DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL
OF JOHN
GLORIFYING
John 17:1-5
17:1 After
Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father,
the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you
granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all
those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you
glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father,
glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world
began.
NIV
We are at
the beginning of this great prayer of Jesus and his prayer is jam packed with
life applications for us. One of the first things Jesus requests of the Father
is that Jesus is glorified. If he were to leave it at that it might sound a
little selfish, but he does not, and continues to explain the reason he desires
the Father to glorify him which is so that he may glorify the Father. If we
could learn only one thing as a purpose for our life, we could learn it is to
bring glory to the Father. If God glorifies us in any way, lifting us up, using
us in any way to accomplish his will concerning others, the sole purpose is so
we could glorify him. If for one second we think more highly of ourselves then
we should, we are not bringing glory to God, but rather to our own self. The
second thing we can learn here is the authority Jesus has over all people.
Jesus uses the third person in referring to himself having been granted authority
over all people so that he might give
eternal life to all those God the Father has given to him. Some people
may try to use this last phrase to indicate God only gives some people to Jesus,
those the Father has chosen to give to Jesus to save. But that is simply not
the case, as all people have been put under the authority of Jesus. The Father
has granted authority over all people so he might give eternal life to all
those people the Father has given him authority over, which is all people, not
just some. We also learn the meaning of eternal life here as it is to know God,
the one true God and Jesus Christ. To know, to perceive, to understand and have
knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ is what is encompassed in
eternal life. Many people may know of God, or know of Jesus Christ, but to
know, to perceive and understand is entirely different. There may be a lot of
people who attend churches all over this country who know of God, but do not
know God. If we know of a certain television star it does not mean we know
them, and we certainly cannot love them unless we actually know them. The same
holds true about the Father and Jesus. The third life application we can learn here
is that if Jesus brought glory to the Father by completing the work on earth he
gave him to do; we should be doing the same thing. We can bring glory to the
Father by accomplishing the work he gave us to do. We must see the Father is
the one who gives us the work to do. If we are doing what we desire to do, then
perhaps we should rethink what we are doing. Maybe God gives us that desire and
that is the way he gives us the work to do. Maybe he puts that desire deep
within us, but we need to make sure we are doing the work he gave us. We cannot retire from that work, we must continue the work he
gave us to do until we accomplish it and in doing so bring glory to the Father.
There is no doubt that Jesus was full of glory before the world began, he was
there, in fact nothing was made that he did not make, and now he is once again
in that same glory at the right hand of the Father, which in that time, in that
culture it was understand at the right hand indicated an equal status. The main
point we learn here, is all about our lives, how we live, what we do, should be
all about bringing glory to the Father until he takes us home.
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