This is the backdrop for the 17th chapter of John in which we are able to read the prayer of Jesus to His Father. It is only in the opening five verses that Jesus prays for Himself, and then not for deliverance but rather that Jesus the Son would glorify His Father!
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:4-5
Jesus prays in the “past tense” as He had completed the work God gave Him to do. Christ’s willingness to submit to the Father and do the Father’s will resulted in the Son bringing glory to the Father. And in turn, God the Father glorifies the Son!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil. 2:9-11
He then turns and prays for his disciples (6-19) and then later for us (20-26)…
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. John 17:6-8
And the Divine Mystery of grace and salvation is captured in Jesus’ prayer for His disciples.
The Father chooses whom He will…
…For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father. John 6:65
The Father reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ…
And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. Col. 1:15
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb. 1:3
The Word is heard…
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Rom. 10:17
Life-changing belief in The Way, The Truth, and The Life…
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24
For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. John 6:40
Jesus, in His darkest day on this earth, prayed to the Father for those entrusted to Him by the Father! Jesus prayed the gospel, the “good news” of eternal life through God’s plan of redemption…
And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. John 17:3
Glory be to God!
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