We are looking at John 17:1-5, and it’s a doozy! Jesus wants to glorify the Father by giving eternal life to all the people the Father has given him. This shows us Jesus and the Father were, in fact, in on the specifics of the plan this whole time. Put simply, Jesus wants us to have eternal life and is willing to do what it takes to make it happen. He foreknew you, me, and our spiritual siblings and bought us all eternal life!
What Jesus accomplished on the cross defeated evil, giving us a way to actually measure God’s infinite love for us. Case in point, the Apostle Paul was forgiven much for his evil acts as Saul. God chose to forcefully offer salvation to him and forgive his atrocious sins. Paul, therefore, is uniquely aware of the mountain of evils that have been removed from his account, paid for by better blood than his. Paul subsequently suffered much following Christ, but he had been forgiven much more.
Ultimately, when forgiveness is genuinely received, it produces true humility, and then joy abounds. Life gets really interesting then! Knowing God has forgiven our past sins, we are afforded so much confidence that he will forgive our future failures. We can rest in that comfort no matter what life has in store.
Jonathan Duncan
EFCC Member