Blessed Night, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For Yourselves And Everyone Else… All Around The World. And The Hatred And Conflict Amongst Mankind… Matters Not; For The Commandment Is For Us To Be Love… No Matter What! And That Loving Energy – The Living Spirit That Is Our “Mighty I AM Presence” – Is Our Power, Our Strength… And Our Salvation… When We Use It. Now Again… This Does Not Mean For Us To Bow Down To The Darkness And Corruption Of This World; But We Must Indeed – In All Our Dealings – Proceed With A Loving Heart… As If Our Life – This One And The Next One – Depended On It! Amen… 🤗💜💜💜

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life… 🙏🏾💞

And Y’all Be Love… 💗💗💗

“… That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Here is the mystery of our salvation laid open.

Here is the Father making over the elect to the Redeemer, and giving them to him as his charge and trust, as the crown and recompence of his undertaking. He has a sovereign power over all the fallen race, but a peculiar interest in the chosen remnant. All things were put under his feet, but they were delivered into his hand.

Here is the Son undertaking to secure the happiness of those that were given him, that he would give eternal life to them. See how great the authority of the Redeemer is. He has lives, and crowns to give, eternal lives that never die, immortal crowns that never fade. Now consider how great the Lord Jesus is, who has such preferments in his gift, and how gracious he is in giving eternal life to those whom he undertakes to save. 1. He sanctifies them in this world, gives them the spiritual life, which is eternal life in the bud and embryo, (John 4:14). Grace in the soul, is heaven in that soul. 2. He will glorify them in the other world, their happiness shall be completed in the vision and fruition of God. This only is mentioned, because it supposes all the other parts of his undertaking, teaching them, satisfying for them, sanctifying them, and preparing them for that eternal life, and indeed all the other were in order to this. We are called to his kingdom and glory, and begotten to the inheritance. What is last in execution was first in intention, and that is eternal life.

Here is the subserviency of the Redeemer’s universal dominion to this: He has power over all flesh, on purpose that he might give eternal life to the select number.

Note. Christ’s dominion over the children of men is in order to the salvation of the children of God. All things are for their sakes, (2 Corinthians 4:15). All Christ’s laws, ordinances, and promises, which are given to all, are designed effectually to convey spiritual life, and secure eternal life, to all that were given to Christ. He is head over all things to the church, the administration of the kingdoms of providence and grace are put into the same hand, that all things may be made to concur for good to the called.

Here is a further explication of this grand design, (John 17:3): “This is life eternal, which I am empowered and have undertaken to give, this is the nature of it, and this the way leading to it, to know thee, the only true God, and all the discoveries and principles of natural religion, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent as Mediator, and the doctrines and laws of that holy religion which he instituted for the recovery of man out of his lapsed state.”

Here is the great end which the Christian religion sets before us, and that is eternal life, the happiness of an immortal soul in the vision and fruition of an eternal God. This he was to reveal to all, and secure to all that were given him. By the gospel, life and immortality are brought to light, are brought to hand, a life which transcends this as much in excellency, as it does in duration.

The sure way of attaining this blessed end, which is by the right knowledge of God and Jesus Christ: “This is life eternal, to know thee”, which may be taken two ways: 1. Life eternal lies in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. The present principle of this life is the believing knowledge of God and Christ; the future perfection of that life will be the intuitive knowledge of God and Christ. Those that are brought into union with Christ and live a life of communion with God in Christ, knowing in some measure by experience what eternal life is, and will say, “If this be heaven, heaven is sweet”, see Psalms 17:15. 2. The knowledge of God and Christ leads to life eternal. This is the way in which Christ gives eternal life, by the knowledge of him that has called us, (2 Peter 1:3), and this is the way in which we come to receive it.

The Christian religion shows us the way to heaven, First, by directing us to God, as the author and felicity of our being, for Christ died to bring us to God. To know him as our Creator, and to love him, obey him, submit to him, and trust in him, as our owner ruler, and benefactor, to devote ourselves to him as our sovereign Lord, depend upon him as our chief good, and direct all to his praise as our highest end, this is life eternal.

God is here called the only true God, to distinguish him from the false gods of the heathen, which were counterfeits and pretenders, not from the person of the Son, of whom it is expressly said that he is the true God and eternal life, (1 John 5:20), and who, in this text, is proposed as the object of the same religious regard with the Father. It is certain there is but only one living and true God, and the God we adore is he. He is the true God, and not a mere name or notion, the only true God, and all that ever set up as rivals with him are vanity and a lie. The service of him is the only true religion.

Secondly, by directing us to Jesus Christ, as the Mediator between God and man; Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. If man had continued innocent, the knowledge of the only true God would have been life eternal to him. But now that he is fallen, there must be something more, now that we are under guilt, to know God is to know him as a righteous Judge, whose curse we are under, and nothing is more killing than to know this. We are, therefore, concerned to know Christ as our Redeemer, by whom alone we can now have access to God. It is life eternal to believe in Christ, and this he has undertaken to give to as many as were given him. See John 6:39-40. Those that are acquainted with God and Christ, are already in the suburbs of life eternal.

Christ here prays to be glorified in consideration of his having glorified the Father hitherto, (John 17:4-5). The meaning of the former petition was, Glorify me in this world; the meaning of the latter is, Glorify me in the other world. I have glorified thee on the earth, and now glorify thou, me. Observe here: With what comfort Christ reflects on the life he had lived on earth: I have glorified thee, and finished my work, it is as good as finished. He does not complain of the poverty and disgrace he had lived in, what a weary life he had upon earth, as ever any man of sorrows had. He overlooks this, and pleases himself in reviewing the service he had done his Father, and the progress he had made in his understanding. This is here recorded, First, For the honour of Christ, that his life upon earth did, in all respects, fully answer the end of his coming into the world.

Note. Our Lord Jesus had work given him to do by him that sent him. He came not into the world to live at ease, but to go about doing good, and to fulfill all righteousness. His Father gave him his work, his work in the vineyard, both appointed him to it, and assisted him in it. The work that was given him to do, he finished. Though he had not, as yet, gone through the last part of his undertaking, yet he was so near being made perfect through sufferings, that he might say, I have finished it. It was as good as done, he was giving it its finishing stroke, eteleiōsa – I have finished. The word signifies his performing every part of his undertaking in the most complete and perfect manner. Herein he glorified his Father, he pleased him, he praised him. It is the glory of God that his work is perfect, and the same is the glory of the Redeemer. What he is the author of; he will be the finisher of. It was a strange way for the Son to glorify the Father by abasing himself, (this looked more likely to disparage him), yet it was contrived that so he should glorify him: “I have glorified thee on the earth in such a way as men on earth could bear the manifestation of thy glory.”

Secondly, it is recorded for example to all, that we may follow his example. We must make it our business to do the work God has appointed us to do, according to our capacity and the sphere of our activity. We must, each of us, do all the good we can in this world. We must aim at the glory of God in all. We must glorify him on the earth, which he has given unto the children of men, demanding only this quitrent on the earth, where we are in a state of probation and preparation for eternity. We must persevere herein, to the end of our days, we must not sit down till we have finished our work, and accomplished as a hireling our day.

Thirdly, it is recorded for encouragement to all those that rest upon him. If he has finished the work that was given him to do, then he is a complete Saviour, and did not do his work by the halves. And he that finished his work for us, will finish it in us, to the day of Christ.

See with what confidence he expects the joy set before him, (John 17:5). Now, O Father, glorify thou me. It is what he depends upon, and cannot be denied him. First, see here what he prayed for: Glorify thou me, as before, (John 17:1). All repetitions in prayer are not to be counted vain repetitions. Christ prayed, saying the same words, (Matthew 26:44), and yet prayed more earnestly. What his Father had promised him, and he was assured of, yet he must pray for. Promises are not designed to supersede prayers, but to be the guide of our desires and the ground of our hopes. Christ’s being glorified includes all the honours, powers, and joys of his exalted state. See how it is described: It is a glory with God, not only Glorify my name on earth, but Glorify me with thine own self. It was paradise, it was heaven, to be with his Father, as Proverbs 8:30; Daniel 7:13; Hebrews 8:1.

Note. The brightest glories of the exalted Redeemer were to be displayed within the veil, where the Father manifests his glory. The praises of the upper world are offered up to him that sits upon the throne and to the lamb in conjunction, (Revelation 5:13), and the prayers of the lower world draw out grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ in conjunction. And thus, the Father has glorified him, with himself.

It is the glory he had with God before the world was. By this it appears, 1. That Jesus Christ, as God, had a being before the world was, co-eternal with the Father. Our religion acquaints us with one that was before all things, and by whom all things consist. 2. That his glory with the Father is from everlasting, as well as his existence with the Father, for he was from eternity the brightness of his Father’s glory, (Hebrews 1:3). As God’s making the world only declared his glory, but made no real additions to it, so Christ undertook the work of redemption, not because he needed glory, for he had a glory with the Father before the world, but because we needed glory. 3. That Jesus Christ, in his state of humiliation, divested himself of this glory and drew a veil over it, though he was still God, yet he was God manifested in the flesh, not in his glory. He laid down this glory for a time, as a pledge that he would go through with his undertaking, according to the appointment of his Father. 4. That in his exalted state he resumed this glory, and clad himself again with his former robes of light. Having performed his undertaking, he did, as it were, reposcere pignus – take up his pledge, by this demand, Glorify thou me.

He prays that even his human nature might be advanced to the highest honour it was capable of, his body a glorious body, and that the glory of the Godhead might now be manifested in the person of the Mediator, Emmanuel, God-man. He does not pray to be glorified with the princes and great men of the earth, no! He that knew both worlds, and might choose which he would have his preferment in, chose it in the glory of the other world, as far exceeding all the glory of this. He had despised the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, when Satan offered them to him, and therefore might the more boldly claim the glories of the other world.

Let the same mind be in us. “Lord, give the glories of this world to whom thou wilt give them, but let me have my portion of glory in the world to come. It is no matter, though I be vilified with men, but Father glorify thou me, with thine own self.”

Secondly, See here what he pleaded: I have glorified thee, and now, in consideration thereof, glorify thou me. For 1. There was an equity in it, and an admirable becomingness, that if God was glorified in him, he should glorify him in himself, as he had observed, (John 13:32). Such an infinite value there was in what Christ did to glorify his Father, that he properly merited all the glories of his exalted state. If the Father was a gainer in his glory by the Son’s humiliation, it was fit the Son should be no loser by it at long run, in his glory. 2. It was according to the covenant between them, that if the Son would make his soul an offering for sin, he should divide the spoil with the strong, (Isaiah 53:10-12), and the kingdom should be his. And this he had an eye to, and depended upon, in his sufferings, it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross. And now, in his exalted state, he still expects the completing of his exaltation, because he perfected his undertaking, (Hebrews 10:13). 3. It was the most proper evidence of his Father’s accepting and approving the work he had finished. By the glorifying of Christ, we are satisfied that God was satisfied, and therein, a real demonstration was given that the Father was well pleased in him as his beloved Son.

Thus, we must be taught that those, and only those, who glorify God on earth, and persevere in the work God has given them to do, shall be glorified with the Father, when they must be no more in this world. Not that we can merit the glory as Christ did, but our glorifying God is required as an evidence of our interest in Christ, through whom Eternal Life is God’s free Gift.”

Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible, John 17:3-5, by Matthew Henry, 1706