(Ed. note: The article, “Christ’s Teachings on Prayer,” that appeared in the March-April 2007 issue of Words of Truth, was Mr. Ridout’s introduction to his following thoughts on Christ’s high-priestly prayer given to us in John 17.)
The Divisions of John 17
This marvelous prayer of our Lord shows us His deep longing for His own who are in the world. First, I want to mark out the three major divisions of this wonderful chapter. In the first five verses our blessed Lord speaks in view of His going to the Father, of having all power committed to Him, and of entering into His glory. In verses 6-21 we have the main part of the prayer. It is His desire for His own who are in the world. Then from verse 22 to the close of the chapter we have the glory into which He is entering, and which is our eternal home.
The Beginning Section:
Christ Glorified
His prayer begins with “The hour is come” when He is to be glorified, and at the end of the chapter He has entered His glory and we are to share it with Him. Whatever comes in between is marked by the character that belongs to those two great parts of His prayer. At the beginning it is His entering into glory with all power given to Him, including that of giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Here there is no sense of feebleness! With us prayer is often the expression of our own feebleness in confession. How different with the Lord! “Glorify Thy Son … as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” He is the Giver of eternal life, and only He leads us into it. He fills our hearts with that vital principle, never to be lost, which links us with Himself and the glory into which He has gone.
But what a standard for prayer! When we in our feebleness get on our knees, what a blessed thing it is to realize that the Lord is on high, all power being given to Him, not merely to give us the little trifles of food and meat and clothing, but to give us all that the blessed term “eternal life” means. It is not merely the impartation of that which never can be lost, but more, the enjoyment of it, fellowship with the Father and the Son, companionship with Them, sharing Their thoughts, enjoying the holiness that belongs to Them, partaking of that holiness. This is realized power.
As we listen to Him there, pouring out His heart in supplication, we may be in all the consciousness of what has been given to Him. There is no uncertainty, there is no thought that an answer will not be given, because He already has the power to give it to as many as the Father has given Him.
“The Hour Is Come”
But I must not pass over the Lord’s words, “Father, the hour is come.” It had not come at the beginning. To His beloved mother—and He honored her and obeyed her in her place as mother, but she could never intrude between Him and the Father—He said, “Woman, what have I to do with you? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). Until that time He would not act. Again, “No man laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come” (John 7:30; 8:20) and then, later, “This is your hour” (Luke 22:53). Now, at the beginning of His prayer He speaks of it as come, that hour of which He had said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name” (John 12:27,28). It meant the cross for Him, the anguish of suffering unto death for us, the bearing of the wrath of God for us.
But He is not thinking merely of the hour of suffering. “Glorify Thy Son.” “For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). He passed through Gethsemane, endured Calvary, entered the grave, but rose in life to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God!
Now why did He pray to be glorified? Did He have some selfish motive? Was it in order that He might be displayed? “Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee.” He was here in this world for one purpose—to glorify the Father. Why is He in heaven? To glorify the Father. Blessed be His name! There is no selfishness in Him there, any more than there was here! It is the glory of the Father that is the one purpose ever engaging Him, His one desire.
Eternal Life
Then, from out of that suffering, from out of that cross, the power is wielded to give eternal life. What is eternal life? I am not going to do more than point out what it is that marks eternal life: the knowledge of “the only true God,” to whom He is speaking, and “Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” What does it mean to know Him, to know God? Does it mean merely that you believe there is a God? Does it mean merely that you believe there was such a historical person on the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, or even Jesus the Christ, or even Jesus the Son of God? Is it merely to know about Him in that way? Is that eternal life? This is life eternal, to be acquainted with, to have a conscious knowledge, to have a living and vital knowledge in my own soul of Him, the only God, God over all; not man, not the creature, but the living God, and He who has manifested God, Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
Let us not be afraid to speak freely and fully of these blessed themes; let us not be afraid to discuss eternal life. Life eternal brings me into relationship with God; life eternal introduces me into the family of the Father and the Son. Truly our fellowship is with Them. It is a holy theme and a most blessed one. Blessed be His Name, He has given that eternal life to all whom the Father has given to Him!
Glorifying God
Just another word: “I have glorified Thee on the earth!” How perfectly He did it! Do you not love to trace His footsteps here? The apostle writes that we “have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). He is the personal exhibition of the truth in all of its holy character. It is not merely Christ risen, but it is the truth as it is in Him, in that life which He lived here upon earth. Thus the eternal life that was with the Father was manifested to us, indeed, exhibited in its perfection. Therefore He says, “I have glorified Thee on the earth,” and then, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.” The Father had committed a stupendous work to the Son, none other than that of bringing back a rebel world to God, vindicating His righteous character. This had been entrusted to Him as having humbled Himself to take the servant’s form, even the lowest place. I love to think of that little Babe in His mother’s arms, entrusted with the glory of the Father, now grown to manhood and about to go to the cross and into eternal glory. Looking forward, He can say, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.”
As we contemplate that one great feature of this work, the redemption which He accomplished on the cross, what place has doubt, fear, or unbelief? Shall I not look at Him and say:
“Clean every whit, Thou said it, Lord;
Shall one suspicion lurk?
Thine surely is a faithful Word,
And Thine a finished work.”
(Mary Bowley)
And so He has gone on high, blessed be His Name; angels, principalities and powers are subject to Him. He is Lord and Master of all. Our Great High Priest who has entered the holiest of God’s presence on high to appear for us has obtained eternal redemption.
The Concluding Section: Christ’s
Glory Given to the Believers
Now let us turn to the close of the chapter, and afterwards we will consider the middle part. At the commencement He prayed, “Glorify Thy Son.” Then in verse 22 He says, “The glory that Thou gave Me I have given them.” That into which He has entered, He gives to us. We are joint-heirs with Christ. He will not be in glory and leave us behind. As surely as He has entered into His glory, so surely will His people enter into it with Him. Here in this dark world in sin and weakness, we soon will be with Him in glory. Notice what goes with this: “That they may be one, even as We are.” What will become of our petty divisions, parties, and alienations? What will become of our poor little pittance of personal dignity and pride? We will be one in the glory there. Surely our place is to show the reality of that in our lives here on the earth! But it must be on the basis of His glory; it is just in proportion as the sense of it fills our hearts that earthly things will fade out of sight.
May His glory be supreme in our hearts. That will prevent our being apart; that will draw us together according to the attraction of the glory and the power of the blessed nature that is already ours, and in the power of which we are to live. A man-made union of all the Christians in the world would not be the answer to the Lord’s prayer. Were all to vote that henceforth and hereafter there would be no more sects and parties, no more divisions among Christians, but we would all be members of one vast body, that would not be the answer to His prayer. Why? The glory would be lacking. Only as Christ supreme in His glory is our object, and we live for that glory and in order that He may be glorified, can unity be realized. There is a pathway of unity for the people of God. It is to our common shame that we do not manifest that unity, but the reason for it is that His glory is not shining in and shining out in our lives, for this alone can produce it.
You cannot legislate Christian behavior. You cannot legislate Christian unity. These come through the power of the Holy Spirit, and a genuine revival of the reality of the truth of what Christ is to us. That will draw us together and hold us together as we live in the light of our inheritance in the glory. The Lord grant us to know how in the light of that glory we may be blessedly drawn together so that the power of the enemy is set aside.
With Christ in Glory
Yet another thought as to that glory: “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” Heaven for us is to be with HIM. Beloved, is that your idea of heaven? If it is, you are ready to go now and you will be glad to go. You can say,
“To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone.”
(William Cowper)
Is that our thought of it: “Let me be with Thee where Thou art” (Charlotte Elliott)? Wherever He is, that is heaven for us.
Complete in itself as this appears to be, yet He adds a marvelous, wondrous thought as to “the glory.” Is it, “That they may share My glory?” No, something better than that, for He will see that we share His glory, but, “That they may behold My glory, the glory that I had with Thee before the world was”! That matchless glory which was His with the Father in all eternity, is now given to Him as Son of Man, victorious, triumphant on high. To behold Him in His glory, that will be our heaven. Oh, beloved, have we seen that glory? Have we beheld it in such a way that our whole souls are satisfied that He is glorified? Is our joy such as Peter speaks of, “unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8)? That will eliminate selfishness from us; in the power of this alone can we realize the blessedness of this prayer.
The Middle Section:
Our Lives in This World
We have seen the heavenly opening and closing of this prayer, now let us look at what we might call the earthly part of it. First, He is entering into His glory with all power and dominion in His hand; then He is bringing us into that glory to share it with Him and to behold His glory and worship Him. What in the meantime is Christ’s desire for His people? “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.” He is about to depart, and what is His thought as He is leaving? “I am no longer here, but they are here. My loved ones are here, those for whom I died. Oh, Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He had manifested the Father’s name to them; they had heard the Word; they had believed it; they had kept it; they were His because they were the Father’s, and He was glorified in His own. And the way He is glorified in us is that we shall be kept. When He was here He kept His own; not one of them who was truly His was lost, only the one that would fulfil the Scripture, the son of perdition, who knew not Christ, nor loved Him; he is the only one outwardly connected with Him who was lost. But all the others, though feeble in themselves, were kept.
Having Christ’s Joy
“And now come I to Thee, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” His joy! Do you think the Lord Jesus was happy when He was here? Do you think He had joy and communion? Do you think that ever a shadow passed between Him and the Father in all that holy life? No, it was a life of perfect communion, and that is what He desires for us. It is His high-priestly prayer for us, and that is why He washes our feet, that His joy should be fulfilled in us.
This is to be in the world, for His prayer is not that we should be taken out of the world. The heart sometimes may leap over all thought of the present and say, “Oh, that I could be with Him up there!” Yes, blessed it would be, but He does not ask that we should be taken out. He has left us here, as He says, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” We are sent as His ambassadors, His light-bearers, His witnesses in the world. What He desires is that the Father should “keep them from the evil” that is in the world. “They are not of the world.” Mark that. He does not say we ought not to be of the world; He does not say we shall not be of the world, but “They ARE NOT of the world.” Every one who is saved has the seal upon him that he is not of the world, no more than Christ was of the world. Beloved, I belong to Him, and therefore my life is as much out of the world as His is, and, dear brethren, how it comes home to our hearts: “If that is what I am, does my life answer to it? Is my life an unworldly life?” How far beyond mere moral integrity that goes! This thing of having a high talk and low walk is dishonoring to the Son of God.
One may have a clean ledger, live a very moral and upright life outwardly, and yet be intensely worldly and belong to this world. No! “Not of the world” means that our hearts are where He is; our treasure where Christ is. If you would peel off all the outer coverings of our life, layer after layer, business life, public life, social life, family life, personal life, getting down, down, down to the center of it, it would be found true, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” That is His desire for us.
Sanctified through the Word
But He has not left us merely with that thought of it for He adds, “As I am not” of it. Then He speaks of the work needed for the realization of this, namely, sanctification. It is not sanctification by new birth, nor yet sanctification by His own blood; the latter gives us a perfect position and standing before God, the other a perfect life. But here it is sanctification by the truth, by the Word of God filling and controlling the heart and life.
Therefore how necessary it is that the Word of God should be our meat and drink. It is the vehicle for our sanctification. He says, as it were, to the Father, “Thy Word, which is truth, is power to sanctify My people.”
Then one other word: “I sanctify Myself.” Need I say that this does not have to do with anything in the personal character of our Lord? Nothing whatever. He was holy essentially; He needed no sanctification; but ah, He takes His place outside of the world to set Himself apart to God; He has entered into the glory, for what purpose? That we might be linked with Him outside of the world, to have our portion with Him.
Concluding Thoughts
Well, I have given you only an outline. May this prayer be repeated by the Holy Spirit in our supplications, our hearts rejoicing that He is in that place of glory and power, rejoicing too to think of our share in that with Him, and that we shall behold His glory. Meanwhile we are left here in the world, kept by the Father from the evil. May we realize our Lord’s purpose for us as sent into the world to be His witnesses and messengers, sanctified by His truth, and so growing in likeness to Him who gave when here the perfect expression of what such sanctification means for us. This will link us with Him in heaven, and give a heavenly tone to our lives. This will not make us neglectful of duty, nor forgetful of the trifles and amenities of life; rather will it make us more careful of others and truly self-forgetful.
It is said of one of the old monks who was walking along the great mountain rim that surrounds the Gulf of Naples and makes it such a lovely, entrancing scene, that he took no notice of this great natural beauty because he was so engaged with the Lord. That may appear wonderfully heavenly; but I believe, beloved, if we were engaged with the Lord we would see that beauty and glory of His creation, and we would see Him in it.
I remember when I was in Naples, passing through deep, deep exercise, and I was talking to some friends from this country. As we looked out on that same lovely scene, presented by the Gulf of Naples, I quoted the lines:
“All around, in noonday splendor.
Earthly scenes lay fair and bright,
But mine eye no longer sees them
For the glory of that light.”
(Frances Bevan)
I thought at the time that this was quite a lofty thought, but I don’t think so now. I want to look at the glory there; I want to see “in noonday splendor those scenes so fair and bright” and to see the hand of my blessed Lord who made it all, to see My Father as the Owner of it all, and to realize that I am the joint-heir with Christ. Thus I wish to look out upon His fair creation and say: “These are Thy works, Thou Creator of all good.” And I am sure, dear brethren, that at some time you have stood and looked on some fair earthly scene, and seen its radiant splendor like the very day of heaven begun on earth, and then hasn’t an involuntary sigh risen from your heart? What was that sigh? “He is not here!” It is that alone, beloved, which makes us pilgrims: Christ is not here!
So let us pray to be faithful, loyal, diligent in every true path of duty, but in it all to be kept from the evil of the world, to be sanctified by His truth and to have our hearts linked with Him, and we will be waiting to go home to glory with Him. (From “None of Self … Christ Is All, a Memorial of S. Ridout,” in Help and Food, Vol. 48.)