His love for us... and in us
May 30, 2021
17:1-26 What Jesus wants for us
Read John 17:24-26
This wonderful prayer concludes with some requests which indicate the deep love which Jesus has for “those you have given me” i.e. for all his followers (17:20). First, he prays that we will be with him where he is, and see his glory (24; 17:1). Through his work on earth his glory had been revealed (2:11; 17:4), climaxing now in his death on the cross (12:23). But here he looked beyond that to the everlasting glory which belongs to him in heaven, in the Father’s love, and which we will share with him (17:5; Rom.8:17-18; Rev.5:12-13).
Until then, we live in an unrighteous world but with a “righteous Father” (25a; 17:11) who Jesus has made known. The knowledge of God is not knowing about God but being in a dynamic relationship with him, just as Jesus knows the Father (25b). This is the meaning of eternal life (17:3). And such knowledge is an ongoing aspect of our relationship with him: “I will continue to make you known to them” (26a). By his Word and through his Spirit, we should expect to keep on growing in our knowledge of him (Col.1:10; 2 Pet.3:18).
The purpose of this revelation is then stated clearly, and it sums up the whole burden of both his farewell teaching and his prayer. Jesus has revealed (and continues to reveal) God to believers so “that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (26b). There is no love more profound than that between the Father and the Son, and that is what Jesus wants us to know in the depths of our being (14:20,23; 15:9). This long section began with Jesus showing “the full extent of his love” (13:1) and it ends with this prayer for that love to be in us.