Joh 17:24-26 | KingComments | STEP | In the concluding words of His prayer, the Son, while we hear this, emphatically addresses the Father once more with “Father”. What He says to the Father is not a plea, it is not even a question, but the expression of His desire or will. Here He lets His Divine will be heard, “I will”, just as He once said to a leper, “I am willing, be cleansed!” ( ). He does this not because His will would not be the same as the Father’s, but to make it clear to us that His will is perfectly that of the Father. What He announces here as His desire or will is that He wants us to be with Him in the place where He is, in the Father’s house ( ). He wants us to be there to display His glory to us. This is not His glory as the eternal Son, for that only the Father knows perfectly and cannot be seen by us ( ). For us, who are and remain creatures, there remains a glory in the Lord Jesus that can absolutely only be known by the two other Divine Persons. Nor is it the glory that will be seen at His revelation to the world, for we will share that glory with Him. Here it is the glory that the Father has given Him by virtue of His glorification by Him on earth. He receives that glory by virtue of His personal relationship of love that the Father had for Him from eternity as the eternal Son. We may see how He as Man enjoys that eternally. We will not be sharing that glory, but we will see it in the Father’s House. It is the glory of , the given glory, but in an aspect of glory that is His alone. We will also grant Him that wholeheartedly and admire Him in it. There are aspects in His glory that at all times exceed the glory we may share with Him. As the Most Glorious of all He will always be far above us.

‏ John 17:24-26

The Will of the Lord Jesus for His Own

In the concluding words of His prayer, the Son, while we hear this, emphatically addresses the Father once more with “Father”. What He says to the Father is not a plea, it is not even a question, but the expression of His desire or will. Here He lets His Divine will be heard, “I will”, just as He once said to a leper, “I am willing, be cleansed!” (Mt 8:3). He does this not because His will would not be the same as the Father’s, but to make it clear to us that His will is perfectly that of the Father.

What He announces here as His desire or will is that He wants us to be with Him in the place where He is, in the Father’s house (Jn 14:3). He wants us to be there to display His glory to us. This is not His glory as the eternal Son, for that only the Father knows perfectly and cannot be seen by us (Mt 11:27). For us, who are and remain creatures, there remains a glory in the Lord Jesus that can absolutely only be known by the two other Divine Persons.

Nor is it the glory that will be seen at His revelation to the world, for we will share that glory with Him. Here it is the glory that the Father has given Him by virtue of His glorification by Him on earth. He receives that glory by virtue of His personal relationship of love that the Father had for Him from eternity as the eternal Son. We may see how He as Man enjoys that eternally.

We will not be sharing that glory, but we will see it in the Father’s House. It is the glory of Jn 17:5, the given glory, but in an aspect of glory that is His alone. We will also grant Him that wholeheartedly and admire Him in it. There are aspects in His glory that at all times exceed the glory we may share with Him. As the Most Glorious of all He will always be far above us.

The Continuing Work of the Lord Jesus

In Jn 17:11 the Lord Jesus addressed the “holy Father”, for His holiness must determine the disciples’ separation from the world. Here He contemplates the world in its sin and blindness and speaks to the “righteous Father”. Nor does He speak of the world as the system that hated Him, but as the system that did not know the Father when the Father came to the world in the Son. In contrast, the Son states that He did know Him and that His disciples have known that the Father sent Him. He knows the Father and His own know the Father through Him. They also belong to Him now.

He has expressed the Name of the Father in His whole Being, as only He could. He has done that on earth. He will do the same from heaven, and that is, that He may give the disciples and also us the consciousness of the same love of the Father that He had when He was on earth.

To remove any hesitation from the disciples, He adds that He Himself will be in them as their life. Not only is the Father’s love for the Son in them, but the Son Himself is in them. As a result, they are able to live His life. That life means everything to the Father. The Father will then also love them as He loved the Son when He was on earth. In a sense Christ will then be all in all in those who have Him as their life (cf. 1Cor 15:28).