John 17:1–8

17:1–5 Jesus Wants His People to Know God. Having completed his discourse to his disciples, Jesus turns his attention to the Father and prays words matching his announcement of 12:23: “the hour has come.” These references to “the hour” in chapters 12 and 17, along with the prayers voiced in 12:28 (“Father, glorify your name”) and 17:1 (“Father, . . . glorify your Son”) serve to bracket chapters 13–16. The “hour” and the “glory” in view in 12:23–28 were clearly the cross, as can be seen by how Jesus spoke of the grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying so that it could bear fruit (12:24); of the judgment of the world and the casting out of its ruler (12:31); and of his being lifted up to draw all people to himself (12:32), showing “what kind of death he was going to die” (12:33). The “hour” is the cross in 12:23, and the “hour” is the cross in 17:1. So also in both 12:28 and 17:1, the glory is the glory that will be displayed at the cross.

Facing the most severe stress of his life, the cross, Jesus responds by praying to the Father, “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (v. 1). How does this dynamic work? Jesus is asking the Father to glorify him at the cross (cf. 13:31–32). How will Jesus be glorified at the cross? The cross will display his ability to satisfy the almighty wrath of the Father, whose worth and dignity and authority and justice are comprehensive. In order for Jesus to satisfy the Father’s justice against sin—justice owed for all the sins of all his people at all times and in all places—the worth of Jesus must equal that of the Father himself.

The cross not only demonstrates the incomparable worth of Jesus; it also demonstrates his incomparable love. Jesus does not satisfy the Father’s wrath because he himself has violated the Father’s holiness, but because his people have. Jesus places himself under God’s displeasure against sin because he loves his people. Jesus does this not for himself but for others.

Jesus prays for the Father to glorify him so that, in turn, he can glorify the Father. How does the death of Jesus glorify the Father? The cross glorifies the Father because at the cross God keeps his word. God shows that if he says that sin will lead to death, it does. Humans are often tempted to bend the rules when they become inconvenient. God, however, shows that he will not bend the rules, change the boundaries, or redefine the terms. God is so committed to his own holiness that he does not spare his own Son but freely gives him up for us all (Rom. 8:32).

This demonstration of God’s holiness is simultaneously a demonstration of his incomparable love for his people. God puts Christ forward as a sacrifice of propitiation because his people’s sins must be punished (Rom. 3:25–26). God glorifies Jesus at the cross so that his people can be saved from the penalty of their sin.

There is a beautiful, logical connection between John 17:1 and verse 2: Jesus has just prayed for the Father to glorify him at the cross in verse 1, and in verse 2 he states the reason he desires to be glorified and the purpose he will achieve once he is glorified. The reason is, “since [or “even as”] you have given him authority over all flesh.” The logic goes like this: the Father gives Jesus authority over all flesh, and so Jesus desires to lay down his life for that flesh. Jesus is in control, and desires to give his life for those over whom he has authority.

The reason Jesus desires the Father to glorify him at the cross is that he has all authority, and the purpose he hopes to achieve through the Father’s glorifying him at the cross is the granting of eternal life to all whom the Father has given to him (v. 2). Jesus will be able to give eternal life because his death will pay the penalty for sin—the penalty of death. To whom will Jesus grant eternal life? To those whom the Father has given to him. In 6:37 Jesus declared that all whom the Father gave him would come to him. In verse 39 he asserted that the Father’s will was for him to lose none of those the Father gave to him. In 10:27–29 Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice, he gives them eternal life, they will not perish, and no one can take them from him, because the Father, who gave them to him, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. Jesus repeatedly references these people in John 17 (vv. 2, 6, 9; cf. 18:9).

Jesus seeks to give his people eternal life, and he defines that eternal life as knowing God and knowing him, the one whom God sent (17:3). Jesus went to the cross so that his people could know God. What Jesus wants for his people is better than what they want for themselves.

Jesus asserts in verse 4 that he has glorified the Father by completing the work the Father gave him to do. Jesus was entirely faithful. He never failed but succeeded at every point. By doing this, Jesus demonstrated that his Father was most important to him. That he did what the Father gave him to do showed that the Father mattered more to him than anything that would have kept him from doing what the Father gave him to do. And when this work is completed, Jesus will return to the Father’s side (v. 5), sharing his glory forever.

17:6–8 Jesus Makes God Known. Jesus asserts in verse 6 that he has manifested the Father’s name to those whom the Father had given him. Jesus has lived in such a way that those who saw him saw the Father (12:45; 14:9). Jesus put the character of the Father on display and lived in accordance with the Father’s priorities. In that sense, Jesus manifested the Father’s name, but Jesus manifested the Father’s name in another prominent way as well. Across John’s Gospel, Jesus has identified himself using the name God used to identify himself to Moses at the burning bush: I Am:¹

• “But he said to them, ‘I Am. Do not be afraid’” (6:20).
• “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I Am you will die in your sins” (8:24).
• “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am” (8:28).
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am” (8:58).
• “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I Am” (13:19).

Jesus will say in 17:12 that he kept his people in the Father’s name, which the Father gave to him. This seems to indicate that just as the Father granted the Son life in himself (5:26), he also granted the Son his own name. All of this expounds what John declared in 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (AT).

By making his own character and purpose known to his followers, by living out what the Father sent him to do and accomplishing it all (17:4), Jesus has manifested the Father’s name to them, making the Father known to them. Jesus acknowledges that before the Father gave the disciples to him, they belonged to the Father. This seems to indicate that the Father claimed them from the world as his own and entrusted them to Jesus. What proof does Jesus give that this has happened? They have kept God’s word.

Because Jesus knows that his disciples have kept the word he spoke to them (cf. v. 8), he can say that they know the profound Trinitarian truth he asserts in verse 7: “Everything that you have given me is from you.” The Father entrusted judgment and authority to the Son (5:22, 27). He granted the Son to have life in himself (5:26). He gave the Son works to do (5:36), and the Son accomplished them all (17:4). The Father gave his own name to the Son (v. 12), and the Son has repeatedly identified himself by that name (6:20; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19).

In addition to all this, Jesus states in 17:8 that the Father gave him words, truths he was to teach. Jesus taught what the Father wanted him to teach (7:16, 28; cf. 5:30; 6:38). The disciples have kept God’s word (17:6) by receiving the words that the Father gave to Jesus to teach them (v. 8). They have embraced the teaching of Jesus precisely because they believe that Jesus came from God. Jesus, after all, had said that the work of God was to believe in the one God sent (6:29).