The Gospel According to John

Biblical Research Monthly
September, 1957
Dr. David L. Cooper
(Installment Thirty-two)

CHRIST'S GREAT INTERCESSORY PRAYER

While Christ and the Apostles were still in the Upper Room, where they had observed the Passover and He had instituted the Lord's Supper, he had a quiet talk with them (John chapter 14). On the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, He spoke further, encouraging His disciples (John, chapters 15 and 16). Before reaching the Kidron Valley and the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed the great intercessory petition recorded in John, chapter 17.

This prayer divides into three sections: first, His prayer for Himself (verses 1-5); second, His prayer for His Apostles (verses 6-9); and, third, His prayer for His church (verses 20-26).

Christ's Prayer for Himself

When Christ had completed His quiet talk with the Apostles on the way, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed to the Father. He realized from the depths of His heart that the tragic hour had come. He, therefore, said, "The hour is come." He then prayed, "Glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee ..." He was very unselfish in this petition; He wanted God to glorify Him, the Son in order that He, in turn, would be in a position to glorify God in a newer and fuller way than ever before. It is clear from the drift of thought that Christ was wanting to glorify God in connection with the Apostles and believers. This fact is seen in the following statement, "... even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life." Thus in the plan of God, Jesus was given authority over all nations, tribes, and tongues, in order that He might give eternal life to those who hunger and thirst after God. In thus seeking lost mankind, He was glorifying God.

In verse 3 the Lord reveals that to know God and Himself, whom the Lord God Almighty sent into the world, is to have life eternal. Man lost his standing with God in the Garden of Eden; he is brought back into fellowship with the Lord by Jesus Christ. Whenever one accepts the Lord Jesus Christ, he comes to know God in a personal, intimate manner.

Christ glorified God, accomplishing the work that the Father had given Him to do. Man cannot glorify God while walking contrary to the will and the plan of God. Jesus constantly repeated that He had not come to do His own will, but the will of God who had sent Him. Thus, in doing the will of God at all times, He glorified the Father.

Jesus prayed the Father to glorify Him with the glory that He had had with Him before the foundation of the world. (v. 5). A good commentary on this petition may be had by investigating Philippians 2:5-11. Christ existed in the form of God and was robed in the divine glory. However, He laid aside that glory—not His nature—in order that He might come to earth, entering it by miraculous conception and virgin birth. Thus, when He was here upon earth, the glory of God did not scintillate from His person as it had done throughout all eternity of the past. Christ rightfully prayed for the glory which He had laid aside at the time of the incarnation to be restored to Him. It was in the plan and purpose of God to do so. Hence the time was practically ripe for God to restore that glory to Him.

Christ's Prayer for the Apostles

In verses 6-19 is the prayer of Christ in behalf of the Apostles. He began this part of His petition by asserting that He had manifested God's name unto the men whom God had given Him out of the world. He used the word name in the same way in which it is frequently used in the Old Testament. An excellent example occurs in Exodus 23:20,21. In this passage Moses speaks of the angel who has delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and will bring the people into the liberty of the land of promise. The great lawgiver, therefore, urges the people not to provoke this angel to wrath "for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him." Here the word name means nature. In other words, the angel who was delivering Israel was none other than one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, God the Son. Christ manifested God's name to the Apostles; that is, He demonstrated to them that He was God in human form. He associated with the Apostles for three and a fraction years; and they could see, understand, and know that He was God. He said that he who had seen Him had seen the Father also. Had the Father come as Jesus had, He would have acted exactly as the Lord Jesus did on all occasions, and He would have spoken just as Jesus did. Thus, in seeing Christ, the Apostles saw God the Father. Though they were, from one standpoint, the special possession of God the Father, He gave them to Jesus in a special manner to do a particular work, for which Jesus trained them, namely, to be witnesses of Him after His return to glory. They were in the closest touch and fellowship with Him and kept His word.

According to verses 7 and 8, their association with Christ was such that they were of the profound conviction that the words which Jesus spoke were the words of God the Father. They received His words and knew of a truth that Christ had come forth from God, and they believed that God had sent Him. From Pentecost and onward, as they preached here and there concerning the Lord Jesus, they emphasized the truth that He was one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity who had laid aside His glory, entering the world by miraculous conception and virgin birth.

Jesus stated that He prayed, not for the world, but for those whom God had given Him out of the world, namely the Apostles (vv. 9,10). He stated that He would be glorified in them, as subsequent events showed.

According to verses 11 and 12, His public ministry was over; He was no longer in touch with the world. All events were shaping up to cause Him to go out of the world, back to the Father. He realized that His earthly work was over, so far as ministering to the people was concerned; He also well knew that the Apostles were to remain here; hence He said that they were in the world, but that He was going to the Father. He, therefore, prayed, "Keep them in thy name which thou hast given me that they may be one, even as we are one." The Lord wanted all the Apostles to be one in spirit, one in purpose, one in co-operation.

According to verse 12, while He was with them He kept them in God's name; that is He kept them by the power of the Father in the center of God's holy directive will. He guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the son of perdition, Judas, who was the betrayer of the Son of God. Since Jesus would shortly leave this earth and go back to the Father, He spoke and prayed while He was still in the world that the Apostles might have their joy made full.

The world hated Jesus because His life and teachings condemned worldly lives and conduct. He had chosen the Apostles out of the world and had given His word to them; therefore the world hated them because they were not of the world. The unregenerate heart is at enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither can be. According to verse 15, Jesus did not pray that God would take the Apostles out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil one; that is from the Devil. As the Apostle Peter said, the Devil like a roaring lion is going to and fro throughout the earth, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). He did his best in attempting to destroy the Apostles, but was unsuccessful. They went forth doing the will of God and spreading the truth concerning salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ to the entire world. Though they would be in the world, according to verse 16 they were not of the world. Christians are in the world today, but they are not of it; their citizenship is in a different country; they are simply strangers and pilgrims passing through this life to the better country, for which Abraham looked and yearned (Heb. 11:13-16).

The Lord Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them [the Apostles] in the truth: thy word is truth" (v. 17)—sanctify or set them apart to the special duty of the ministry by the word of truth; God's Word is Truth. The Psalmist declared that the sum of God's Word is Truth (Psalm 119:160). As God had sent forth Christ into the world, Christ said that He was sending the Apostles into the world. According to Hebrews 3:1, the Lord Jesus was an Apostle: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus." He was the greatest missionary that the world has ever seen. According to Psalm 40, he volunteered to become a missionary to this earth and to lay down His life for the redemption of the human family. When He offered to do so, God sent Him in due time. As reflected in the Gospel of John, God had sent Jesus manifestly to be His missionary to the world. On account of the Apostles, Jesus sanctified or limited Himself to certain things, that they might be sanctified or set apart in the truth.

Christ's Prayer in Behalf of His Church

Verses 20-26 of the prayer are devoted to those who believe on Jesus through the Apostles' word. According to verse 20, Christ prayed not simply, as He stated for the Apostles, but for all who believed on Him through their word. This statement is all inclusive, including all believers of every generation of the Christian dispensation, because we believe on Christ because of the Apostles' preaching. If it had not been for their preaching and the New Testament, we would not have the Truth and could not believe on Him.

In verses 20-23 is the petition that all who believe on Jesus may be one as He and the Father are one. There is a unique oneness existing between God the Father and God the Son. They are one, not only in nature, substance, and essence, but also in plan, purpose and co-operation. They have the same thoughts, the same ideas, the same aspirations; and they work together in perfect harmony. Jesus prayed that all who believe on Him might be similarly united. The only way that this unity can be accomplished is by the regeneration of the heart on the part of the Holy Spirit and His indwelling the heart.

People have tried to maintain unity by creedal statements and declarations of faith. While those things may be an aid, and doubtless are in some particulars, they can never bind the people of God together in the way that Jesus prayed about here.

Not realizing the spiritual significance of this prayer, some people think that it can be accomplished by strict discipline on the part of the leaders in the church. It is true that Paul urged the Corinthian believers to speak the same thing and to be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. He also urged that there be no division among them (I Cor. 1:10). Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, all exhortations fail.

Jesus prayed that those who believe on Him might behold the glory which God would give Him (v. 24). Those of us who accept Him now and follow Him do so by faith. Eventually, we shall see Him as He is. We are now the children of God, but it has not been made manifest what we shall be; but we know one thing, that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. There will radiate from His being the glory of God; He will be adorned with the glory which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world.

Jesus concluded His prayer by saying: "O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me; and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them." Jesus in prayer addressed God as Righteous Father or Holy Father. The world, He said, did not know God, but He knew the Father. This teaching is in perfect alignment with Matthew 11:27: "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." No man could understand Christ; God alone could understand Him, and Christ alone could understand God. Concerning the Apostles, Jesus said they knew that God had sent Him into the world. In His concluding statement He said, "I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." He revealed the true nature of God to them by His intimate association with them and by acting exactly as God would act on all occasions. "He that has seen me hath seen the Father," said Jesus.