I have not sufficiently remarked the contrast and transition from the then present association of the disciples with Christ and that into which He was bringing them in John 17. Other points have been frequently opened out. I now only occupy myself with this. The first verse states the change. The Lord looks up to heaven from earth, and says, “The hour is come"; and He is to glorify the Father; the glorified sent One will as the Son. Then verses z and 3, I apprehend, are absolute; that is, apply to the universal effect of the Lord's work, be it in earth or heaven; verses 4 and 5, He directly contrasts the two cases; verse 4, what He had done on earth; verse 5, what was now about to take place as to Himself; verse 6, the condition of the disciples as in association with man down here; verses 7 and 8 complete this point; verse 9, His prayer commences, and with the blessed truth of the common and thus redoubled interest of the Father and the Son; verse II, they are left in the world while He is leaving it. They are to be immediately kept by the Father in thus direct knowledge of Him, as heretofore mediately they were sons with a Holy Father.
So had Christ been, and they would thus have His joy fulfilled in themselves. Now, verse 14, He sets them in their place in the presence of the world. It is Christ's, as often remarked. He had the Father's word. See chapter 8: 26-28. He has now given it to them. They are not of the world, as He was not. They are set apart by the Father's truth; that is, by His word, the full revelation given by Him. What He had revealed (that was the truth) was their moral being in the world. As Christ had been sent, so they by Him now. This however shows their place as taking His, without defining in what association they did it. This comes in verse 19. He sets Himself apart (from all the world) as the glorified Man of the Father's counsels in love, that they might have the truth in this shape and way. This gives the definite character and power to the truth itself.
This closes the direct prayer. Verses 20, 21 bring in those that believe through their word. Verses 22, 23 is the new thing in its full outward result, but now connected with the glory into which He was entering. There was a partial display of this, no doubt, in Christ in life (see John 2:1111This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. (John 2:11)), and in the disciples consequent on His exaltation (see chap. 14: 12). But this was only partial. It is not here with or before, but descending manifestation or display in, a proof where there was already faith of the extent of the blessing, or in spite of unbelief, irrespective of real faith. This is also consequent on the taking of the new place, a yet more blessed one, and where we see, even in this intimate chapter, how the display of the kingdom is distinguished from the heavenly joys of the saints themselves ever with the Lord, loved before there was a world to be displayed in. Jesus would have His disciples there where He was according to this love, connecting His glorifying as Man with the eternal love of the Father to Him. This is thus distinctly applied now in connection with His breach with the world; for when it had not known the Father Christ had, and the disciples that He was sent.
That was the then present closing scene and associations in which He had declared the Father's name to them; but He would now in such sort declare it that the love wherewith He had been loved should be in them, and He in them. They had owned Him as sent, and He had revealed the Father's name, now declaring it. The love He had been loved with on earth was to be in them, and Himself in them. It is heavenly in what is revealed to them as truth, heavenly in glory, heavenly in abode with Him, according to His present place, and the Father's eternal love to Him; and the present declaring of the Father's name brings us into the Father's love as He was on earth.