“And this is Eternal Life…” - John 17:1-5

John 17 is a beautiful prayer of Jesus to His Father about Him and His followers. This prayer takes place directly before the betrayal and arrest of Jesus in John’s Gospel. It is safe to say that this was some of the final “free” moments of Jesus’ life and He chose to spend it in prayer for he knew what was coming. What and example that He is to us.

John 17:1-5

As I was reading through this priestly prayer of Jesus verses 1-5 caught my attention. In these few verses, as “he lifted up His eyes to heaven” locking them on His Father, we really see Jesus’ heart as He cries out in prayer for the glory of God and the salvation of man. Here are two things that impacted me as I read:

1. Salvation of Man is for the Glory of God (v. 1-2 and 4-5)

Though this is not revolutionary news, it is important news. So often in our churches today we lose sight of the purpose of God’s Great Salvation… to glorify Him. We can get caught up in the act, myself included, of using it to seek to glorify us. But this is not implicit in salvation through Jesus. Salvation through Jesus is about us humbling ourselves and glorifying Him. In this text we see the glory of God (v.1-2, 4-5) surrounding the salvation of man (v.3) by book-ending it. Scripture writers often did this to highlight the importance. They did not want us to miss the glory of God.

Not only do we see that salvation brings glory to God (v.1-2) but we see that the glory of God makes salvation possible (v.4-5). Salvation through Jesus is possible because he glorified the Father, “having accomplished the work” he gave Him to do on earth (v.3), namely live a sinless life and die a sinners death. Salvation is also possible because God the Father kept His end of the deal by crushing His Son on the cross thus glorifying Him in Heaven. Salvation is possible because of the glory of God.

2. Salvation of Man is Encapsulated in Knowing Jesus (v.3)

I have to say I was convicted as the weight of this truth hit my heart. So often in proclaiming the good news of Jesus we define salvation as something it is not, namely we take the benefits of salvation and make them salvation itself. We do this when we proclaim that salvation IS the “forgiveness of sins”, “justification”, “sanctification”, etc. Don’t get me wrong, these are important aspects/benefits of salvation but these are not salvation in themselves. Salvation as defined here by Scripture IS knowing Jesus Christ himself and thus knowing God. Only when we experience true salvation, knowing Jesus Christ, will the benefits of salvation become any factor.

We have taken salvation and minimized it in our consumeristic worldview to what we get from it, forgetting the relationship that it is. But John proclaims:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (v. 3)

This is something that God has been working on in me for some time. Salvation, because of the Word of God, is not that I am forgiven, regenerated, justified, or sanctified – though these are beautiful, vital, life-changing benefits of salvation. Salvation is that I personally know and am in a relationship with the risen Christ. Praise God for this beautiful truth.