Friday’s Favorite

 John 17: 1-5 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,  as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”  NKJV

In John 17, the first 5 verses our Lord Jesus Christ prayed as a man and as the Mediator of His people.   Yet He spoke with majesty and authority, as One with and equal to the Father.  Eternal life could not be given to believers unless Christ both glorified the Father, and was glorified of Him.  This is the sinner’s way to eternal life, and when this knowledge shall be made perfect, holiness and happiness (true joy) will be fully experienced.  The holiness and joy of the redeemed, are especially that glory of Christ, and of his Father, which was the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross and despised the shame; this glory was the end of the sorrow of His soul, and in obtaining it He was fully satisfied. Thus we are taught that our glorifying God is needed as an evidence of our relationship with Christ, through whom eternal life is God’s free gift.