the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us (Revelation 3:9).