Everlasting Life

This is everlasting life

John 17:3-11 Everlasting Life

JOHN 17:3 3 “And this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the only true God, και Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

What is meant by “everlasting life” (John 17:3)?
“Everlasting life” involves but does not equal everlasting existence, which takes place also in hell. “Everlasting life” in the Bible refers to life that begins at salvation and lasts forever in heaven with God.

Is everlasting life the same as eternal life?
Everlasting life has a beginning but no end, while eternal life has no beginning and no end. Only God has eternal life. Christians have everlasting life, which lasts for the rest of eternity.

What leads to everlasting life?
“Know ... the only true God” (John 17:3). Jesus isn’t praying for people to know ‘about’ God, but to “know” God in a personal relationship with Him.

What is meant by “και Jesus Christ whom you have sent”?
The most common word in the Greek New Testament is the article translated “the.” The second most common word in the Greek New Testament is kai, which is a conjunction that is usually a marker to join (“and”), but depending on the context, can be a marker to join and continue (“and then”), a marker to join and add something else (“also”), a marker to emphasize or elaborate (“even,” “namely”), etc. “Namely” is the sense in which kai is being used in John 17:3, which is the only place in the four gospels that quotes anyone saying “Jesus Christ,” let alone by Jesus Himself, who never called Himself even “Jesus” before or after this occasion.

So why is Jesus suddenly calling Himself “Jesus Christ”?
He is naming the name by which people “may know” God the Father and have “everlasting life” (John 17:3). And after this gospel, the rest of the New Testament quotes His disciples saying or writing “Jesus Christ” no fewer than 172 times, including 6 times as “the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38, 3:6, 4:10, 8:12, 16:18, 1 Corinthians 1:2), and 6 times as “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:26, 1 Corinthians 1:10, 5:4, Ephesians 5:20, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 3:6).

If God the Father is “the only true God,” does that mean Jesus isn’t?
Of course He is the true God, and the context makes this clear. Only God can give everlasting life and tell God the Father to glorify Him as Jesus does in the two verses that immediately precede and the two verses that immediately follow (see below) John 17:3. Moreover, John who wrote this gospel also wrote the book of 1 John, in which he declared that Jesus Christ “is the true God” (1 John 5:20). “The only true God” in John 17:3 excludes the ‘gods’ of all other religions.

JOHN 17:4-5 4 “I have glorified You on the earth. I have accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

How has Jesus "glorified ... on the earth" (John 17:4) God the Father?
He has "accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4).

Is that the "glory" Jesus is praying about in John 17:5?
No, that glory is what He has always had with God the Father in heaven even before creating the universe: "glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5).

Why does Jesus say He “had” that glory?
Coming in the flesh to mankind entailed Jesus to set aside that glory, which He is about to retake upon ascension to heaven (see "Glorified" meaning).

JOHN 17:6-11 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

Is Jesus praying for everyone in the world in this passage?
No: "I do not pray for the world" (John 17:9).

Who is Jesus praying for?
In the previous passage, He prayed primarily for Himself and the Father. In this passage, He is praying for His eleven apostles.

Who had chosen Jesus' apostles: Jesus or God the Father?
Before choosing His apostles, Jesus prayed to the Father, and then picked out the ones whom the Father "gave" (John 17:6) Him: "Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles" (Luke 6:12-13).

Did Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross pay for the sins of all human beings?
If so, unrepentant sinners who don't believe in Jesus would go to heaven as well, which isn’t true: "Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:40-42). Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid the death penalty due for all sins - past, present and future - of only those who believe He paid that penalty for them.

What does Jesus say the apostles believed about Him?
"They... have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me" (John 17:8).

Does Jesus say that they believe He is the Messiah who would die for their sins and be resurrected?
No, they will understand that only after His resurrection. At this point, they understand Him to be someone who doesn’t fit their notion of a militaristic Messiah, but a Messiah from God the Father nonetheless.