“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: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
(John 17:1-3)

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“These words spake Jesus.” And the words that He is referring to here are not the words He is about to speak, but what He spoke up to this point, especially in reference to His instructions to the disciples as He was getting ready to go to the cross. Our LORD, having spent the last four chapters of John preparing His disciples for His crucifixion and their life without Him in His physical presence, lifts His eyes to heaven and prays to His Father. He says His hour is come. His hour is come. The day of His divine appointment is come. The hour upon which all human history and eternal glory hangs has arrived. This hour is why our LORD left glory, this hour. He left glory and laid aside His majesty and left the ever present song of the six wings beast singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:3) He said in John 12, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” And this hour is the hour of the cross. We use the word “crux.” That is another word for “cross.” When we talk about the central of anything it is the crux of the matter. This is the cross, the crux of human history. This is the crux of all time an all eternity, the hinge upon which the doors of time and eternity swing. This is the hour of glory. Our LORD says, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (John 17:1) This is the hour of glory. It is the glory of God the Father and the glory of God the Son. And this glory to which our LORD prays to be glorified with is necessary in order that He glorify the Father. The glory that is to glorify the Father is not His essential glory that He possesses because of who He is. This glory is the glory not of being, but the glory of accomplishment. Now in verse four our LORD said: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:4-5) He is not talking about His essential glory. He is talking about He, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that glory. “Now glorify me with that glory of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This glory that the Son desires is to glorify the Father and with that which glorifies the Father in all His attributes. He wants to glorify God and His design and intent is to glorify God the Father in all His attributes as He truly is. It is the glory of the full and free accomplished successful salvation of the elect. That is what this glory is. And for this task our LORD, as a man, must be glorified. For He says, “Glorify thou me that I may glorify thee.” He must be glorified as prophesied in the psalms when the psalmist wrote, “Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” (Psalm 89:19) There is some plain truth here, some very plain truth. First of all the glory of this accomplishment belongs to the Father and the Son. This is a conversation between Jesus Christ and His heavenly Father. And the glorious salvation is about the Father and the Son. Man was not involved in this glory and he is not involved in it today. Men were oblivious to what was going on here and apart from divine revelation remain oblivious still. This hour is the hour of God. This hour is the hour of His dear Son. And, secondly, this hour is the hour of unadulterated success. The Father will not be glorified if the Son does not glorify Him in this particular way. God will not be glorified. There is no possibility of failure in the work of His Son. If God is to be justified Christ must succeed. That is what this text says. That is what it says. Every one for whom Christ suffers and dies must be finally and fully redeemed or the glory that the Father gives the Son is wrongly bestowed because the Son hath failed to glorify the Father if one for whom Jesus Christ perishes. This could never be the case lest the words of the prophecy fall to the earth. “He shall not fail. He shall not fail.” (Isaiah 42:4) Likewise this must also be because the Father always hears the prayers of His Son. He lifted His eyes and prayed to the Father. In another place Christ said: “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 11:41-42) Thirdly, this must come to pass because this is the hour of sovereign will and purpose. What a faith. This is what God would have us know about Him, about His will and about His purpose. This is the hour when the enemies of God and His Christ will be gathered together, rounded up, moved, manipulated, brought to their appointed historical station, herded in, punched like doggies to do whatsoever the LORD’s hand and counsel had afore prepared and ordained to be done. Here it is the wonder of this glorification of Christ by the Father. It is the glorification of the Father. It is the glory of being forsaken by the Father, the glory of being forsaken by the Father, the glory of the decease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem, the glorification for this mission is the help laid on Christ that in the moment of his mighty accomplishment, in the moment of his greatest accomplishment, the glory of the Father was revealed this way. He turned His back on His Son. All of this is a proof of the glory, the glorification of Christ for the glory of the Father in His proof of the success of the imputation of all the sins of all God’s people on His Son. You want proof it is a success? See the back of the Father.

This is the hour of finishing, the hour of perfection, the hour of authority. The glory that God gave His Son for accomplishing the salvation of the elect is that Christ has authority, has authority over all flesh. He is LORD over all. He is LORD! Out of control. He just does what He wants to do. He is LORD over all. He has power over all flesh. If you are flesh that means you. That is the one truth that is so true, so plain that we can call it a universal truth.

No. I can’t tell you that God loves you because I don’t know whether He does or not. I hope He does. But I know this. If He does, you are in good shape. I can’t tell you that Christ died for you because I don’t know whether He did or not. He died for His sheep, His elect, His church, His bride. But if He did die for you, you are in good shape. And I can’t tell you for sure that He did, but I can tell you this for sure. When the Son glorified the Father God gave Him authority over all flesh. He is your LORD right now.

You say, “Well, I don’t acknowledge it.”
That doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter. If a cop pulls you over and says, “I’m going to give you a ticket.” Say, “I
don’t acknowledge you. I don’t acknowledge your right to give me a ticket,” and expect to be handcuffed and get thrown in jail because he acts upon the authority of the state. God has given Him authority over all flesh.
When humanly speaking our LORD appeared at His weakest and His frailest from that cross in agony and blood He was controlling every facet of time and tide. Even to the minutest detail…“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have cruvified and slain…” (Acts 2:23)

“Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” (John 17:1-2)

With glory given and authority exercised according to purpose, the surety of accomplishment was as good as done. In fact, it was done. A thing purposed by God is done when it is purposed. It is done. What we see as accomplishment is but the revelation of a sure thing.

On that cross of Calvary the only time in human history where God was perfectly worshipped, He was worshipped by His Son, worshipped by His Son, perfect worship that day accomplished by Jesus Christ.

Worship is about glorifying God. Worship isn’t about you. Worship is about God. Worship is about praising God and thanking God. That is what worship is about. God is supposed to get something from worship: your praise, your honor, the calves of your lips. That day our LORD God was worshipped. He glorified the Father and the Father glorified Him. And our LORD makes it clear that the purpose here revealed is that those for whom He would die would be given eternal life. Now He has already established who it is that God has given Him. There were those in John chapter six who didn’t believe Him. And you would think according to today’s religion that would really upset Him because He is painted as one who just wants to do something for you. He is trying to do something for you. Bless His old heart He can’t get nothing done because you won’t let Him. That is not the way it is. Our LORD said to those who were unbelievers. He says, “I know you don’t believe me. I know that.” “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:37-39) Unbelief doesn’t bother God. A lady told me not long ago. She said, “I don’t believe in God.” I said, “You reckon he is losing any sleep over it?”

“I lay down my life for the sheep,” (John 10:15) Christ said, “The Father gave me this command.”

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” (John 10:27-30) The glory of the Father and the glorification of the Son is the salvation of the elect, the chosen, the selected, the severed, the picked out, however you want to put it. The glory of the Father and the glorification of the Son is simply that, the giving of eternal life to as many as God has given Him. Eternal life is a thing most treasured by everybody. Now they might not act like it while they are living, but I sat at their bedsides. I know that is what they want. And the emphasis of every religion is eternal life, to live forever, to return from the dead, to reincarnate, to reside as some disembodied specter in the invisible ether. These are different ways of describing what men call eternal life. For all religions except for one eternal life is the product of a life well lived or a life well started by the will of man and finished by the works of the flesh. The Hindus keep coming back until he gets it right. The Muslim will rise by obedience to the Koran. The fundamentalist gains it by working up and then exercising faith manifested by trodding down a church aisle to some man made Kleenex covered altar. The legalist arrives by keeping the law. The intellectual attains eternal life by proper study of doctrine. The moralist gets it by good deeds. In truth is none of these things inherit eternal life. They are just one of the many thousand ways to die. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) Eternal life is attained only and solely and precisely because God the Father glorified the Son so that the Son would glorify Him according as the Father authorized the Son to give eternal life to as many as God has given Him. That is how it happens. Eternal life never goes out this two fisted, tight fisted community of God and His Son. “No man is able to pluck them out of my hand: My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:29) That’s a two fisted community. And that is where eternal life is, in the Father and in the Son. Those who possess eternal life have it only because the Father has glorified the Son. That’s why you have it if you have it. The Son has been glorified for giving eternal and the Son has glorified the Father in the giving of eternal life.

For man to insinuate his puny, impotent self into this great monumental and successful transaction is to despise the grace of Almighty God.

If man is in on this, the glory of God is not. If the glory of God is not in this, eternal life is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Since God has glorified His Son in order for the Son to glorify Him, as many as God has given to Christ have eternal life.

Are they going to get it? No, they got it. They just might not know about it yet, but that is what gospel preachers do. We tell them about it. John said in 1st John, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1st John 5:12)

And this is the report that God has given. This is His report. What is eternal life? That’s a question worth asking. Is it length of life? Is it quality of life? Is it heaven? People talk about heaven. What’s heaven? I have no idea. I’ll be honest with you. The more I read Scripture the more mysterious that whole concept seems to me. I know some people like to think it is a place where the watermelons grow as big as Volkswagens and the trout you catch out of the stream are the size of Moby Dick. But that’s not it. Is eternal life heaven and all its attendant glory? Surely all these things are involved in this thing called eternal life. Those who possess eternal life will live forever. They will never die. They will live full and free and perfectly and abundantly. They will live glorified in everlasting joy in a new heaven and a new earth. They will sing in harmony, worship in purity and forever bask in the radiance of the Saviour without spot or blemish. They will get it right for the first time and never get it wrong again. But these things, rather than defining eternal life more accurately define the benefits of eternal life. These things for the most part speak of a future estate, an expectation, a spiritual hope of things to come, things looked for that have not yet been seen. Eternal life is really a singular thing. It is a thing now possessed by those to whom it has been given. Our LORD reveals what eternal life is in very precise and exacting language. Verse three of our text says this. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) Eternal life is knowing God. To understand what that means, what it does not mean must be addressed. The reason for that is because men may know God. They may know God in a certain capacity and yet not have been given eternal life. Knowing God in any other manner than the manner here revealed is, in fact, eternal condemnation rather than eternal life. You see, this knowledge is knowing God, knowing God as He is revealed in these three verses as the one who has glorified the Son that the Son may glorify Him in the full and free and successful salvation of the elect. Men may know God in nature according to Romans chapter one and verse 20. His deity, His Godhood is plainly revealed in what He created. But to know God in that way leaves a man without excuse according to Scripture. And ultimately it leads to idolatry and all manner of perversion.

Men may know God in the law of the commandments. But only as the God angry against sin and unrighteousness. In that capacity God is not revealed in mercy and love and grace and man is by such knowledge guilty and condemned. “What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” (Romans 3:19-20) Men think they keep the law. I am going to tell you that every one of you is going to keep the law. How do you keep the law? How do you do it? You die. That’s it. Nothing else. How did Christ keep the law? He died. You say, “Well, didn’t He keep it while he was living?” Well, He fulfilled it. But, you see, the righteousness…the law has nothing to do with the righteous man, does it? Isn’t that what the Scripture said? The law is not for the righteous man. I know we like to think this way and I am not saying that is necessarily wrong that Christ worked out a righteousness while He was here on earth by keeping the law, but that’s not really scriptural. He is our righteousness, a person. He is our righteousness. He didn’t have to keep the law because the law could not find any fault in Him. You see, the law was added because of transgression (Galatians 3:19). How come they got speed limit signs out here? Because you all are law breakers. That’s why. That was added. Now if nobody had ever gobe over tye speed limit there would be no law there. Everybody would just drive safely at 55 and no wrecks and everybody would be happy as hog in mud. But the fact is there is a law out there. Why? Because you are speeder. By nature you are and the law says, “I’ll catch you when you do and you are going to be punished for it.” And that is the full extent of what the law can do: define, reveal, assign punishment for sin. How did Christ keep the law? After He had suffered what we deserve in an eternal hell, after He had given Himself over to men to show what men really think about God it says after He said “it is finished…” He “…gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30) Why did He die? Because the law has got to be satisfied. And the law says the sinner must die. And Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us. And the only way the law could ever be satisfied was if Jesus Christ died. He put away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. He satisfied that law. That’s why in Deuteronomy God states: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23) But if you look back at the text there, the evidence that the justice was satisfied was that they were taken down from that tree. (Deuteronomy 21:23) Justice was done. The law was satisfied. Jesus Christ is perfect, righteous. But it is not His life that is imputed to us. It is His death for in that He glorified the Father and the Father glorified Him and gave Him authority over all flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as God had given Him, eternal life. This text does not speak of knowing God fully for such a thing is not possible for a finite being. No man can perceive the infinite. This is simply and finally outside our scope, our finite capability will not rise to those heights. The secret things belong to God. That which is revealed belongs to us and our children that we might do the works of this law.(Deuteronimy 29:29) “Canst thou by searching find out God?” (John 11:7) “Who can know the mind of God? Who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:34)

A Canadian preacher said one time, “We had sooner empty the Atlantic with a teaspoon then we would begin to know the fullness of God Almighty.” And yet our LORD is clear. Eternal life is knowing God, knowing God. In what manner does knowing God equate to eternal life? I want to know that, don’t you? As always the text is explained by the context. The subject and substance of this whole prayer is God being glorified. By glorifying Christ to glorify Him for the purpose of giving His people eternal life. That is where you are going to know God, in that little scope there. The subject and substance of this whole prayer is simply that. This eternal life is then the revelation of God in a singular way, in a singular way, in a singular capacity. Knowing God as He is revealed in the gospel is how we know God. Knowing God as He revealed in the concept and doctrine of substitution which executed and accomplished the penalty of God’s law in propitiation which satisfied god for sin and in reconciliation when God reconciled His people to Himself by imputing righteousness unto them. And that righteousness is a person, the LORD Jesus Christ. God hath made Him to be “unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” (1st Corinthians 1:30).

Christ is our righteousness, our only righteousness. He is that imputed righteousness.

And I don’t want to make anybody mad, but the only righteousness that God accepts is the righteousness that He has already accepted in the successful work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now I have got friends who don’t agree with me, but I don’t agree with them either so that’s all right. It is kind of an even deal. Show me another righteousness. You say, “Well, I believe in imparted righteousness.” Well, are you going to let your imparted righteousness stand before God? “LORD, I want you to look on what is inside me and accept me on the basis of that.” The only righteousness is this one. And if you think that is not enough, you are a lunatic. It is that simple. God has made Jesus Christ who glorified the Father so that the Father can glorify Him in order to give eternal life to all that God hath given Him. He has made Christ to be my righteousness. That’s enough, saints. That’s enough. Isn’t that enough? He is our righteousness. Philip Henry, Matthew Henry’s father, wrote a little book on ‘Christ is All’. And he said, “The fact that Jesus Christ is our righteousness will do us well three times.” When we do something awful, how sweet it is to know that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. When we do something good, how necessary it is to know that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. And when we come down to die and we know that in moments we go out to face the most holy God, the thrice holy God, the God before whom the stars and moon are not pure in His sight, the God whose eyes are too pure to behold evil. I will tell you what I want. I want Christ as my righteousness. And that righteousness is righteousness accounted to us, imputed to us, based on the fact that God the Son glorified God the Father and gave us eternal life. The sacrifice of Christ declared that God was just when He justified the elect. That which He glorified, that which He glorified Christ to accomplish, glorified God in all His attributes. Simply stated, God is glorified and known as He is revealed in the gospel of His dear Son, the Saviour, the substitute for sinners. And this alone is knowing God. This is knowing God. And this is eternal life. Any other knowledge of God—now listen very carefully—any other knowledge of God is condemnation. This is eternal life. This and only this. But how do we know God in the way that it is described here, in this capacity, as glorifying the Son and that the Son could glorify Him that He should give eternal life to as many as God has given Him? How do we know God in this capacity? We know Him in this manner if He is revealed to us in Christ Himself. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John John 17:3) Our LORD when He preached to men and women who John the Baptist had also preached to and neither one of them listened to Christ or John the Baptist. Nobody listened. They thought Christ’s message was sweet and kind of, you know, kind and full of grace. And these were Pharisees. They didn’t know anything about those concepts. So they said, “Well, he is just piping. It is sort of like a flute playing and we are just not going to dance to that.” And then they heard John the Baptist who was all steer and tough and came out of the wilderness wearing camel hair and eating locusts and, you know, he was just tough. He didn’t give them the time of day…he called them a bunch of snakes and a bunch of vipers and the old man just really gave them a hard time. And they said, “Well, he is just grievous. He just wants us to mourn. And we are not going to mourn. We are not going to mourn.” And our LORD looked at those people and he lifted His eyes to heaven and He said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from this bunch of nut balls over here, these screaming religionists over there and I think you have hid these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them unto babes.” (Luke 10:21)

“No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)

This is eternal life. This is eternal life. We know Him in this manner only as He is revealed in the gospel. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ,” (2nd Corinthians 4:5) Paul said. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts…” What to do? “…To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2nd Corinthians 4:6) This is eternal life. We know God in this manner by knowing Christ, by God given faith. Do you believe? Well, if you can you will. I know that about you. Do you believe? How do you do that? You want to explain that to me? Explain belief to me. You can’t even explain it to yourself. Neither can I. I know one day a millisecond I was an unbeliever, I was. The next second I was so absolutely convinced of the fact that Jesus Christ had paid for my sin that I haven’t got over it since. Absolutely. How in the world did that happen?

“Well, I studied a long time and I have come to this conclusion….”

“Well, I joined a church. I pray a lot and read my Bible a lot. I have come to this conclusion…”

“Well, I was saved in Arminianism, but, you know, I have come into the doctrine of grace.”

How in the world did that happen? I have no idea except what God says. One day I heard a gospel preacher, I don’t even remember what he preached about. I remember he was preaching about Christ. But I don’t remember…I couldn’t tell you the text or anything else like that. I can’t even tell you the day when it was and I know that puts me in a lot of jeopardy with a lot of you. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye I was utterly convinced that Christ was my only hope. Before that I wasn’t. Though I talked about grace I sure did give everybody else a hard time. In a moment I was a believer. What happened? Somehow through that Word, that blessed incorruptible seed, God gave me faith and I could not, not believe. And I can’t do it. I can’t stop believing. I can’t. Can you? What a wonder. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) I tell you. This is a wonder. We live in a strange and wondrous, invisible world that no man has ever seen, that we can’t explain, that we can’t prove, that we can’t get up any evidence of. And yet not one who believes can ever be convinced otherwise. Cut off his arms and his legs if you want to. You can’t touch his faith because God give it to him. Isn’t it wonderful? There is a world out there. Cars driving by. “Going to church”. Hearing men talk about this and that. One fellow was telling me that he was talking to a lady at his work and invited her to the assembly because we were having a conference. And she asked him, “What book does your preacher preach out of?” Well, just one.

Can you imagine what the world thinks of you? You actually believe every word of this bible? To some, that’s the stupidest thing they have ever heard. You say nothing but a fool or a Christian would believe this. You are a believer. That is how you know you have life. That’s how you know you have eternal life because you are a believer. You believe it. You believe the truth. This is knowing God. This is eternal life. This is eternal life. “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: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:1-3) This is my prayer. May God in His grace grant you faith now to believe that God glorified the Son that He might glorify the Father and give eternal life to all that God hath given Him. This is eternal life. This is how we know God. This is the capacity in which God is known. That’s my prayer for you. Amen. God bless you.

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T. James