March 24, 2002

THE PRAYER of THE LORD (Pt.2)

John 17:1-26

   The Son had been given "power (authority) over all flesh in order that He would give eternal life to as many as" the Father had given Him. Many times in this prayer the Lord spoke of these who had been given to Him by the Father. The Lord gave them "eternal life, in order that they might know Thee (the Father) the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou has sent" (John 17:3). This life was given then!

   It is often expressed that by believing the gospel and thus knowing God, we receive eternal life as the result. While that is true, here the Lord is saying that eternal life is given to the believer with the expressed purpose that they shall know "the only true God, and Jesus Christ" Whom He had sent!

   This is not the only place in scripture where the knowledge of God or getting to know Him is the stated purpose. To Israel Isaiah wrote, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). Again Habakkuk 2:14 reads, "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." And Jeremiah 31:34 follows the promise of the New Covenant with the added promise that, "they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, 'know the Lord:' for they shall all know Me from the least of them unto the greatest of them." People are filled with wonder and amazement puzzling about when such knowledge of God will be realized. This is in Israel 's future.

   Usually our first thought about eternal life is its endless duration, that it will last endlessly in contrast with our present life which "is even a vapor...and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). But in contrast with duration it is the quality of life and the richness of the experience of knowing the only true God that make it so blessed and special. We say we now know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and indeed we do, but the thought of really getting to know Him now is what Paul meant when he wrote of the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord..." and, "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings" (Phil. 3:8,10).

Ivan L. Burgener