“I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

John 17:23 is filled with amazing truth. Christ brings us the life of God because He is in the Father and He is in us. The purpose is to bring us into that kind of oneness existing between the Father and the Son. The more we come into the unity that Christ prayed for, the more we will reflect the reality that God the Father is loving us the way He loves His Son.

A Christian is not given a slave relationship to God. Nor is he given a servant’s relationship to God. Nor is he given the relationship of an ignored or neglected son or daughter. But the full acceptance and affection which the Father has for Jesus the Son continually washes over the adopted sons and daughters of God.

The same quality of relationship that Jesus has with the Father is what He shares with us. We cannot absorb it in an equal way (we are not divine), but we can share in it in a life changing way. Jesus says, “ . . . you have loved them, even as you loved me.” That incredible standard of affection and loyalty is the measure that God the Father uses. We are not angels, but we are certainly treated as well-loved sons.