Week 6
Monday
Read: John 17
SOAP: John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”
Devotion:
John chapter 17 is the final chapter in what John designated as Jesus’ private ministry. The way John organized his argument was to describe Jesus’ public ministry (including the miraculous signs He performed and claims He made about Himself), Jesus’ private ministry, and Jesus’ arrest, trials, crucifixion, and resurrection. As our reading today concludes the section of Jesus’ private ministry we find Jesus, still with His disciples on their final night together, praying to the Father.
In this prayer, Jesus prayed first for the Father to be glorified through Him. Jesus knew what was coming and He asked that the Father would glorify Himself by glorifying Jesus. He did not ask for His own glory, but only for the glory of the Father. These first five verses of chapter 17 are meant to remind us of the first five verses of John’s Gospel. We are reminded of Jesus’ authority, His role in creation, His eternal nature, and His gift of eternal life.
Throughout this Gospel we’ve also been told over and over that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to eternal life. Here, we receive a fuller understanding of what eternal life is. For eternal life describes not only the duration of life, but the quality of it. Our quality of life will be unmatched, unfathomable, because it will be defined by our relationship with God the Father through God the Son. Through Jesus alone we can know God. Not an intellectual type of knowledge, but a relational knowledge. When we place our faith in Jesus, when we believe He is the Son of God who has freed us from sin through His sacrifice, we can have a relationship with Him. Our relationship with Jesus, knowing Jesus, allows us to know the one true God. Eternal life is a relationship with Him.
The Gospel of John is about to take a turn. We will no longer see Jesus make claims about Himself or defend Himself to the religious authorities. Instead, He humbled Himself for the sake of the world. Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all believers before these events began. His love for His disciples and all believers is shown not only through His prayer, but through the events He was about to endure to bring many to Himself. Without His love for us, eternal life would not be possible. Without God’s great love for the world, He would not have sent His Son to die in our place and offer us eternal life with Him.