17:2
Jesus has been given authority over all people. Now consider this for a moment. Any view of Jesus that has Him as merely a man makes no sense at all in the light of this verse. No one man would be given authority over all people, unless that man was also God. Note also that it infers that the resurrection was real. If Jesus had died never to rise again then His having authority over all people would be meaningless drivel.
And why has He been given this authority? So that He can give eternal life to those that the Father has given Him. See the centrality of God’s decree in this. Our actions, attitudes and decisions matter, but the starting point of everything is God.
Now when you look at your life and you consider all the things that seem to be working against you, including your own sin and weaknesses, we should look to Jesus. He has been given all authority, and He is using that authority to give us eternal life. Hallelujah!
17:3
Jesus has just said He was granted authority to give eternal life. Now He says that eternal life is knowing God. So Jesus came to enable us to know God. This is not just knowing about God, but actually knowing Him. I was going to say knowing Him as a person, but that should be knowing Him as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact Jesus says right here that eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. What we need in all circumstances is to know the Lord. In Matt 11:28 Jesus urges all who are heavy laden to come to Him.
Now when Jesus here refers to the Father as the “only true God”, and then speaks about Himself, this should not be inferred as saying Jesus is not God. Rather it stresses the distinction between them. We have just seen that in verse 2 the divinity of Jesus is inferred, and so it is again here. If Jesus was a mere man, then how could knowing Him give us eternal life? In fact His words put Him on a par with the Father.
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