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Believers, as the bride of Christ, exist in this world in a state of constant, expectant tension. They are united to Christ in spirit , yet live in this world separated from the full experience of Christ. To prepare his betrothed for this engagement phase, Christ leaves his people with 18 promises, and makes 6 petitions to his father on their behalf. By embracing these, his people are enabled to live out their union to Christ while they wait for the full consumption of their blessed state.

The betrothal promises of Jesus

1. Jesus betroths his people to himself in love, and promises the full culmination of their union with him forever in glory (14:1-6)
2. As very God of very God, Christ displayed the omnipotence of God in works; and promises to continue to work through the prayers of those who are connected to him by faith. (14:7-14)
3. Jesus commissions his beloved people to live out their love for him through obedience, and promises the Holy Spirit as a perpetual, indwelling helper to inspire their loving obedience. (14:15-17)
4. While Christ’s physical presence is removed from this world, he remains inseparably joined to his people and to the Godhead; therefore he promises to reveal his presence to his people spiritual, so they might experience their union with God( 14:18-20)
5. Just as his people express their love for Christ by keeping he is commandments, Christ promises that both Father and Son will express their love for them through deep, experiential communion with God (14:21-24)
6. As Christ was the teacher and guide of his people while he was on earth, so he promises the coming of the Holy Spirit to teach his people everything they will need to know, and freshly apply his own teachings to the changing circumstances of their lives. (14:25-26)
7. Since Christ was leaving, the the power of Satan would be manifest in the world, he gives his people a divine peace that is divorced from and greater than any earthly circumstances, allowing his people to have a spiritual perspective on their circumstances and be living testimonies of Christ’s love for a God. (14:27-31)
8. Christ’s people are called to fully and experientially actualize their union with Christ and to draw from his power and nature all that they need to flourish and grow spiritually. Consequently, he promises that those who do so while internalizing his word may ask of a God whatever they need to bear fruit to his glory. (15:1-8)
9. Christ’s love for his people is an eternal, unconditional reality, just like the Father’s love for the Son. He promises that those who keep his commandments by expressing his selfless love toward others will fully and experientially actualize his love in their everyday lives(15:9-13)
10. Christ, by his own sovereign choice, makes his beloved people full participants in his divine mission to glorify God’ and promises them authority to requisition whatever they require of God to bear loving, living, lasting fruit for his glory. (15:14-17)
11. Since his people are so closely united and identified with Christ himself, he promises that they will share his position and status with the inhabitants of this earth: they will be loved by those who love him and hated by those who hate him. (15:18-21)
12. Christ’s witness for the Father was accomplished through undeniable demonstrations of divine power. So, too, he promises that the Holy Spirit, through the people of God, will continue to bear witness to his power and Godhead; and will patiently endure all the persecution this world can offer as a result. (15:22-16:4)
13. Though his people will lack his personal, convicting presence to make their ministry effective, Christ promises that the Holy Spirit will work through them to effectively convict the worldlings of the dreadful sinfullness of their unbelief, the perfect righteousness of God in Christ, and the absolute certainty of inescapable judgement. (16:5-11)
14. Even the very image of God himself couldn’t communicate the entirety of God to his people, because their frailties would not allow them to receive all that he had to teach. Therefore, Christ promises the Holy Spirit to progressively guide them into full realization of God as they move through life. (16:12-15)
15. Though they were to experience extreme sorrow and loss, Christ promises that the joy that will follow his resurrection will exceed even their worst sorrow, and will be with them in perpetuity. (16:16-22)
16. The resurrection was the greatest demonstration of the power of God seen in all the world; yet Christ promises his people the authority to ask God for continued demonstrations of his might in Christ’s name, allowing them to experience his resurrection joy to the fullest. (16:23-24)
17. Christ’s earthly ministry was one of both revealing and obscuring truth. Yet he promises that he will grant them unobscured knowledge of the father, so that they may bask in his love for them. (16:25-28)
18. Though Christ spoke plainly of the sinful failures his people would display, and the incredible tribulations they will endure, he also promised them the peace that comes from the knowledge that he already is the victor over all, and that they will share in his victory. (16:29-33)

Betrothal Petitions of Jesus

1. Christ’s grand object for his earthly ministry was the glory of God; and this was achieved primarily through the work of Christ to create eternal life, divine identity, spiritual truth, and sincere faith within all whom the Father chose. Now, as he prepares to leave, he asks that the Father would personally glorify the Son, even as the Son is glorified in his people. (17:1-10)
2. While Christ was on earth , he flawlessly protected the spiritual lives of all whom the Father gave him; and now as he prepares to depart, he prays that the Father would keep them as a people united, joyful, and separated people within this present world where they sojourn. (17:11-16)
3. Like Christ himself, his people are sent of God to accomplish the mission God has for them; so Christ prays that the Father might set his people apart in the truth, that they might share in the holiness of Christ. (17:17-19)
4. Christ prays that all his people, present and future, might be united together in their union to God, by joining them to Christ, and thus to God and by allowing them to experience the glory of Christ, who is one with the father, being united to them, (17:20-23)
5. Having asked for the inseparable union of his people to himself, Christ then prays that the Father, as a token of his eternal love to Christ, would permit his people to forever dwell with Christ in his glory. (17:24)
6. Christ continues to impart special, experiential knowledge of the nature of God to his people; and on that basis he asks that his people, even now as they sojourn in this world, might be filled with the real, experiential reality of the love of the Father for the Son, and with Jesus Christ himself. (17:26)