From beginning to end Jesus’ earthly ministry was marked by frequent times of prayer. He prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21), during His first preaching tour (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16), before choosing the twelve apostles (Luke 6:12–13), before feeding the 5,000 (Matt. 14:19), after feeding the 5,000 (Matt. 14:23), before feeding the 4,000 (Matt. 15:36), before Peter’s confession of Him as the Christ (Luke 9:18), at the transfiguration (Luke 9:28–29), for some children brought to Him (Matt. 19:13), after the return of the seventy (Luke 10:21), before giving the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:1), before raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41–42), as He faced the reality of the cross (John 12:28), at the Last Supper (Matt. 26:26–27), for Peter (Luke 22:31–32), in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36–42), from the cross (Matt. 27:46; Luke 23:34, 46), with the disciples He encountered on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:30), and at the ascension (Luke 24:50–51).

Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, which highlight the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as the final preparation of Jesus before his arrest (cf. Matt 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–43; Luke 22:39–46), the Gospel of John does not include that pericope but has instead this magnificent prayer of chap. 17.

Now in the Farewell Discourse we have another form and setting. Jesus is not talking to his disciples, he is talking to God. We are invited to listen in. But if this is private prayer, if this is Jesus’ personal conversation with God, what use is it to me? (a) We need to see such prayers as teaching vehicles. They are meant to be overheard so that disciples can study them and learn. In Ezra 9:6–15, Ezra offers to God a moving prayer of sorrow and repentance, and upon hearing his words the people are filled with grief (10:1). Ezra knows that this prayer not only moved the Israelites, but will move any who might read his account. In other words, his prayer was recorded for us (readers) as well. A similar role for prayers appears in Acts, where Luke records a lengthy prayer uttered by the church (Acts 4:24–30). But again, it is a prayer recorded for us, the reader. Therefore what we can glean from Jesus’ own spiritual perceptions and interests is appropriate

The church must be unified and the church must have a mission.

This is why the Gospels point not only to Jesus’ mighty works and profound words, but also to his personal relationship with God. On some occasions he went alone into the hills to pray (Mark 1:35), and at other times he told his followers that they had to do the same (Mark 6:31).

JOHN 17 GIVES us a glimpse into the heart of Jesus unlike any other chapter in the four Gospels.

John 17 is certainly the “holy of holies”

The prayer recorded here is truly the Lord’s Prayer, exhibiting the face to face communion the Son had with the Father. Very little is recorded of the content of Jesus’ frequent prayers to the Father (Matt. 14:23; Luke 5:16), so this prayer reveals some of the precious content of the Son’s communion and intercession with Him. This chapter is a transitional chapter, marking the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the beginning of His intercessory ministry for believers (Heb. 7:25). In many respects, the prayer is a summary of John’s entire gospel. Its principle themes include: 1) Jesus’ obedience to His Father; 2) the glorification of His Father through his death and exaltation; 3) the revelation of God in Jesus Christ; 4) the choosing of the disciples out of the world; 5) their mission to the world; 6) their unity modeled on the unity of the Father and Son; and 7) the believer’s final destiny in the presence of the Father and Son. The chapter divides into three parts: 1) Jesus’ prayer for Himself (vv. 1–5); 2) Jesus’ prayer for the apostles (vv. 6–19); and 3) Jesus’ prayer for all NT believers who will form the church (vv. 20–26).

The evening began with a footwashing, in which Jesus Himself “poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (13:5). Remarkably, He even knowingly washed the feet of the one who would betray Him, Judas Iscariot.

Next there was the final meal, the Last Supper (cf. Matt. 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:19–20; 1 Cor. 11:23–26), during which Jesus revealed that Judas would betray Him (John 13:26–27; cf. Matt. 26:20–25), that He was about to die (John 13:31–35), and that Peter would deny Him (John 13:36–38; cf. Matt. 26:30–35). The disciples were understandably shocked and dismayed by what Jesus told them. Yet, the Lord was quick to console them, comforting them with the promise of future glory. “Do not let your heart be troubled,” He said to them. “Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you” (14:1–2). The Lord further encouraged His followers with the promise of the Holy Spirit, the Helper who would come to them after He left. “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,” declared Jesus, “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (14:26). Though the world would hate them, just as it hated Christ (15:18–16:4), the Spirit would strengthen and guide them in the truth (15:26–27; 16:5–15).

Jesus says that the “hour” (Gk. hora; NIV “time”) has come, which points to “the hour of glorification” we have anticipated throughout the Gospel (see comment on 2:4)

Believers too are to glorify God (v. 10); in fact, this is the chief end of man (Rom. 11:36; 16:27; 1 Cor. 10:31; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14; cf. Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 1).

Our Lord’s burden was the glory of God, and this glory would be realized in His finished work on the cross. The servant of God has every right to ask his Father for the help needed to glorify His name. “Hallowed be Thy name” is the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9), and it is the first emphasis in this prayer.

The important word glory is used five times in these verses, and we must carefully distinguish the various “glories” that Jesus mentions. In John 17:5, He referred to His preincarnate glory with the Father, the glory that He laid aside when He came to earth to be born, to serve, to suffer, and to die. In John 17:4, He reported to the Father that His life and ministry on earth had glorified Him, because He (Jesus) had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. In John 17:1 and 5, our Lord asked that His preincarnate glory be given to Him again, so that the Son might glorify the Father in His return to heaven.

The word glory is used eight times in this prayer, so it is an important theme. He glorified the Father in His miracles (John 2:11; 11:40), to be sure; but He brought the greatest glory to the Father through His sufferings and death (see John 12:23–25; 13:31–32). From the human point of view, Calvary was a revolting display of man’s sin; but from the divine point of view, the cross revealed and magnified the grace and glory of God. Jesus anticipated His return to heaven when He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:4). This “work” included His messages and miracles on earth (John 5:17–19), the training of the disciples for future service, and most of all, His sacrifice on the cross (Heb. 9:24–28; 10:11–18).

What does Jesus mean when he asks to be “glorified”? The Greek word used here (doxazo) means to venerate, bring homage or praise (see 1:14; 12:28). For Jesus the cross is not a place of shame, but a place of honor. His oneness with the Father means that as he is glorified, so too is the Father glorified. His impulse, then, is not for self-promotion but glorification, so that the Father can be honored through his obedience.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

The theme of glory with which Jesus began this prayer in 17:1–5 now recurs. Jesus said that he had been glorified by his disciples, but in what sense was this true? Jesus had manifested his glory to them in all of the sign-miracles which he had performed, beginning with the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana (2:11). He could now say that he had been glorified by them in the light of what he had already said in vv. 7–8, that the disciples had come to know that he had come from the Father and been sent by the Father. He would, of course, be glorified by them further after the resurrection, as they carried on his ministry after his departure.

John 3:16, wherein God and the Son are joined together in the purpose of bringing eternal life to all who believe. One is equally drawn to the fact that this petition of Jesus actually reflects the purpose statement for the entire Gospel (20:30–31). There it is said that many other signs could, in fact, be given that are not included in this book, but those that have been selected are chosen to promote believing in the intimate relationship of Jesus, the Son, and God the Father in order that the believer might experience dynamic new life because of him.

More specifically, as Jesus’ beautiful prayer in this chapter indicates, this divine promise was made from one member of the Trinity to another—from the Father to the Son. As a tangible expression of His infinite love for the Son, the Father promised Him a bride (cf. Rev. 19:7–8), a company of redeemed sinners who would honor and glorify the Son forever.

He also knew that the redeemed would reflect His glory (John 17:22; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 John 3:2), bear His image (Rom. 8:29), and praise, glorify, and serve Him through all eternity. Likewise, He knew that their names were written in the Book of Life (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27), and that He had come into the world to pay the redemptive price to purchase them from the slave market of sin (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18; Rev. 5:9).

“What God has accomplished in Jesus Christ,” notes Thomas Schreiner, “displays both the justice and love of God because God’s holiness is vindicated in the cross, while at the same time his love is displayed in the willing and glad sacrifice of his Son” (Thomas R. Schreiner, “Penal Substitution View,” in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, ed. James Beilby and Paul R. Eddy [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2006], 92).

The cross further displayed God’s power as He defeated sin, death, and Satan (Heb. 2:14; cf. 1 Cor. 15:54–58). Finally, the cross made clear the wisdom of God’s eternal plan of redemption—“the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).

In these opening expressions, Jesus referenced four facets of the saving purposes of God, each of which centered on His glory-producing work of redemption at the cross—the right He possesses (to offer eternal life); the relationship He offers (which is eternal life); the requirement He meets (to pay for eternal life); and the reverence He deserves (having made eternal life available). As His prayer indicates, Jesus was fully aware that, like everything else, the next few hours of time had been sovereignly determined since eternity past and would have infinite ramifications into eternity future.

representing God in this world is an invitation to genuine battle. Later John will write: “We know that we are children of God, and

The pattern of glorification is now complete: God is glorified through his Son (17:1, 4, 5) and the Son is glorified through his disciples (17:10, 22). Therefore those features of Jesus’ life that brought glory to God may likewise be the characteristics of discipleship that bring glory to Jesus. But since Jesus and the Father share a perfect unity, when a disciple’s life bears fruit, God himself is glorified directly (15:8)

In absolutely everything, the Son had submitted to the Father’s will. “For I have come down from heaven,” He explained to the crowds, “not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38; cf. Matt. 12:50; John 4:34; 5:30). Even during His passionate prayers in Gethsemane, when the temptation to abandon the cross was at its peak, Jesus submitted to the plan of God. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” He prayed, “yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39; cf. v. 42).

The Son glorified the Father by revealing in this act the sovereignty of God over evil, the compassion of God for men, and the finality of redemption for believers. It is the Johannine parallel to what Paul called the “mind” of Christ (Philippians 2:5 KJV, translated in NIV as “attitude”). Jesus focused his entire career on fulfilling the Father’s purpose and on delivering the Father’s message. He now petitioned the Father to glorify him by returning him to the place he had before the world was created (Jn 17:5). The words accord with the statement of John 1:18: “God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side [lit. ‘in the bosom of the Father’], has made him known.”

These are the last words Jesus prays before his arrest: “that I may be in them.” His last desire is to love his followers and indwell them, to fill them with the glory and joy he has known, so that their knowledge of God will be unsurpassed and overwhelming.

What is striking in the prayer is that Jesus draws us not only into a divine union of life and conversation, but he invites us into participation with the glory of God. “I have given them the glory that you gave me” (17:22). As Jesus turns in the prayer toward the life of his followers and the church that follows, his chief concern is that they too live a life that glorifies God, that they will exhibit in all of their worship, their words, and their work the same glory that Jesus exhibited on earth.

This is the essence of Jesus’ vision for the church. It is not a community that heals people just so that they will be whole (though healing is important); it is not a community that teaches so that people will be gratified by knowledge (though wisdom is valuable); it is not a community that evangelizes so that it will grow its ranks (though its mission to the world is crucial). The church is a community that invites people to touch the glory of God, to be changed by it, and to bear it to the world. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (15:8). Spiritual fruit is essentially that which glorifies God.

The theme of God’s glory, stated in verse 1, is echoed throughout this passage. Just as the Son glorified the Father through His faithfulness on earth (17:4), so the Father would glorify the Son together with Himself, with the very glory that the Son shared with Him since before time began (17:5). The disciples too would be those who glorified the Father by bringing glory to the Son (17:10); they, along with all who would believe in the Son, would share in His glory (17:22), eternally praising Him for the glory that He received from the Father (17:24). Furthermore, the plan of salvation would certainly be fulfilled in the cross since God’s glorious reputation, His name, was at stake (cf. 17:6, 11, 12, 26).

Because He was consumed with the glory of God, as the substance of His prayer makes clear, Jesus viewed the cross from an eternal perspective. He was not dispassionate or stoic (cf. Luke 22:42), but fully dependent on His Father’s care and wholly submissive to His will.

And glory has come to me through them. On no other occasion did Jesus speak of his disciples bringing glory to him. He did speak of the disciples bringing glory to God by bearing ‘much fruit’ (15:8), and in Peter’s case by the kind of death he would die (21:19). It was primarily by believing in him, accepting and obeying his words, and carrying out his commission that the disciples brought glory to Jesus.

I have given them the glory that you gave me. Jesus’ “glory” includes his humble incarnation, culminating in his death, resurrection, and exaltation (vv. 5, 24; see notes on 1:14; 8:54; 12:23, 28). Jesus has revealed God’s character, or person, to his followers, who like Jesus reflect God’s glory (see 2 Cor 3:18 and note; see also “The Glory of God,” p. 2640). one as we are one. See note on v. 21.

The two sentences following the petition are parenthetical and explanatory. The first (v. 2) indicates the scope of the authority Christ exercised in his incarnate state. He was empowered to impart eternal life to those who had been given to him. This Gospel is replete with assertions that life is in Christ: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (1:4). “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (3:14b–15). “The water I give him will become in him [who drinks it] a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4:14). See also 5:21, 26; 6:33, 54; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6. These words and others like them emphatically express the central purpose of Jesus: to glorify the Father by imparting life to men.

Father to glorify your Son. This could mean two things: (1) that the glory of his love and compassion for others might be revealed through his death (12:23–24, 28); and (2) that following his death he would be reinstated to the glory he enjoyed with the Father before the world began (5). Jesus’ purpose in praying that the Father might glorify his Son was that your Son may glorify you. How the Son would glorify the Father is spelled out in the following words, which should follow on without a sentence break, For (lit. ‘just as’) you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. The Son glorifies the Father by exercising the authority the Father granted him to bestow eternal life upon those the Father has given to him (cf. 5:19–30).

This brings glory to the Father because it reveals the love and compassion the Father has for human beings. In Exodus 34:5–7, when Moses asked to see God’s glory, God revealed his compassion, grace, love and faithfulness. All these things were revealed again and supremely in the death of Jesus, as the Father gave his one and only Son so that those who believe might have eternal life (3:16).

Jesus continued, I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. In this context the glory the Father gave Jesus is the revelation of himself that Jesus was to communicate to his disciples. By receiving that revelation they came to share in the glory of oneness like that existing between Father and Son. The disciples share this oneness because the Father is in Jesus, and Jesus will be in his disciples by his Spirit. The glory the Father gave the Son found expression in the love between them (15:10; 17:23, 26), the signs Jesus performed (2:11; 11:4), in the honour the Father bestowed upon Jesus (8:50, 54), and in the exaltation of Jesus after he laid down his life (5, 24). The glory Jesus would give to his disciples is similar. It is the glory of oneness with the Father and the Son mediated by the Spirit. It likewise finds expression in love between them and the Father (14:21, 23; 17:23, 26), in the signs they are to perform (14:12), in the honour the Father bestows upon them (12:26) and in their share in future glory (24).

Likewise, when Jesus enters humanity his ambition is to let the world see the glory of God still radiant within him. He wants to honor God’s glory—to show it visibly in his signs, to speak of it in his discourses, to announce it from the cross. Jesus’ life is a participation in the glory of God.

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home [on earth] or absent [in heaven], to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9; cf. Rom. 14:7–8). Jesus commanded His followers, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16; cf. Phil. 2:15). Believers are to reflect Christ’s glory in a world of darkness. Paul made that glorious truth crystal clear when he wrote, “God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:6–7). The desire to glorify Christ will continue into all of eternity, as believers join with angels in magnifying and exalting the Son forever (cf. Rev. 4:8–11; 5:11–14; 19:6; 22:3–4).

The expressions ‘life’ (zōē) and ‘eternal life’ (zōē aiōnios) are used extensively and interchangeably in the Fourth Gospel, being found a total of thirty-six times in thirty-two verses. Most of the occurrences are found in the first part of the Gospel, Jesus’ work in the world / the Book of Signs, where the evangelist describes seven signs Jesus performed. These are recorded, he says later, so that ‘you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ (20:31). Thus the theme of eternal life is intimately related to the signs of Jesus, and so to the very purpose of the Gospel.

The nature of eternal life, as it is experienced by humans, is defined in 17:3: ‘Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ Eternal life is knowing God, but as in the OT this knowledge is not simply knowing information about God; it is having a relationship with him, involving response, obedience and fellowship.

In the Fourth Gospel Jesus employs three primary metaphors in relation to eternal life: (1) birth: one experiences eternal life by being born of the Spirit (3–8); (2) water: eternal life is likened to water, which quenches thirst (4:14; cf. 7:37); (3) bread: eternal life is likened to bread, which satisfies hunger (6:27, 35, 48, 51, 53–54).

One of the chief things Jesus shows us in this prayer is God’s desire for relationships. That is, at this point in the Gospel it is clear to us that Jesus is God’s Son,

within the personhood of God is a social dynamic, a desire for community, a yearning for conversation. Jesus talks at length to his Father, and we sense from his words that this is a conversation that has been going on for some time. One could expect from this divine Son a serene and silent tranquillity, a composure formed from his intimacy with God, not needing any social intercourse or expression. But this is precisely what we do not find. Jesus lives in a conversation with the Father. “Words” are the medium of their shared life together (17:8).

This means that as we are invited into life with the Father, as the Father and the Son indwell us through Holy Spirit, spirituality is not a static experience. It is not a creedal position or a status any more than a marriage can be described as a “vocation” or a status. Marriage is not defined as sharing the same address. Marriage is about transparency and intimate union and life as one. Marriage is a conversation. It is the same here. The Christian life is a conversation, a dynamic relationship in which, as a result of our new birth, the talking begins. God’s “word” now becomes the medium of our relationship too and with it, our talking develops an intimacy with profound social dimensions.

There is only one person to whom the word aiōnios can properly be applied, and that is God. Eternal life is, therefore, nothing other than the life of God. To possess it, to enter into it, is to experience here and now something of the splendour, and the majesty, and the joy, and the peace, and the holiness which are characteristic of the life of God.

To know God is a characteristic thought of the Old Testament. Wisdom is ‘a tree of life to those who lay hold of her’ (Proverbs 3:18). ‘To know your power’, said the writer of Wisdom, ‘is the root of immortality’ (Wisdom 15:3). ‘By knowledge the righteous are delivered’ (Proverbs 11:9). Habakkuk’s dream of the golden age is that ‘the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God’ (Habakkuk 2:14). Hosea hears God’s voice saying to him: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6). A Rabbinic exposition asks what is the smallest section of Scripture on which all the essentials of the law hang. It answers, Proverbs 3:6, which literally means: ‘Know him, and he shall direct your paths.’

Eternal life, which Jesus came to provide, is mediated to people through his word: ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life’ (5:24); ‘the words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life’ (6:63); ‘Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” ’ (6:68). It is by belief in Jesus as he reveals himself through his words that, from the human perspective, people receive eternal life (15–16, 36; 6:40, 47; 20:31). From the divine perspective, people have eternal life because they have been ‘born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God’ (1:13).

Under the terms of the new covenant, all God’s children are to know him personally (Jer. 31:34). This verse makes clear that knowing God and therefore experiencing eternal life is inseparable from knowing Jesus Christ whom God sent (cf. 3:36; 5:39–40; 14:6; 20:31). Viewed from the human side a person’s relationship with God is established by acceptance of and obedience to Jesus’ teaching (see Additional note: Eternal life, pp. 113–115).

This “knowing” is not about intellectual assent at all. The Hebrew notion of knowing encompasses experience and intimacy and for Christians this means obedience to and love for God

The word know (ginōskōsin) here in the present tense, is often used in the Septuagint and sometimes in the Greek New Testament to describe the intimacy of a sexual relationship (e.g., Gen 4:1, “lay”; Matt. 1:25, “had … union”). Thus a person who knows God has an intimate personal relationship with Him. And that relationship is eternal, not temporal. Eternal life is not simply endless existence. Everyone will exist somewhere forever (cf. Matt. 25:46), but the question is, In what condition or in what relationship will they spend eternity?

Eternal [everlasting] life” is an important theme in John’s Gospel; it is mentioned at least seventeen times. Eternal life is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son (John 3:15–16, 36; 6:47; 10:28). The Father gave His Son the authority to give eternal life to those whom the Father gave to the Son. From the human viewpoint, we receive the gift of eternal life when we believe on Jesus Christ.

Our Lord’s debate with the Jewish leaders (John 8:12ff) makes it clear that people may be devoutly religious and still not know God. Eternal life is not something we earn by character or conduct; it is a gift we receive by admitting we are sinners, repenting, and believing on Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

17:3 eternal life. See notes on 3:15, 16; 5:24; cf. 1 John 5:20.

3:15 eternal life. This is the first of 10 references to “eternal life” in John’s gospel. The same Gr. word is translated 8 times as “everlasting life.” The two expressions appear in the NT nearly 50 times. Eternal life refers not only to eternal quantity but divine quality of life. It means lit. “life of the age to come” and refers therefore to resurrection and heavenly existence in perfect glory and holiness. This life for believers in the Lord Jesus is experienced before heaven is reached. This “eternal life” is in essence nothing less than participation in the eternal life of the Living Word, Jesus Christ. It is the life of God in every believer, yet not fully manifest until the resurrection (Rom. 8:19–23; Phil. 3:20, 21).

8 sn This is eternal life. The author here defines eternal life for the readers, although it is worked into the prayer in such a way that many interpreters do not regard it as another of the author’s parenthetical comments. It is not just unending life in the sense of prolonged duration. Rather it is a quality of life, with its quality derived from a relationship with God. Having eternal life is here defined as being in relationship with the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent.

These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant) eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. The only way to gain this eternal life, that is, to obtain this knowledge of the Father, is through the Son (cf. 14:6). Although some have pointed to the use of know (γινώσκω, ginōskō) here as evidence of Gnostic influence in the Fourth Gospel, there is a crucial difference: For John this knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves being in relationship.

Our security rests in another fact: we are here to glorify Him (John 17:10). With all of their failures and faults, the disciples still receive this word of commendation: “I am glorified in them.” Would it bring glory to God if one of His own, who trusted in the Saviour, did not make it to heaven? Certainly not! This was Moses’ argument when the nation of Israel sinned: “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’ ” (Ex. 32:12) Certainly God knows all things, so why save them at all if He knows they will fail along the way? Whatever God starts, He finishes (Phil. 1:6).

The “name” of someone represents the totality, the inner character, of their entire person. Thus in Exodus 3:13 it is important to Moses that he know the name of God so that he can indicate to the Israelites who their Savior really is. It is no accident that throughout the Gospel Jesus not only refers to his work as empowered by God’s name (John 10:25) but also that people should believe in “his name” (1:12; 2:23; 3:18). Jesus bears the name of God, which is unveiled in the Gospel in its many “I am” sayings. Thus, in revealing himself, he has disclosed the personhood (the name) of God to the entire world.

As Peter boldly declared to the Jewish leaders, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12; cf. 1 Tim. 2:5).

The essence of eternal life is participation in the blessed, everlasting life of Christ (cf. 1:4) through union with Him (Rom. 5:21; 6:4, 11, 23; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3–4; 2 Tim. 1:1, 10; Jude 21). It is the life of God in the soul of man (Gal. 2:20). Because believers have Christ’s life in them, they also possess His peace (John 14:27; 16:33; cf. Phil. 4:7), love (John 15:10; cf. Rom. 5:5), and joy (John 15:11). The life that God predetermined to give the redeemed is a life of shared communion with Him.

Eternal life refers to a quality of life, and not just a quantity of life. It is much more than living forever; it is enjoying intimate fellowship with God both now and forever. It cannot be reduced merely to endless existence, since the unredeemed in hell will also live forever (cf. Matt. 25:46 where the same word, aiōnios, describes both the eternal life of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked).

Because eternal life is a quality of life, it is not only a future possession, but also a present reality. In John 5:24 Jesus said, “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.” “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,” John wrote, “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Thus, believers enjoy eternal life even now as they experience the rich blessings that come through their personal and intimate fellowship with Christ (John 15:1–11; 1 Cor. 1:9; Eph. 1:3; Phil. 3:8–11; 1 John 1:3; 5:20). Of course, they will most fully experience that life in the age to come (Eph. 2:6–7), when they see Christ face-to-face (1 Cor. 13:12) and worship Him in the perfect, unending glory and joy of heaven (Rom. 8:19–23, 29; 1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 22:3–4).

What do we learn from the cross? We see the holiness of God in the cross as nowhere else. We see his love of holiness and his hatred of sin and his refusal to compromise with it. We also see his love of justice in his condemnation of sin, even exercising his wrath upon his Son who bore our sins. Finally, we see God’s love for us in the vast cost he paid for our redemption. If Jesus had stopped short of the cross, that would have proved there is a degree of love to which God is not prepared to go for us. The cross proves there is no limit to God’s love.

Between the glorification of Christ in history and in Heaven, there is another glorification here on earth—in his church. Through his church, his glory is comprehensible. The glory that was first seen in Heaven, then in Christ’s life and death can now be seen in his church. Christ is glorified in the lives of his earthly followers.

Hosea said in his day that his people were destroyed for a “lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Paul spoke of his own people as “excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them” (Ephesians 4:18). Liberal theology’s deemphasis on Bible study has left many people who say they believe the Bible ignorant of its contents and insulated from an encounter with the Christ it reveals.

Knowing Christ is not simply knowing something about him but having a personal knowledge of him. This is repeated with delightful monotony when people are truly converted. They know they know Jesus and that Jesus knows them. Now they see Christ and the Scriptures in living color.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Notice that “We … all”—not just the Moseses and Elijahs, but all of us, including the weakest, poorest, and lowest—can reflect God’s glory. “With unveiled faces”—God has taken the veil off of our hearts, and now we “reflect the Lord’s glory”—we see him through the Word and the work of the Spirit. We “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” This literally says that a metamorphosis is taking place, a gradual change as we continue growing in glory. The more we look to Christ, the more we are changed.

Why did Christ mention our knowing him within his prayer for his own glorification? Our growing knowledge of Christ means a growing revelation and glorification of him. We all, as true believers, show Christ to some degree and in some way, some more than others.

Are we allowing the life of Christ to flow through us?

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Longing for him, we must pray with Paul, want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10).

The psalmist says: ‘Those who know your name put their trust in you’ (Psalm 9:10). Clearly that does not mean that those who know what God is called will trust him; it means that those who know what God is like, those who know his character and nature, will be glad to put their trust in him.

The psalmist says: ‘Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God’ (Psalm 20:7). This means that he can trust God because he knows what he is like. The psalmist says: ‘I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters (Psalm 22:22). This was a psalm which the Jews believed to be a prophecy of the Messiah and of the work that he would do; and it means that the Messiah’s work would be to declare to his fellow men and women what God is like. It is the vision of Isaiah that in the new age, ‘my people shall know my name’ (Isaiah 52:6). That is to say that in the golden days people will know fully and truly what God is like.

So when Jesus says: ‘I have shown forth your name,’ he is saying: ‘I have enabled people to see what the real nature of God is like.’ It is in fact another way of saying: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9). It is Jesus’ supreme claim that in him we see the mind, the character and the heart of God.

(2) But there is another idea here. In later times, when the Jews spoke of the name of God they meant the sacred four-letter symbol, the tetragrammaton as it is called, IHWH. That name was held to be so sacred that it was never pronounced, except by the high priest when he went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.

These four letters stand for the name Yahweh. We sometimes speak about Jehovah, and the change in the vowels is due to the fact that the vowels of Jehovah are those of Adonai, which means Lord. In the Hebrew alphabet, there were no vowels at all. Later, the vowel sounds were shown by little signs put above and below the consonants. The four letters IHWH were so sacred that the vowels of Adonai were put below them, so that when the reader came to IHWH he read not Yahweh but Adonai. That is to say, in the time of Jesus the name of God was so sacred that ordinary people were not even supposed to know it, far less to speak it. God was the remote, invisible king, whose name was not for ordinary men and women to speak. So Jesus is saying: ‘I have told you God’s name; that name which is so sacred can be spoken now because of what I have done. I have brought the remote, invisible God so close that even ordinary mortals can speak to him and take his name upon their lips.’

“I have manifested Thy name” means “I have revealed the nature of God.” One of the ministries of the Son was to declare the Father (John 1:18). The Greek word translated “declared” means, “to unfold, to lead, to show the way.”

Jesus mentioned another way in which he glorified the Father: I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. He came into the world to carry out the work God gave him to do (cf. 4:34; 5:36; 9:3–4) and the Father was glorified when this work was completed. This work, which involved revealing the Father through his life and ministry, and culminated in giving himself on the cross, glorified the Father by revealing his character to the world.

The word know (ginōskōsin) here in the present tense, is often used in the Septuagint and sometimes in the Greek New Testament to describe the intimacy of a sexual relationship (e.g., Gen 4:1, “lay”; Matt. 1:25, “had … union”). Thus a person who knows God has an intimate personal relationship with Him. And that relationship is eternal, not temporal. Eternal life is not simply endless existence. Everyone will exist somewhere forever (cf. Matt. 25:46), but the question is, In what condition or in what relationship will they spend eternity?

God had told Moses to reveal his name (Ex 3:13, 15); when God revealed his name, he revealed his character and attributes (Ex 33:19; 34:5, 14; for the future, see Is 52:6).

To “hallow” or “sanctify” God’s name was to demonstrate its holiness, its sacredness. In contemporary Jewish teaching, righteous deeds hallowed God’s name, and wicked ones dishonored it; most Jewish people prayed for the future time when God would sanctify his name throughout the earth (see comment on Mt 6:9).

17:17 Sanctify. This verb also occurs in John’s gospel at v. 19; 10:36. The idea of sanctification is the setting apart of something for a particular use. Accordingly, believers are set apart for God and His purposes alone so that the believer does only what God wants and hates all that God hates (Lev. 11:44, 45; 1 Peter 1:16). Sanctification is accomplished by means of the truth, which is the revelation that the Son gave regarding all that the Father commanded Him to communicate and is now contained in the Scriptures left by the apostles. Cf. Eph. 5:26; 2 Thess. 2:13; James 1:21; 1 Pet. 1:22, 23.

He was sent … into the world on a mission by His Father. So believers are sent … into the world on a mission by the Son, to make the Father known (cf. 20:21). Inasmuch as Jesus’ prayer for the disciples was not limited to the immediate apostles (cf. 17:20), this passage is similar to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20). Each Christian should view himself as a missionary whose task is to communicate God’s truth to others.

Christ has given His own eternal life (John 17:2), but He has also given them the revelation of the Father’s name (John 17:6). The Old Testament Jew knew his God as “Jehovah,” the great I AM (Ex. 3:11–14). Jesus took this sacred name “I AM” and made it meaningful to His disciples: “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35); “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11); etc. In other words, Jesus revealed the Father’s gracious name by showing His disciples that He was everything they needed.

But the Father’s name includes much more than this, for Jesus also taught His disciples that God—the great I AM—was their Heavenly Father. The word Father is used 53 times in John 13–17, and 122 times in John’s Gospel! In His messages to the Jews, Jesus made it clear that the Father sent Him, that He was equal to the Father, and that His words and works came from the Father. It was a clear claim to Deity, but they refused to believe.

In the Bible, “name” refers to “nature,” because names so often were given to reveal something special about the nature of the person bearing the name. Jacob was a schemer, and his name comes from a Hebrew root that means “to take by the heel,” i.e., to trip up, to deceive (Gen. 25:26). The name Isaac means “laughter” (Gen. 21:6) because he brought joy to Abraham and Sarah. Even the name Jesus reveals that He is the Saviour (Matt. 1:21).

God’s truth has been given to us in three “editions”: His Word is truth (John 17:17); His Son is the truth (John 14:6); and His Spirit is the truth (1 John 5:6). We need all three if we are to experience true sanctification, a sanctification that touches every part of our inner person. With the mind, we learn God’s truth through the Word. With the heart, we love God’s truth, His Son. With the will, we yield to the Spirit and live God’s truth day by day. It takes all three for a balanced experience of sanctification.

Jesus’ prayer, however, links the unity of believers to their interior spiritual life. In 17:20–22 Jesus says that the oneness we experience with him should lead to a oneness we experience with one another. He has given us God’s glory so that we may be one (17:22). This is a remarkable thought. Does it imply that unity is not so much a byproduct of discussion and diplomacy as it is worship, repentance, and prayer? Does it mean that the degree to which we seek God together will assist us to find common ground in our lives together?

Jesus was the bearer of God’s glory, and now the church bears that glory alone. “I have given them the glory that you gave me … to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (17:22–23). After the Sinai covenant was given, the glory of God left the mountain (Ex. 24:16) and descended on the tabernacle to live in Israel (Ex. 40:34). In the Gospel Jesus has been that place of glory (John 1:14), replacing, as it were, the temple. But now the thought is of the glory of God passing to Jesus’ followers, indwelling them. The confidence of the church’s mission rests here: If it lives in the Spirit (and thereby in the Father and Son), if it reflects God’s glory and love, if it shows a unity in its ranks born by a shared knowledge of God, its testimony will astonish the world.

But this love and unity is not a moral effort powered by human energy; it is an outgrowth of the union Christians will enjoy with Jesus himself (17:21b), a union modeled on the oneness of the Father and the Son, a union born when the Father and the Son indwell the believers when they are given new birth.

Unity among disciples is unity for the sake of mission. If we allow 10:27–30 to guide us, we would also say that it is unity in mission as well as unity for the sake of mission. However, as 17:21–23 makes clear, this unity in mission is rooted in the disciples’ unity/relationship with the Father and the Son.

(a) It means to set apart for a special task. When God called Jeremiah, he said to him: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’ (Jeremiah 1:5). Even before his birth, God had set Jeremiah apart for a special task. When God was instituting the priesthood in Israel, he told Moses to ordain the sons of Aaron and to consecrate them that they might serve in the office of the priests (Exodus 28:41). Aaron’s sons were to be set apart for a special office and a special duty.

(b) But hagiazein means not only to set apart for some special office and task, it also means to equip people with the qualities of mind and heart and character which are necessary for that task. If they are to serve God, they must have something of God’s goodness and God’s wisdom in them. Those who would serve the holy God must themselves be holy too. And so God does not only choose people for his special service, and set them apart for it; he also equips them with the qualities needed to carry it out.

To be holy, then, is not in the first instance a description of perfection (though this is included). It refers to a life that is so aligned with God that it reflects God’s passions completely (for good, against evil). Such a person can be considered “sanctified,” holy, attached to God’s purposes and presence. In this case Jesus understands that a complete attachment to the truth discovered in God’s Word will be the means of achieving this holiness (17:17b).

The disciples were distinguished from the world by their acceptance of God’s word (14). Stated negatively, God’s word separated them from the world. Stated positively it set them apart for God. What this entailed is explained in the next verse.

18. Jesus indicated what the disciples were to be set apart for: As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. There are many references in the Fourth Gospel to Jesus having been sent by the Father (3:17, 34; 5:36, 38; 6:38, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 11:42; 17:3, 8, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21). Others speak of what he was sent to do: to save the world (3:17), to speak the words of God (3:34; 14:10), and to display the work of God through miracles (9:3–4; 10:25, 32, 37–38; 14:11). Putting it in general terms, Jesus was sent to carry out the work the Father gave him to do (5:36; 17:4). Apart from the unique work of saving the world through his atoning death, all that Jesus was sent to do he in turn sent his disciples to do. In brief, they were to carry on Jesus’ ministry after his departure. What the Father sent him into the world to do, he sent them into the world to do (cf. 20:21).

God’s “name” will be a refuge (17:11), as the wise man wrote in Proverbs: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Prov. 18:10).

Jesus’ third concern has to do with holiness (17:17–19). There is a spiritual dilemma that pertains to all disciples: They live in the world, and yet Jesus can say that they are not “of the world” (17:14, 16). This points not to their location geographically, but to their position spiritually. As we have seen throughout this Gospel, the “world” is not a place on a map but a spiritual domain, an atmosphere of darkness and unbelief (3:19). It possesses values inimical to God. It is not the domain of a disciple’s spiritual identity any more than it was the domain of Jesus’ identity (17:16). A better translation of 17:16 reads, “They do not belong to the world.”

These qualities of the church’s life—transcendence, teaching, fellowship, and mission—outline the essential things we seek and the things Jesus desires to see within his church. These are pillars on which any healthy congregation must be built.

2) Further, the cross was the glory of Jesus because it was the completion of his work. ‘I have accomplished the work’, he said, ‘which you gave me to do.’ For him to have stopped short of the cross would have been to leave his task uncompleted. Why should that be so? Jesus had come into this world to tell men and women about the love of God and to show it to them. If he had stopped short of the cross, it would have been to say that God’s love said: ‘Thus far and no further.’ By going to the cross, Jesus showed that there was nothing that the love of God was not prepared to do and suffer for men and women, that there was literally no limit to it.

A famous painting from the First World War showed an engineer fixing a field telephone line. He had just completed the line so that an essential message might come through, when he was shot. The picture shows him in the moment of death, and beneath it there is the one word, ‘Through!’ He had given his life, that the message might get through.

That is exactly what Jesus did. He completed his task; he brought God’s love to men and women. For him that meant the cross; and the cross was his glory because he finished the work God gave him to do; he made people forever certain of God’s love.

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).