This is a most wonderful chapter, inasmuch as we are admitted to hear what the Lord says, not to His disciples, but to His Father. It does not properly contain instructions; it is the heart of the Lord which is expressed openly to the Father.
The great truth that it contains is, that it placed his disciples in His own position, as well toward the Father as toward the world; and then, at the end of the chapter, He wishes us to be along with Him. In the first verses it lays the foundation of this new position. We can observe here too that in this Gospel His death is only spoken of as a departure from this world (chap. 13:1, 2).
The Lord had received all power over all men to give eternal life to those whom the Father had given Him; and this expression, That they are those whom the Father had given Him, we find frequently. His disciples are a precious present that the Father had made Him; and Jesus is charged with guarding them, saving them, and making them fit to present them to the Father in His house. Jesus always thinks of the glory of the Father, and never abandons the position of servant, which He had taken.
Christ is the eternal life (1 John 1). When one receives the Word, one receives Christ who is the life which is communicated to us by Christ, when the Word works in us through faith. Here the character of the life is the knowledge of the Father and of the Son. At verse 4, Christ has finished the necessary work, notwithstanding all the difficulties He had encountered on earth. In virtue of this work He demands of the Father to be glorified with that glory which He had as God; and now He will possess that same eternal glory likewise as man. He will return into His former glory as man, in virtue of the work which He has done for us, with the view of having us likewise in the same glory along with Himself.
It is a wonderful thing that there should be a Man in heaven, in the presence of God, glorified—and this Man perfected in everything! This Man has been down here to pass through our trials, to know our difficulties, and to manifest to men all divine goodness. Such was one of His designs in coming on the earth, and this fact inspires us with full confidence in His presence. He now demands to be glorified, because on earth He has no more to do. If He had not finished the work, He would not have been able to depart, to go into the glory.
At verse 6, Jesus says that He has manifested the Father's name to His own; and this is what He has done during all His ministry, as we see in the gospels—for example, in the Lord's sermon. According to this revelation we are introduced into the position of sons with the Father, as is expressed still more clearly to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father."
It is beautiful to see that, notwithstanding the great feebleness, the incredulity, and the unbelief of His disciples, Jesus, in speaking to the Father, gives them the honor, as if they had kept His word, and elsewhere as if they had persevered in all His afflictions. They had, no doubt, done so, but with what weakness and infirmity, which should have made them blush to hear these praises! But Jesus presents them to the Father according to His love, which was perfect, and acts so as not to see the defects in the loved objects. The Jews were fully expecting that Jehovah would give some things to the Messiah, but the disciples had known that the Father had given "all things" to the Son.