Verses 1-3. He now addresses the Father, and His disciples are privileged to hear what He says. Lifting His eyes from His loved disciples, and directing His gaze to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” He speaks anticipatively, on the ground that all is completed. He had glorified the Father in all His life of obedience, and in His obedience unto death; and now victorious over death and the grave, He awaits the glory with the Father that belongs to Him, that He may glorify the Father in what He will do for those the Father had given Him. “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” Power over all flesh is not displayed here as Messiah subduing the nations, (Psa. 2:8, 9) but as the heavenly One, giving His disciples eternal life. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” It is not now the Almighty, as Abraham knew God; nor Jehovah, as revealed to Israel. It is the knowledge of the Father and the Son; the Son revealing the Father, and thus bringing those who received Him, into fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3, 4).
Verses 4, 5. “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” He had completed all that was needed for the glory of the Father, and to bring His own into blessing, in association with Himself. He was ever the Son in the Father’s bosom, a divine person, but here He is speaking as one who as sent of the Father, a man on earth, and could now claim as one who had won it by His work, as well as being the eternal Son, the place He had with the Father before the world was. Though His by right, He still says “glorify Thou Me,” and takes His place there as given by the Father, a man in glory, and that we might be there also. Thus we have in these verses His position defined.
Verses 6-8. Now He speaks of His disciples. “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me: and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me.” They were given by the Father to the Son, and He had told them all about the Father, and so they knew the Father, and were brought into the children’s place. They believed it all, though as yet they had not intelligently entered into it, as they could afterward, when the Holy Spirit had come. The Lord here recognizes them according to His appreciation of their faith as He knew it, and not by their intelligent entering into it; as He said to Philip, (14:7.) “From henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.” He saw this in them, they had acknowledged that He came forth from the Father with the Father’s authority, sent by the Father. This is the position He gives them.
Verses 9-13. This is contrast with Psalm 2:8, 9—the Messiah’s portion. He, as rejected, has postponed Israel’s blessing, and now it is the heavenly saints, or family of God, the Father. “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine, and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them.” Wonderful place of love they are put into, and He prays for them because “They are Thine,” and because they were to glorify Him when He was on high. Therefore He prays, “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition: that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” He commits them to the Holy Father’s care to be kept in His name, because of His affection for them, and because the Son’s glory was to be seen in, and heard from them, so that they were doubly dear to the Father and to the Son. Their interests could not be separated—one in mind and purpose in everything. They were to be kept according to the Father’s love, and according to the holiness of His nature. Christ had kept them in that name when with them down here, and so He can say, “Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me.” It was this He had lived in, on earth Himself, and He prays that they may also glorify the Father’s name, that they may be one as we are. One in mind, thoughts, acts, and will, as Christ and the Father were one. This could only be by the Holy Spirit’s power in, and with, the life they had received, though the Spirit is not mentioned here, giving them in their whole moral existence, one object and aim. This was His thoughts for them, their carrying it out must be by strength, His strength perfected in their weakness, carried along by the Spirit’s power. While He was with them in the world He kept them in the Father’s name, and none of them were lost but the son of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He spoke these things in their hearing while still in the world, that they might have His joy fulfilled in themselves. Wonderful grace to have such a position! and to lose sight of Him for a little was only to know Him and the Father in deeper and more intimate communion than ever, as sons with Him in the enjoyment of the love He had imparted to them. It is something for us also. (1 John 1:1-4.)
Verses 14-19. Here He speaks of their relationship with the world. “I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” This word committed to them, divided between them and the world. They were not of it and their witness condemned the world, and the world hated them accordingly, yet they were sent into the world as the Father had sent Christ into the world. Now the measure and character of their separation from it, was Christ in glory. For their sakes, I sanctify Myself, (set Myself apart, that is, at the Father’s right hand) that they also might be sanctified (or set apart) through the truth. Christ is therefore the measure of their and our separation from the world. He is our object in glory. They were to witness of Him, Thy word is truth, and all that is of the world is opposition to the Father. (1 John 2:15.)
Verses 20, 21. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” This is the oneness of communion with the Father and the Son and with one another (compare 1 John 1:3, 4, the blessing ministered by the apostles to all believers) but how little our souls enter into it is alas! very manifest.
Verses 22, 23. “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.” This oneness cannot fail, for it is in the glory, the sure ending of every true believer, and notice that in each of these three unities seen, it is in the world, (verses 11, 21, 23.) and the world will know when they see the saints manifested in glory with the Son, that the Father has sent Him, “and has loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” The proof is before the world’s eyes then, when He comes to reign.
Verse 24. “Father I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” In this case it is a heavenly scene. He desires their presence with Him in glory. And that they might behold the glory the Father gave Him in answer to all the sorrows and trials He had passed through on earth, for God’s glory and for them. He acquired it by His obedience and suffering, yet He had a rightful claim to it in His person, and He desires that we behold it, share the delight of the Father also, in the One He loved before the foundation of the world. He wants us to be where He is, and that we should enjoy what He enjoys, and the Father’s delight in Him, the glorified Man.
Verses 25, 26. “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them.” The righteous Father exalts His Son to His right hand, and by it the world is condemned (Compare 16:10). The world did not know the Father, had no eyes to behold Him declared in the Son. The Son knew Him, and the disciples knew Him, and to them, when on earth, the Father’s name was declared and known; and again, when He had gone on high, the Holy Spirit came declaring the Father’s name, that the love wherewith the Father loved the Son, might be in them in full assurance, and enjoyment, and He the Son in them also. O, that our hearts were more alive to this wonderful love of the Father and the Son!