John 17:1-5

Jesus' Dedication of Himself (John 17:1).

In opening His final discourse in John 13:31 Jesus had said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And God will glorify Him in Himself and will immediately glorify Him' (John 13:31). We note first that Jesus is to be glorified as ‘the Son of Man'. This ‘glorification of the Son of Man' is described in Daniel 7:13. ‘I saw in the night visions and behold there came with the clouds of Heaven (out of a period of suffering) One like to a Son of Man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him, and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingship, that all the peoples nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingship that which will not be destroyed.' Thus Jesus had very much in mind here His entering out of suffering into the presence of the Father to receive His eternal glory and kingship.

But His words in John 13:31 went even further than Daniel, for they included the thought of God ‘glorifying Him in Himself', something expanded on in this prayer where He prays that He will be glorified ‘in the Father's own self, with the glory which He had with Him before the world was' (John 17:5). Thus He was not only to receive the kingship on behalf of redeemed mankind (Acts 2:36) and in His glorified manhood take His place at the right hand of God, but He was also to be glorified with the Father's essential glory, and to take His place upon the Father's throne (see Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:6).