Now we come to the end of Jesus’ farewell discourse to His disciples as they walk through Jerusalem towards Gethsemane. John 17 records His last prayer. I’ll not go through it verse by verse, but will look at what I think are some of the more interesting points. It is evident from what He says that He knows exactly what lies ahead.
“When Jesus had said these things, He looked toward heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, so Your Son may also glorify You.” (Verse 1) There are two things here to note. The first is Jesus’ posture as He began to talk to the Father. I’ve always thought it strange that religion teaches people to bow their heads and close their eyes when they pray. Jesus didn’t do that.
The other has to do with the word “glorify”. This is from doxazo, to recognize or honor. The idea is to see someone as they really are. Here Jesus is expressing the simple thought that through His coming death, burial, resurrection and ascension the world would recognize both His and the Father’s love for a fallen humanity.
Then He continues in verse 2, “You have given Him authority over all people, so He could give eternal life to all those You have given Him.” Again, there are two points we should look at. First is the definition of “eternal life”. Actually, we’ll look at that when we get to verse 3, where Jesus defines it for us. The second thing here is the phrase “all those You have given Him”. As you go through this prayer, you should notice much the same in verses 6, 9, 11, 12 and 24.
This is not justification for the misleading doctrine of predestination. The Father has not predetermined who will believe and serve Him and who will not. He has not arbitrarily decided who He would “give” to His Son and who He would not. Everyone, from the first man Adam, to those not yet born, is a free agent – responsible for his or her own decisions, including whether or not to follow God. Predestination nullifies the real, Biblical principle of free will on the part of mankind. We must choose whom we will serve (Joshua 24:15). Predestination ignores the character (Who He is) and nature (what He does) of God. I won’t belabor the point, but those who follow this error ignore the reality of His love and grace and the reality of an active faith.
So, if this is not talking about predestination, what is “all those You have given Him” all about. To answer this we must go back to John 6. This is the first part of verse 37. “All whom the Father gives to Me will come to Me.” The idea is that all who come to Jesus are “given” to Him by the Father. This is explained in verse 45, which says, “It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
Please take careful notice of what Jesus says here when He quotes Isaiah 54:13. “They will all be taught by God.” We have already addressed this question of “Does God speak to people today?” We won’t go there again. But there are other ways He teaches us. I have always liked what Moses says in Deuteronomy 29:29. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things He has revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so we can follow all the words of His law.” You don’t have to look very hard to find great examples of men in the past who have doubted the existence of God, until they made an honest examination of the Scriptures.
Paul tells us in Romans 1:19-20 that when it comes to believing in the existence or reality of God, men are without excuse simply because of what they see around them in the world and the universe. The beauty and complex design of the creation demand the existence of a creator. Further, in Romans 2:14-15 he tells us we have the law of God written in our hearts (our conscience) to teach us what God says is right or wrong.
So, any reasonable person should conclude that the Father has neither already determined who will believe and who will not; nor has He made it impossible for anyone to “listen and learn” so they could believe. It is only the willful rebellion of the flesh that causes men to reject God. Again, Paul nails it. This is an expanded translation of Colossians 2:8. “Don’t let anyone take you captive by their human intellect and empty, unproven ideas, based on crude notions of the material rather than the spiritual world and disregarding the teachings of Christ.”
And, I have to add here the fact that all the religions of the world that deny Christ fall into this category. They are all based on the things Paul mentions in this verse. And even some who claim to follow Christ pay more attention to their own traditions and rituals than they do to His teachings.
Remember back in verse 2, Jesus says He has the authority to grant eternal life to all the Father has given Him. Let’s go to verse 3 and the definition of eternal life. “And this is eternal life, (it means) to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” Let’s break this down. The verb “know” is specific and must be understood to comprehend what is being said here. It is from ginisko and means, to come to know, to recognize or understand. In the New Testament ginisko usually indicates a relation between the person knowing and the object or person known. And, there is emphasis on the importance of the knowledge to the one who knows.
Let’s make the application. To “know” the Father is to have a relationship with Him and understand the true importance of that relationship. The words “know”, “knowledge” and “known” are found 1,486 times in the Scriptures. They all have to do with knowing Him and conforming to His will and purpose. Then, there’s more. When you “know” Him, you understand He is the only true God, as opposed to the many false gods in this world.
Then finally, you “know” that Jesus Christ was sent by the Father (mentioned 6 times in this prayer, verses 3, 8, 18, 21, 23, and 25). So, what is eternal life? To have a relationship with the Father and the Son that never ends. The reality of this eternal life is about to be demonstrated to the world by Jesus through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension!