John 17:3

John 17:3. And this is the eternal life, that they may learn to know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, Jesus, as Christ. The article is used before ‘eternal life' in order to carry our thoughts back to the ‘life eternal' of John 17:2; and the conception involved in these words is now dwelt upon in meditation which finds utterance because of the disciples who heard (comp. chap. John 11:42). Therefore when Jesus, with His mind full of the thought of the glorification of the Father and the Son, speaks of the eternal life bestowed upon His people, He turns to the manner in which, through the reception of that life, such a glorification shall be effected by them. Two points must be kept in view while we endeavour to understand the words: (1) The force of ‘that;' this word sets before us the ‘knowing' as a goal towards which we are to strain our efforts. (2) That the word ‘know' does not mean to know fully or to recognise, but to learn to know: it expresses not perfect, but inceptive and ever - growing knowledge. Those, then, who receive ‘eternal life' enter into a condition in which they learn to know the Father and the Son as They really are, learn to know Them in Their love and saving mercy, and are thus enabled to ‘glorify' Them. The knowledge of the Father and the Son is neither the condition of the ‘life,' nor the same thing as the ‘life.' It is rather that far-off goal which is constantly before us, and to which we come ever nearer, in proportion as we enter more deeply into the life which Christ bestows. The ‘life,' on the other hand, is that state in which we are introduced to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, the state in which we learn to know Them with constantly-increasing clearness and fulness, and finally the state in which, when life is perfected in us, we come to know Them as They are, to ‘see' Them, and to ‘be like' Them (comp. 1 John 3:2). Strictly speaking, the knowledge is thus dependent on the life, rather than the life on the knowledge. But, in truth, the interdependence is mutual; neither can exist without the other; there is no life which does not lead to knowledge; there is no knowledge without life. The ‘eternal life' is thus also a present thing, stretching indeed into the endless future, but begun now.

The constituents of the knowledge are also given. They are first to be viewed as two; and each has a distinguishing attributive connected with it. The first is God: He is the ‘only true God.' We cannot exclude from these words the thought of a contrast to heathen divinities; for, as we have already seen on John 17:2, the Gentiles are here present to the mind of Him who prays for all that are to believe in Him. But, if so, we must recognise in them an allusion to the cardinal formula of Judaism, ‘The Lord our God is one Lord' (Deuteronomy 6:4); and the force of such an allusion in its present use we shall see immediately. In addition to this, however, the word ‘true' has also its meaning real. This God whom we are to know is the foundation of all real being, the God in whom all things are that are, and thus as ‘true' the ‘only' God. The second constituent of the knowledge is Jesus: He is Christ, God's anointed One, the Messiah. In a chapter where so much importance is attached to the word ‘name,' we are justified in thinking that the name ‘Jesus' is here regarded in its proper meaning of ‘Saviour:' it expresses what the word ‘Me would not express with anything like similar fulness. These two constituents of the knowledge spoken of are next to be viewed as one; for the fact that the words.' ‘Him whom Thou didst send' precede the name ‘Jesus,' as well as the whole teaching of this Gospel, suggests not the thought of God and Christ but of God in Christ, of God declaring Himself in Him whom He ‘sent.' Herein, therefore, lies the truth, that the one God whom Israel so vainly boasted that it knew could only be ‘known' in connection with, and by means of the knowledge of, Jesus. Hence, also, we need not wonder that Jesus here names Himself in the third Person instead of the first. He is giving expression in its most purely objective form to the sum of saving knowledge. To effect this the second clause mentioning this knowledge has to be combined with the first: it must, therefore, be presented not less objectively; and thus, seeing this knowledge as it were without Himself, our Lord speaks not of ‘Me' but of ‘Jesus.' Had such a use been unsuitable to prayer , it would be as difficult to account for it from the pen of the Evangelist (on the supposition that the words are remoulded by him) as from the lips of Jesus. [1]

[1] The words of this verse are so important that it may be well to explain more fully in a note that in the clauses attached to ‘learn to know' there is probably a fusion of two thoughts:

learn to know that Thou art the only true God.

Thee as the only true God. learn to know that Jesus whom Thou sentest is Christ.

Jesus whome Thou sentest as Christ.