Hello everyone. I’m certainly thankful to be able to post tonight. When I came home this evening, we were having server problems which left me wondering if I’d be able to blog or not. Fortunately, as you can see, we got reconnected so the blog will continue.
Tonight, we’re going to be continuing our study of the Trinity and we’ll be in John 17. This has been called the high priestly prayer of Jesus where we see more of a rich dynamic between the Father and the Son as we see Jesus’s longest prayer recorded in the gospels. We’ll be in verses 1-2 tonight.
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Jesus looked toward Heaven. Now I don’t think we should take this as realizing some sort of ideal posture. This was one that was highly acceptable and it’s noteworthy that the tax collector who prayed “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner” would not look to Heaven. I bring it up simply to say we should not be legalistic about prayer postures.
Jesus refers to God as “Father.” This is a term that will show up often in this prayer and expresses the unique relationship the Father and the Son have with each other, a theme we will see as we get closer to the end of this gospel in a verse Arians and others have used to argue against the Trinity. We will see when we get there that the verse shows the exact opposite.
Jesus asks the Father to glorify him, an idea we should consider the meaning of with a passage like Isaiah 42:8 being known to the apostles. The purpose of course is so the Son can glorify the Father. Only if the Son receives the glory can the Father receive that glory. What glory would be given?
It would be the glory that would come about by showing the victory of God over satan and the forces of evil. By conquering sin on the cross, Christ is showing that God is ruler and sovereign over all. Not even sin and death can stand in the way of the plan of God. God is shown to be glorious in both forgiving sinners and in punishing evil.
Jesus has been granted authority. Does this go against his deity? Again, the question we must ask is “How?” This is the same position of those who confuse function with essence and assert that if the Son submits to the Father in anything then he cannot be of the same nature as the Father? Anyone who has an earthly father, which I believe would include all of us, who they submit to or have ever submitted to should see the faultiness of this position.
Finally, we see the goal of all of this. Eternal life for all who trust in Christ. We only have eternal life however by being united to Christ. Apart from him, we have not the life that we were meant to have.
Tomorrow, we shall continue looking at this high priestly prayer.
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