John 17:1-5

1.) These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: This is the true LORD’s Prayer of Scripture, and oh how precious to be given a glimpse into how our LORD addressed His Father, and a reminder that it is by Christ’s intercession alone that any of us can enter into the same fellowship with the Father. It’s the hour of His death for the reconciliation and justification of those the Father gave Him from eternity. What harmony in the Godhead, the Son glorifying the Father by His righteous obedience and sacrificial death and the Son dedicated to the just satisfaction of His law and justice and thereby be glorified by the Father upon completion of His work at Calvary!

2.) As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him: The LORD Jesus is sovereign over ALL mankind, to save whom HE will. Yet, His work was to accomplish the salvation of only those that the Father gave Him from eternity. He has the power to save or condemn whom HE will, and whom He saves are those given Him of the Father. Herein is the perfect agreement between Father, Son and Spirit.

3.) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent: Eternal life is not merely a conscious endless existence forever, but a life here and now and throughout eternity of acquaintance with God in Christ, by His Spirit, "Jesus," because He saves His people from their sins; "Christ," sent of the Father, as anointed with the measureless fullness of the Holy Spirit for the exercise of His saving offices of Prophet, Priest and King! To be known of Him from eternity and to be given His Spirit to know HIM, is Life Eternal.

4.) I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do: Our LORD could so speak of having glorified the Father and having finished the work even before He actually died on the cross, not just because of the certainty of what He came to accomplish but specifically, here, of His work of righteous obedience in life, word, and deed that qualified Him as the Lamb of God (perfect and spotless) to lay down His life. Here He declared it is finished, as to His active obedience. Upon the cross in laying down His life He cried victoriously, “It is finished,” regarding His passive (submissive obedience) unto death, both essential to the full salvation of His people.