If you’re tracking the first part of Jesus’ prayer (John 17:1-5), which we’ve been studying this week, you might have noticed I didn’t talk about another theme he mentions. Eternal life. Look again at verses 2-3,
“For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Jesus is talking about himself in the third person. Personal opinion: I find it odd when people refer to themselves in the third person. “Joel is happy today, Joel is excited to be here.” Sounds like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street who is famous for referring to himself in the third-person.
I point out that Jesus uses the third-person so you know that he is talking about himself here. He is saying God the Father granted authority to God the Son to give eternal life. This is intimately connected to the idea of glory that we just learned about in verses 1, 4, and 5 (posts here and here). The Father’s granting of authority to the Son is filled with glory.
How is the Father’s granting of authority to the Son filled with glory? Because the authority the Father gives to Jesus has the purpose, the intent, the design of Jesus giving eternal life to people. People can experience eternal life. What glory! What praise. This eternal life is available to us.
But what is eternal life? Jesus answers that in verse 3. Eternal life is knowing God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ, whom God sent. We clearly see the Father’s heart here. God wants to be known. But being known can relate to many different ideas. Is this to know God in the sense of reading about God in the Bible? Is this to know God in the sense of coming to church to sing songs about him, or to hear a preacher preach about God?
No. Jesus is using a very specific word here. What it means is this: “to learn to know a person through direct personal experience, implying a continuity of relationship…it is [not] merely ‘to learn about.’ Here the emphasis must be on the interpersonal relationship which is experienced.” (Lowe & Nida)
So eternal life involves an interpersonal relationship with God that includes direct contact. That means eternal life is not only something that we have after death. God wants to be known, to be experienced, to be in relationship with us now. That brings him glory. That work of offering his life, Jesus is saying, brings people into relationship with God in a deeply personal way.
We have to be careful that we do not make the jump to individualism here. As if we can have a relationship with God that is disconnected from other people. As if God is mine, by myself, and I don’t need to be involved in a community of other followers of Jesus. Our relationship with God is personal, for sure, but it is not individual.
God wants to be experienced and known. He is relatable. We can have that kind of relationship with God now. Eternal life, in other words, starts now. Jesus completes the work of offering his life sacrificially so that we can be in intimate relationship with the Father, with Jesus, with the Spirit now.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 