Know God and know His Messiah, His Son Christ, this is the essence or ingredients of eternal life for me and for you.
“Everybody ought to know who Jesus is” are the words of a Christian song.
Jesus manifested the Name of Messiah to the men that the Father gave to Him. The Name was His Name: Jesus! The disciples kept Jesus’s Word. Treasured it! Committed to live by them.
This is what Jesus prayed to the Father, “I have manifested Your Name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the Words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.” [2]
Jesus manifested His Name to them, just as He manifests His Name to us today. Jesus brings us to the place where we KNOW that what He teaches us is of God. He works with us until we are sure that He came forth from God and that He is God’s Messiah. This is called saving faith.
Jesus prayed for us who believe in Him based on the written testimonies of His prophets and apostles in the Bible. His prayer for us is for oneness. Oneness with God! That is knowing God!
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their Word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” [3]
Our close walk with God... our rich relationship with Him from which we derive His love, His joy, His peace, His patience, His forgiveness, His gentleness, and the blessed assurance of everlasting life, helps the world to believe that God did send Jesus, and that He alone is Messiah and Savior.
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” [4]
Jesus wants us to be with Him in glory. To see Him in the place where He was loved before the world was founded! To live in the place where all His values are the values!
“O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” [5]
“That the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” It is in the Trinity that we are completed. We cannot love as God’s loves apart from knowing God and having His help. We learn from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit how to be persons in community. With differing functions but ONE in heart, mind and soul working in ONE accord. It is in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that our original personhood, who we were meant to be, is fulfilled.
[1] John 17:3
[2] John 17:6-8
[3] John 17:20-23
[4] John 17:24
[5] John 17:25-26
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