◄ What Does John 17:5 Mean? ►

Although Christ was fully God the Son, He lived His whole life in full submission to the indwelling Holy Spirit of God and in total dependence on God the Father, only doing those things which He heard from above. And having completed His work on earth, in spirit and truth, the Lord Jesus set His face as a flint towards His ultimate victory over sin, death, and the satanic forces of evil in heavenly places: the Cross of Calvary.

Christ had set aside the co-equal and co-eternal glory He had with the Father when He humbled Himself and took upon Himself the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of sinful man. Christ became the visible image of the invisible God, through time and into eternity, so that by believing on Him, fallen man might be redeemed from slavery to sin, the curse of the Law, and eternal separation from their holy Creator-God.

And having glorified the Father during His sojourn on earth in thought, word, and deed, and by completing the work He had been given to do, the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would now glorify Himself once again with the unchanging, co-equal, and co-eternal glory of the triune Godhead.

In this astonishing prayer, we get a faint glimpse into the eternal heart of God, as the perfect Son of Man humbly prayed that the Father would once again restore Him to His former place of glory and honour: the resplendent might, majesty, dominion, and power He once enjoyed before the world existed.

Christ, the eternal Son of God, set aside His pre-incarnate glory and was born into a race of sinners, to live and to serve, to suffer and to die so that fallen man might be given eternal life by believing on His name: "God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

It is on the basis of Christ's finished work on the Cross that mankind has been redeemed so that all who believe on His name are forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified IN Christ our federal Head, and made one with Him. Surely He alone is worthy of all honour, and glory, and praise, and power, and might, majesty, dominion, and thanks, for ever and ever, AMEN.

Heavenly Father, how I praise and thank You for giving Your Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Thank You that Jesus was willing to give up His honour and glory to be born into a race of sinners so that all who trust in Him might not be condemned but live with Him in everlasting glory. He alone is worthy of our grateful thanks for to Him belongs all honour, glory, praise and power, might, majesty, dominion, and thanks. Forever and ever, AMEN.