Authority Over All

Lesson #273

Jesus knows that his hour has come. In John 2:4, Jesus told his mother: “My hour has not yet come.” By these two statements Jesus knew why he was sent to earth and he knew he was to become sin in our place and die in our place. He knew that the next few hours where going to be severe and we find him praying to his Father. There are so many brothers and sisters in countries of persecution that also face severe suffering and even death that are following the Lord and are willing to also pay a very high price to remain faithful to their assignment. We in the west need to learn about suffering because some day we may experience real pain without the availability of pain killers. I think of mothers who give birth without pain killers. They probably understand best what torture could be like.

Coming back to our text, Jesus begins his prayer by saying: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (John 17:1b - 2 ESV). We covered: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” in the previous lesson. The phrase: “since you have given him” is interesting because of the use of the third person in the use of “him”. Jesus is God-man and here as in verse 3, we see Jesus positioned between the two as he prayers. His prayer is so earnest and he feels so connected with his Father that he feels his God nature and referring to ‘him” he sees his human nature and in verse 3 refers to “him” as Jesus Christ.  

The Father has given him authority over all flesh. In Romans 14:11 (ESV): “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” In Philippians 2:9 – 11 (ESV) this is clearly seen: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” There will be a time when every living soul will respond to Jesus Christ. We see this in John 5:28 – 29 (ESV): “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

We now come to an expression that needs more space than we have left in this lesson. Therefore, we will devote the next lesson to the statement: “to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

Prayer

Father, it is so difficult, maybe impossible, for many to accept the fact that the Son of God actually dwelt in a body of human flesh and that through him the universe was created and that he has authority over everything. How clear this became when he spoke to the wind and to the sea and they obeyed him and became calm. In this lesson he speaks to his Father from a body of human flesh that is about to be sacrificed to purchase our salvation. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, belief in this is impossible. Father, thank you for placing me under the authority of Jesus Christ as a believer.