THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life

Part XXXVIII: Trusting In Christ For His Gracious Edification Of True Believers, John 14-17

J. Trusting In Christ For His High Priestly Intercession For His Believers, John 17

1. Trusting In Christ For His Prayer In Behalf Of Himself For His Believers' Welfare

(John 17:1-5)

I. Introduction

A. John's Gospel claims that Jesus' disciples had received of His fullness "grace for grace" (KJV), the "constant reception of one evidence of God's grace replacing another," John 1:16; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 273.

B. This truth is clarified in Christ's John 17:1-5 High Priestly Prayer where He prayed for Himself in behalf of His believers' welfare, and we view it for our insight and edification (as follows):

II. Trusting In Christ For His Prayer In Behalf Of Himself For His Believers' Welfare, John 17:1-5.

A. As Jesus began His High Priestly Prayer to the Father in John 17:1a, He asked the Father that in view of the arrival of that important hour when He was about to go through His suffering and the cross, that the Father would glorify Him that He might in turn glorify the Father, John 17:1b. This request essentially asked the Father to sustain Jesus in suffering, to accept His sacrifice, to resurrect Him and to restore Him to His heavenly glory that the Father's "wisdom, power, and love might be known through Jesus," Ibid., p. 331.

B. This glorification of the Son and the Father would occur in Christ's provision of salvation so essential for the eternal welfare of those who believed or would believe in Him, a fact Jesus stated in John 17:2-3:

1. The Father had given Jesus authority over all human beings, all "flesh," that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given to Him, John 17:2. For such a salvation to occur, Christ needed to die for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2), providing an atonement that would satisfy a righteous God so that those who trusted in Christ might be justified and receive eternal life, not going to hell, Rom. 3:23-27.

2. However, for Jesus to accomplish this colossal feat in His human flesh, He needed God the Father to sustain His humanity in His great suffering and death, so He requested that help and received it in the form of the Holy Spirit's equipping Him to suffer and die on the cross, cf. Hebrews 9:14.

3. Jesus further clarified that this eternal life would be accessed through knowing the only true God the Father, and Jesus Christ Whom the Father had sent, John 17:3. The word "know" (ginoskosin) is in the present tense, implying a continual intimate personal relationship, not a temporal one, meaning the eternal life Jesus would provide through the cross would produce a fulfilling, continual, intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ opposite eternal damnation in hell, Ibid. Thus, it was absolutely necessary for the welfare of believers in Jesus that He pray for the Father to sustain Him in His humanity in His suffering and dying on the cross that he might achieve this future for believers!

C. Jesus then added that He had glorified the Father on the earth in His earthly ministry, having finished the work the Father had given Him to do in revealing Himself as the Messiah and Son of God on the earth, John 17:4.

D. Accordingly, Christ petitioned the Father to glorify Him with His own self, providing Jesus the opportunity to return to the glory He had possessed as Eternal God in heaven before the world existed, John 17:5. So, based on the Father's fulfillment of Jesus' request to sustain Him in the coming suffering and death of the cross, Jesus requested the sure return to the divine glory He had known with the Father from eternity past before He had ever entered the world in His incarnation. The incredible GRACE, the unmerited favor of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ is herein displayed in their ministry of the Son's laying aside the expression of His eternal glory as God to come to die the horrific death of the cross to provide redemption for those who would believe in the Son.

Lesson: In starting His great High Priestly Prayer to the Father, Jesus petitioned for HIMSELF that God the Father might sustain Him through His suffering and death on the cross that He might provide blessed eternal salvation for the WELFARE of those who believed in Him, though the cost of this efforts was colossal. We know the Father answered this prayer through providing the Holy Spirit's enabling to Jesus that He might offer Himself through the eternal Spirit in our behalf, successfully providing a satisfactory atonement for our sin, Hebrews 9:14.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved, John 17:2-3. (2) May we praise and thank God for Christ's costly atonement that provides us blessed eternal relationship with Him. (3) In heeding Christ's example (1 Peter 2:21), may we ask God for what we need for our own welfare that we might fulfill His calling for us in ministry.