John 17:20-26

Christ’s representation of future believers and the world, John 17:20-26.

Our Intercessor now broadens his scope so widely that every man may enrol himself in the limits of the prayer. Directly, he prays for the perfecting of all believers and their reception into glory. Indirectly, he prays that all may become believers.

Christ cannot, of course, pray that the world, as the world, should be taken to heaven. He cannot pray that the sinner should be glorified in his sins; any more than he can pray that the unchanged Satan should be reinstalled in the highest heaven. He can only pray that the world may, through appointed agencies, be so won as to come into the range of his prayers for his Church. None are excluded from his churchly prayer who do not exclude themselves.