John 17:2

John 17:2. Even as thou gayest him authority over all flesh, in order that all that which thou hast given him, he may give unto them life eternal. This verse is clearly connected with John 17:1. It unfolds the means by which the glorifying of the Father is to be accomplished; and the first clause corresponds to ‘glorify Thy Son,' the second to ‘that the Son may glorify Thee.' To the Son the Father gave authority over all flesh, that the Son on His part might give to them eternal life. The words ‘all flesh' (the Old Testament expression for all men) here used are remarkable. No words could more powerfully bring out that universality which is so characteristic of this Gospel and this prayer; while, at the same time, they set before us the picture of all humanity, Gentile as well as Jewish, in its weakness and sinfulness, in its want of the power of the Spirit, in its separation from that spiritual and eternal life in which alone it accomplishes its destiny and attains to the completion of its joy. Over all men the Son received authority that if they would only listen to Him they might be saved: thus the Father glorifies the Son. By the execution of this mission, again, and by the giving of life eternal to all believers, the Son glorifies the Father. The commission, in short, was glory to the Son: the execution was glory to the Father; and the prayer is, that the loving purpose of the Father may be accomplished in the visible glory properly belonging to it. The peculiar structure of this verse, by which Jesus first presents those spoken of as a connected whole, and then proceeds to refer to them in their more individual aspect, has already been spoken of (see on chap, John 6:37); and in the commentary on the same passage we have also seen that under the words ‘all fiat which Thou hast given Him,' we are not to think of any absolute, predestinating decree laving no regard to the moral and spiritual character of those thus ‘given.' Their moral and spiritual state is rather the prominent thought; they are believers; they possess eternal life. It is true that this is to be traced to the ‘drawing' of the Father. From Him alone comes every perfect gift; they are in themselves only weak and sinful flesh; but, at the stage at which we view them here, the working of prevenient grace is long since past; the Father has called them, and they have answered the call: then they are viewed as ‘given.'