The glory of God is the final and sufficient explanation for everything. God in His glory is the beginning and end of all things. When God created the world, ‘the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ to the praise of His glory. When the Lord Jesus came into the world, the angels sang ‘glory to God in the highest’. When the redeemed of the Lord enter heaven they shall sing, ‘Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God’. ‘For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.’

In John chapter 17 we embark upon one of the most remarkable and profound passages in the whole of Scripture. Every believer reading this chapter must surely feel they are standing on holy ground for the majesty of the subjects involved and the blessedness of those things requested from God by our Lord Jesus Christ. As we enter into this chapter let us do so with excitement and humility, and let us note this fact; there never was a request made by the Son of God that was not abundantly granted by His loving Father.

It is a wonder of divine mercy that the holy Lord God has stooped to speak to sinful men. Twice in these verses the Lord Jesus tells His disciples, ‘These things have I spoken unto you’. God’s creatures should listen when their Maker speaks. We ignore Him at our peril. A day is coming when the Lord will say ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire’ and no one will resist. Until then Paul says, ‘to you is the word of this salvation sent’. May God give us ears to hear the Saviour when He says ‘these things have I spoken unto you’.