17:1 These 1 words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven, and said, 2 Father, the hour is come; glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
(1) Jesus Christ, the everlasting high Priest, being ready to
immediately offer himself up, by solemn prayers consecrates
himself to God the Father as a sacrifice, and us together
with himself. Therefore this prayer was from the
beginning, is, and will be to the end of the world, the
foundation and ground of the Church of God.
(2) He first declares that as he came into the world so that
the Father might show in him (being apprehended by faith)
his glory in saving his elect, so he applied himself to
that only: and therefore he desires from the Father that he
would bless the work which he had finished.
17:2 As thou hast given him power over a all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
(a) Over all men.
17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the b
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
(b) He calls the Father the only true God in order to set him
against all false gods, and to include himself and the
Holy Spirit, for he immediately joins the knowledge of the
Father and the knowledge of himself together, and according
to his accustomed manner sets forth the whole Godhead in
the person of the Father. So is the Father alone said to
be King, immortal, wise, dwelling in light which no man can
attain unto, and invisible; (Ro 16:27; 1Ti 1:17).
17:63 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world: c thine they were, and thou
d gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
(3) First of all he prays for his disciples by whom he would
have the rest of his disciples gathered together, and
commends them unto the Father (having already rejected the
whole company of the reprobate) because he received them
from his Father into his custody, and because by embracing
his doctrine, they will have so many and so mighty enemies,
that there is no way for them to be in safety, except by
his help.
(c) He shows by this the everlasting election and choice,
which was hidden in the good will and pleasure of God,
which is the groundwork of our salvation.
(d) He shows that the everlasting and hidden purpose of God
is declared in Christ, by whom we are justified and
sanctified, if we lay hold of him by faith, so that
we may eventually come to the glory of the election.
17:11 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
c one, as we [are].
(c) He prays that his people may peaceably agree and be
joined together in one, that as the Godhead is one, so
they may be of one mind and one consent together.
17:154 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
(4) He shows what type of deliverance he means: not that they
should be in no danger, but that in being preserved from
all they might prove by experience that the doctrine of
salvation is true, which doctrine they received from his
mouth to deliver to others.
17:17f Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
(f) That is, make them holy: and that thing is said to be
holy which is dedicated to God and belongs to him
alone.
17:185 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I
also sent them into the world.
(5) Moreover, he adds that the apostles have a calling common
with him, and therefore that they must be held up by the
very same virtue to give themselves up wholly to God, by
which Christ, who was first, did consecrate himself to the
Father.
17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
might be sanctified through the g truth.
(g) The true and substantial sanctification of Christ is
contrasted with the outward purifyings of the law.
17:206 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word;
(6) Secondly, he offers to God the Father all of his, that is,
all those who will believe in him by the doctrine of the
apostles: that as he cleaves unto the Father, receiving
from him all fulness, so they being joined with him may
receive life from him, and being loved together in him, may
also with him eventually enjoy everlasting glory.
17:267 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.
(7) He communicates the knowledge of the Father with his own
little by little, which knowledge is most full in Christ
the mediator, that they may in him be beloved by the
Father, with the selfsame love with which he loves the Son.
