John 17
This wonderful chapter, needless to say, stands altogether by itself in the Word of God. We are permitted here to listen to the breathings of the
Son to the Father concerning His own. The ground we tread is assuredly holy ground, and we need to approach it with unshod feet.
We have just had narrated in Chapters 13 and 14, what happened in that “large upper room.” All around were darkness and hate; the high priests, the religious leaders of the nation, at that moment were plotting for His death. Knowing that His hour was now come He is occupied with His own. Blessed Son of God, what a wonderful place they had then, and have now, in His heart. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb. 13:8). No change in Him.
The wonderful scene of the symbolic feet-washing passes before us, the betrayal by Judas, the vehement assertion of love on the part of Peter, and the prophecy of his denial of his Lord and Master, to be fulfilled before the vehement, self-confident protestations of love and faithfulness were even cold upon his lips. Then we have the revelation of the Father’s house and His going to prepare a place for His own, His promise to pray the Father to send the Comforter, and then His discourse is broken by the words, “Arise, let us go hence.”
From that “large upper room” in Jerusalem the blessed Son of God moves on to that fateful hour, for which the centuries had waited. His disciples, knowing that something terrible was to happen, frightened and foreboding, accompany Him.
Still His mind is engaged with His own and He continues His discourse. Oh the love and serenity and depth of it! He tells them of Himself as the true Vine; of His Father as the Husbandman; of His disciples as the branches, and the secret of fruit-bearing, and then again He speaks of His going to the Father, of the sending of the Comforter, of His coming to them again spiritually, because He goes to the Father, of the place of prayer and the potency of His name with the Father.
By that time the brook Cedron lay before Him, and ere He crosses it to enter Gethsemane’s garden, the scene of His agony and betrayal, He turns aside and breathes into the ear of His Father this wonderful prayer—truly the Lord’s prayer.
It has all the marks of deep pressure of soul. All He was about to pass through lay upon His spirit in dread anticipation on the one hand, whilst on the other His spirit breaks through the pressure and His prayer is characterised by a sense of the victory He was about to gain and how all His Father’s counsels concerning His own would be fulfilled. Truly it was joy and sorrow mingling—an ineffable joy, a sorrow beyond words. Never was there such joy, never was there such sorrow.
The great characteristic word in this wonderful prayer is “give” with its variations. This is used in two directions—the Father’s gift to the Son, and the Son’s gifts to His own. Seven times over does the Lord remind His Father of those whom He had given to Him. How deeply loved they are because they are given to Him by His Father. This forms an indescribably tender link between Him and them. Do we meditate upon this till the great truth of it fills and thrills our inmost soul?
Let me give you an illustration. An historic castle, the residence of a great nobleman, is burned down to the ground. It contains priceless pictures, works by the old masters, magnificent statuary, rare and costly books, yet the nobleman’s one desire is to rescue from the burning pile a little faded photograph.
When it was bought and paid for, it cost but a shilling or two. Why this intense desire to rescue this worthless faded photograph, whilst the priceless works of the ancient masters are consumed? It is because his girl-wife, whom he loved tenderly, taken from his side after a few months of supreme happiness, had given him this photograph on the very day of their engagement. It was not the value of the photograph in the eyes of others that made it so precious, but because of who had given it.
So, beloved, we are poor worthless things in ourselves, but, being the gift of the Father to the Son, we are infinitely precious to Him. Let us dwell and meditate on all that this means.
No wonder that He could say, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37) and “Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (v. 12). Judas never had been given of the Father to the Son; he was only a disciple outwardly; inwardly, a poor dupe of the devil, a man whose greed was his ruin, but none of the Lord’s own will ever perish.
It reminds me of an old gentleman I once knew in Milford Haven. We had been having some gospel meetings in that town and he had attended several.
He said, “When I came to your meetings first I thought that I had to hold on to the Lord, that I might after all fall away and perish, but now I have learned that I am on the Good Shepherd’s shoulders, and that He will never put me down till He has landed me safe home in glory.”
Next, we have the Lord’s gifts to His own. Four things He gives:
(1) Eternal Life (v. 2).
(2) The Father’s Words (v. 8).
(3) The Father’s Word (v. 14).
(4) Glory (v. 22).
ETERNAL LIFE
In verse 2 we get power given to the Lord over all flesh. And how is that power exercised? By the giving of eternal life to as many as were given Him of the Father.
Doubtless He stands here in contrast to Adam. Power over all flesh was given to Adam. And how did He exercise that power? By naming the animals, a wonderful feat indeed, proclaiming him as God’s masterpiece and head in creation, but he could not give life, he could only describe what already existed in the names that he gave. But in contrast the Lord could and does bestow life—eternal life. “The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45, N.T.).
Now what is eternal life? It is more than the bare meaning of the words, as most understand them, though in the conjunction of the two words it means volumes. It means life and that life is eternal, and there most are content to leave it, not realising what the conjunction of the two words mean.
But, to begin with, no person can tell what life is, whether it be old creation life or new creation life. Any man who informs me that he can tell me what eternal life is proclaims the shallowness, if not the conceit, of his mind.
We can describe its qualities, its enjoyments, its environment, etc. to some little extent, but that is all. Life is created, and all creation is a secret in its essential meaning.
The Biological Section of the British Association is one of its most difficult sections. Man can not explain what natural life is. Scientists can tell us the component parts of the human body, but they cannot explain what life is. What God creates is unexplainable and we are surrounded by mysteries.
Granted that we cannot explain life, we can describe to some extent its functions, powers, limitations, environment.
What then, in that sense, is eternal life? The word life by itself would explain little. A man, an angel, a horse, an insect, a vegetable—all have life. But the conjunction of the word eternal with the word life determines the kind of life it is.
What does eternal (or its equivalent, everlasting) mean? It means that which never had a beginning, and will never have an ending. Now, most Christians in contemplating eternal life only think of how they got it and when they got it, and that it never has an end for them. But when we remember that it never had a beginning we must connect it with that which is antecedent to and before anything that is created. If eternal life never had a beginning it must be connected with God Himself, not one of His works, as creation, but part of Himself.
One precious verse gives this to us. What a truly irreparable loss it would be had we not this verse. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God AND ETERNAL LIFE” (1 John 5:20).
Then CHRIST is the Eternal Life. Now we know what kind of life it is, though feebly we may apprehend it. There is surely a vital distinction between Deity and eternal life. The true God is “the true God and eternal life.” Deity is unique, absolute and incommunicable. The believer cannot share Deity, he has eternal life.
Now eternal life has no beginning in Christ, for Christ is the eternal life, but it has a beginning with us. John’s gospel has ample statements as to this, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life” (chap. 3:36). Yes, we have it because we have Christ. It is ours because we belong to Him. “And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in HIS SON” (1 John 5:11).
The believer has eternal life, but not as apart from Christ. It is ever connected with Him. In John 17 it is looked at as communicated to His own because they are the love gifts of the Father to the Son.
In receiving eternal life the believer is privileged to know that it never had a beginning, that Christ Himself is the eternal life, that he entered upon it the moment he believed on the Son, that it is eternal. Separate it into two parts by the fraction of a second or the breadth of a hair, it is no longer eternal life. It is the believer’s inalienable possession—“the gift of God”—but it is “through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
John’s gospel says the believer has eternal life; his first epistle says he has it as having the Son, and this life is in His Son. Permit an illustration to show how these statements are complementary one to the other. Take a leaf in your hand. It has life in it, but not life in itself, it has life in the tree. If it had life in itself you could detach it from the tree and it would continue to live independently of the tree. But the moment you detach it that moment it withers and dies. Its life is in the tree and depends on its connection with the tree.
All human illustrations fail. The tree-sap recedes in autumn, and the leaves wither and fall. Thank God, there is no failure with Christ and the believer is linked up with Him for ever. It is the very fact that eternal life is in Christ and that Christ is eternal life that puts the blessing upon such a wonderful basis. If eternal life is the gift of God, and is in Christ, it is ours for enjoyment for ever and ever, through the ages of ages. How blessed!
But then the Lord goes on, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (v. 3). Who is the Thee in this verse? He is the One whom the Son is addressing, THE FATHER, the only true God.
Who know the Father? Remember this is conscious knowledge. For instance, I know thousands of children—British, Irish, German, Swiss, Norwegian, Swedish—but only four children in the world know me as father. Why? Because they are my children. Exactly! So they who have eternal life are those who know God as Father, that is they are His children. The relationship of children is involved in the gift of eternal life. What a dignity! What a position of nearness!
But further, “And Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” We are in this connection in the full light of the revelation of the Father through Him who came to make Him known. We could not know anything save through Christ and nothing could be revealed save through Him. And we could enter into no spiritual blessings save through His death. It is from a risen and glorified Christ we receive these blessings. He gives eternal life. “In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might LIVE through Him” (1 John 4:9).
When Philip said, “Lord show us the Father and it suffices us” (John 14:8), what did the Lord do? He referred the enquiring disciple to Himself. He replies, “He that has SEEN ME has seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?” (vv. 9-10).
But then the thought of the Father carries with it the Father’s house. Relationship carries a home in the company of the One in whom the relationship subsists.
“Oh what a home! The Son who knows,
He only—all His love;
And brings us, as His well-beloved,
To that bright rest above,
Dwells in His bosom—knoweth all
That in that bosom lies,
And came to earth to make it known,
That we might share His joys.”
The entering upon this in true exercise of soul would make us truly “strangers and pilgrims below.” To recapitulate. Eternal life is Christ, we enter upon that life when we believe on the Son, it is our happy inalienable portion, it carries with it the knowledge of the Father, that is relationship as children, and that formed in its affections by the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the sent One, who has fully revealed God, and it carries with it the Father’s house, its true proper home. Oh! to enjoy it better.
THE FATHER’S WORDS (Greek—rhema)
Next in verse 8, the Lord gives His own His Father’s Words—all those divine communications of divine love, those plannings of the divine mind, and the result is the disciples received these communications and knew surely that the Son came from the Father, and they believed He was the sent One of the Father. What an unfolding! Surely it is utterly beyond the mind of man to conceive. We can only sit and receive with adoring worship these communications. It is inexpressibly happy to be lifted outside this weary world with its sin and sorrow and death into the Father’s world, there to enjoy the unfoldings of Divine love.
THE FATHER’S WORD (Greek—logos)
Here in verse 14, we get the Father’s Word. His own are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, hence the world hates them. The Father’s Word has a sanctifying effect upon them. The truth sanctifies them, and His “Word is truth.” He sanctifies Himself, sets Himself apart, in order that His own might be sanctified through the truth, in other words, the position of Christ on high and His relation to this world, is the objective power of the truth—truth connecting us with an Object on high. How blessed separation becomes when separation to means connection with all that is blessed and divine and of the Father, and separation from means separation from all that is of this passing world, with its glitter and veneer, but underneath all one mass of sin corruption and death.
We might put it in another way:
The Father’s Words leads to approach
The Father’s Word leads to reproach.
Approach and reproach go together. Show me the Christian who knows what approach to God means and he is the one who can bear reproach Show me the Christian who is reproached by the world and you show me one who is rejoicing in approach to the Father.
I never forgot a remark made by the late Dr Wolston—approach and reproach are like two blades of a pair of scissors—they work in relation one to another. How true this is! “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye: for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14).
THE GIFT OF GLORY
In verse 22 we read “And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I HAVE given them; that they may be one even as We are one; 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.” The glory is the present possession of the believer. True it is not yet publicly manifested, we await that at the coming of the Lord but nevertheless it is our present portion. To this Paul agrees when he wrote, “Whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also GLORIFIED” (Rom. 8:30). The glory is as much ours as the justification. To this John also adds his testimony when he wrote, “Beloved, NOW are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
We are accustomed to think that the glory will be ours in the future but it is ours now. The manifestation unfolds what ALREADY exists, so if the glory is manifested by and by it only manifests what exists.
Glory consists in our relationship to the Father and to Christ, and what a close relationship it is! Can there be anything more wonderful? Angels, a higher creation than man, know not these blessings They are reserved for sinners saved by grace. We are “heirs of God.” Do we know the extent of our riches? “Joint heirs with Christ” gives us the measure of our blessings. Trace through Scripture the glory Christ inherits as Man by His death and you learn there the glory the saints shall inherit as being joint heirs with Christ.
Just as the lady upon whom the affection of the king rests when made his wife is lifted into being a sharer of all his glories as his consort, so will the Lord’s own be made sharers of His Divine glories. What grace this is! What a feast to the soul. To have given to us eternal life, the Father’s Words, the Father’s Word and the glory in association with Him the blessed risen Man is indeed surpassingly wonderful.
And to think that the blessed Lord prayed for you and for me, fellow-believers, in the circumstances we have described is indeed heart-moving. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their Word” (v. 20).
May our hearts feast on this precious Lord’s prayer, and may it make its own peculiar appeal to our affections.