I think the four points in your quotation were a helpful diagnosis of the problem, but the author did offer any real hope for anything much better. Will it ever be better? If so how much?
I thought I had the answer in the passages below from John 17, but then I was told, by someone I respect, that all believers are already one. To me, that was like saying, “don’t expect too much Ed. Hope and work for better organizational (visible church) oneness, but base your hope on the verses you quoted.”
Well maybe not, but doesn't Jesus’ prayer include sanctification (progressive) through the truth? The oneness I hope for will be visible enough to convince the unbelieving world—the world Jesus did NOT pray for—that God sent his son into the world to save and love those his church. We are not there at this time. Will we ever be? Did I misunderstand the teaching? What do you think of the passage below?
John 17:19-23
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Dr. John MacArthur expounded on those verses, some of this might help. I tried to shorten some of the quoted sections so as to just get the main points across. Sources -
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/43-98/the-lords-greatest-prayer-part-6 and
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/43-99/the-lords-greatest-prayer-part-7
"...He prays for our spiritual purity, our spiritual purity. Out of love for us also, He prays for our sanctification. Let’s look at verse 17.
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Very simple words, but a very direct focused and profound point is being made here.
First of all, the issue is sanctification. Sanctify – mentioned in verse 17. Sanctify, sanctified – twice in verse 19. Three times we see that verb. The verb carries the action. This is a prayer for our sanctification. He prays for our holiness.
Now, sanctification is kind of a stained glass word; it’s a churchy word. What it essentially means is “separation,” set apart from what? From sin. He’s praying that we would be set apart from sin. Hence, He’s praying for our purity, for our purity.
This is also an encouraging, wonderfully exciting element of our Lord’s prayer. Like praying for our joy, He prays also for our purity – for our continual separation from sin and increasing godliness. While we are on the way to heaven, while we are on the journey to get to heaven, He prays that we will be being sanctified. We will become increasingly more holy in practice as we are in position. He prays according to the Father’s will and according to the Spirit’s work. It is the Father’s will that we be holy; it is the Spirit’s work to make us holy, to conform us to holiness; it is the Son’s petition that we become holy.
Now, this prayer deals with our human flesh. We have three enemies: the world, the devil, and the flesh. We’ve already heard about the world, and Jesus prayed that we’d be protected from the world. We’ve heard about the devil, the evil one; and Jesus prayed that we would be protected from the evil one. Here He prays that we will be victorious over the ever-present flesh. It is the flesh, that humanness in which we are still incarcerated even though we’re a believer.
In verse 17 He says, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” “Set them apart from sin; separate them from evil.” And that is a practical prayer....Here on earth, the work of separation from the power of sin is a lifelong progressive work of God. He is speaking of already regenerated, already justified, already converted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, being continually made more holy.
That is our Lord’s prayer, that we who are still sinful are loved by Him with a perfect, heavenly love; and that love calls out from His heart a prayer for our sanctification. He accepts us in our imperfections and prays for us to become more holy. And what is the means of that? What is the means of that? Very clear: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” He says it again at the end of verse 19, “that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”
Where is the truth found? It’s the revelation of God; it’s the Scripture; it’s the Bible. It is as we immerse ourselves in the Word of God that we are in the place where sanctification operates. As we immerse ourselves in the knowledge of the Word of God, in the interpretation, the accurate interpretation of the Word of God; not only in terms of understanding, but affection, loving the truth. It is in being, as it were, immersed in Scripture, that sanctification takes place by the Holy Spirit.
Now, verse 19 is a very striking verse that pulls this together for us. Our Lord says something very unusual: “For their sakes, for their sakes, I sanctify Myself.” Does it strike you that there was something Jesus had to do to sanctify Himself? Would it not seem to you that this was something automatic for an absolutely holy, eternal being? But that holiness, that eternal holiness was maintained in some inexplicable way by the very purpose and intention of the Son of God.
“I sanctify Myself.” Why would He sanctify Himself? Two reasons, theologically speaking. Reason Number One: “He needed to live a perfect life.” He needed to live a perfectly holy life. Why? Because there had to be at least one perfect holy life lived by someone in the history of the world, and He’s the only one. Why is that important? Because when you put your trust in Jesus Christ, that perfect life is credited to your account; it’s as if you lived His life.
So let’s look at that second aspect. Our Lord is saying here, “I sanctify Myself for their sakes, that they themselves may be sanctified in truth.” So He’s not praying about justification here; He’s not praying about that. He’s praying about the sanctification process that every believer goes through in the application of divine truth. He’s saying, “I do it Myself so that they will have an example, someone to look to.”
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Part 7 excerpt
"And so we’ve learned from this chapter that He prays for those disciples; but not only for those disciples, but verse 20 says, “for all who will believe in the future.” So He’s praying for all believers through all of human history. And what is it He prays for? We saw that in verses 11 to 19. He prays for our spiritual security, that we will be safe and brought to glory. He prays for our spiritual felicity, or spiritual joy, that we’ll know His joy made full in spite of the persecution, the hostility, and the challenges. And then He prays for our immunity that we’ll be kept from the evil one –Satan, the adversary. And then He prays, in verses 17 to 19, for our spiritual purity, that we’ll be sanctified by the Word.
So He’s praying now for all the people who will ever believe through the apostles’ doctrine whether they preached it in that first generation or used by the Spirit of God, wrote it down for every subsequent generation. He gathers all of those believers in His prayer. And for what does He pray? Two things: for all of us, because we are those who believe in Him through the apostles’ word; two requests. Request Number One: “That they would be one in this world.” Request Number Two: “That they would be one in the next world.” He’s praying for their unity, unity in this world and unity in heaven. That’s the two requests. The first one, “unity in this world” is in verses 21 to 23.
A lot of times, you hear preachers preach on this and they say, “The emphasis of our Lord here is that we all ought to get along in the church, and we all ought to get along in the family, and we need to work on our unity.” That is not what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about some practical unity for several reasons, one, because He says it is a unity like that between the Father and the Son. It is something internal, not external.
Furthermore, He can’t be praying about the unity of everyone who will ever believe, because everyone who ever believes doesn’t live at the same time. We’re all strung out so far for 2,000 years, through millennia. What He’s praying for is clear in His words. The kind of unity He’s praying for is “even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.”
It is an essential internal unity. He is not praying that we all get along at church. There are other parts of the Bible that address that, but not here. What He is essentially praying for – listen – is the future salvation of the elect. He is praying that we who believe in Him will receive the life of God, eternal life. He’s praying for the salvation of His people; that’s where His prayer begins. He prays for the future salvation of people not yet converted, not yet born.
It is the internal unity of divine spiritual eternal life. “Father, give them the life that we possess, eternal life. May they have Your life and My life in them; Your Spirit, My Spirit, in them; a unity of life as that which is shared between the Father and the Son.” He is praying that we would possess eternal life, the life of God.
Believers are said to be in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit. And it is said in Scripture that the Father is in us, and the Son is in us, and the Spirit is in us. Those are just ways to demonstrate that we are all wrapped up in the reality of divine life."
