I Will That They Be With Me

In our verses today we are presented with a clear statement of Christ’s will for His people. ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.’ Some argue that man’s ‘freewill’ should determine who goes to heaven. For our part we are content to accept that the will of Christ the God-man has primacy in such matters. Sovereign divine will has pre-eminence over fallen human will and we believe the Saviour’s good pleasure will not be denied.

Christ’s covenant success

The Lord Jesus emphasises the covenant nature of His work. He is speaking of the people given to Him by His Father and committed into His care and protection in the eternal council of peace, ‘before the foundation of the world’. In the covenant of grace the Lord Jesus accepted responsibility to secure the salvation of the Father’s chosen people by fulfilling every requirement for their deliverance. Now, upon completion of His work, the God-man asserts His right under the terms of the covenant and claims the reward of His labour.

A word of hope and joy

How uplifting Christ’s words are to believers. How comforting for you and me who trust in Him according to the preached ministry of the apostolic gospel. How reassuring ‘for them also which shall believe on me through their word’. Christ has won our salvation with His blood. He wills our glorification with all His heart. His Father being righteous, must in justice and shall with gladness, comply with Christ’s demand. It is made upon the ground of divine satisfaction and the fulfilment of God’s holy pleasure. 

The great divide

Here the Saviour again distinguishes between ‘the world’ and those who are not of the world. This is a real distinction. Faith is the knowledge of divine revelation, Paul calls it ‘sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth’. It separates between those who are Christ’s and those who are not. The incarnate Word who from the beginning was with God, and was God, has revealed God to us. He has revealed His Father’s nature, glory and will. Especially, He has revealed His grace and mercy in the gospel to save a people for Himself.

Christ Alone

Only in and through Jesus Christ is there any true knowledge of God’s salvation. Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life. He told Thomas, ‘no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’. The Lord Jesus revealed His Father to His disciples during His ministry. He continued to declare Him after His death and resurrection when the Holy Spirit came to ‘teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’. 

God’s love in us

The Saviour continues to declare the Father in the heart, soul and mind of His people by the Apostolic gospel and His quickening Spirit. He reconciles God’s enemies to Him. He restores fellowship and mediates God’s grace and love to His people. He intercedes for us with God. The great end of His coming into the world is that ‘the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them’. This is Christ’s will. 

Particular love

We are reminded that the self-same love the Father has for the Son is bestowed upon His people. All God’s chosen people are partakers of the love of God. Under the terms of the everlasting covenant divine love, as divine grace and mercy, is applied particularly to those who are in Christ. Here, in Christ’s own words, God’s love is expressly limited to those in whom Christ dwells. We experience the love of God by believing in His Son and trusting Him for salvation.

Christ’s will for us

In our service tomorrow we shall look at these four great privileges Christ wills for us here in these final verses of His High-priestly prayer. First, our eternal destiny, the endless presence and company of Jesus our Saviour. Second, that we see His glory and share in it with Him. Third, that we do in this life, and evermore, experience personally the perfect love of God, our Father. Fourth, that Christ Himself dwell in us to work in us mightily.

A precious conclusion

It is our happiness in this our lifetime to have ‘so learned Christ’. To know Him to be our victorious Saviour and to have been brought to trust in both the success of His work and the supremacy of His will. Our knowledge of Christ and the great gospel doctrine of grace is enlarged and enhanced by this wonderful prayer. Our Lord shows how He intercedes for us, even yet, with His Father. May we treasure John 17 always and return to it often to relish its depth and rejoice in its truth.

Amen.