SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2017
9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Right He Possesses
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:2
Message of the
verse: “2 even as You gave Him
authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.”
I want to remind you, and me to of what we are looking at
as we begin this first main point which looks at John 17:2. “In these opening expressions, Jesus referenced four facets of the
saving purpose of God, each of which centered on His glory-producing work of
redemption at the cross—the right He possesses.” This quote comes from John MacArthur’s
commentary and from our last SD which I believe will help us focus in on what
this SD will be about, “the saving purpose of God.”
As we look at this verse we see that Jesus is keeping
with God’s eternal plan of salvation as we see that He (the Son) was given
authority over all flesh which speaks of mankind, and that He can grant eternal
life to all those to whom the Father has given to Him. This plan goes back to eternity past and this
is what Jesus is praying about will be done.
Even though Jesus knew this plan from eternity past, and knew that He
would be the One to come to earth to die for our sins, He still brings this up
to the Father hours before this will happen.
Think about that for a moment realizing that the Son of God is praying
about something that He knows will happen, for one thing, and that the Son of
God is praying, which should give us the desire to pray too as we follow the
example of Jesus here. This also reminds
me of Daniel chapter nine where Daniel was reading from the book of Jeremiah
that God promised to bring Israel back from captivity seventy years after they
went first went there in 605 B. C.
Daniel knew this would happen, and yet he desired to pray about it and
because of his desire to pray God gave him an answer that is still being
fulfilled today. Prayer is powerful!
What was it that gave Jesus the authority that fulfills
this promise from eternity past regarding having His Father give eternal life
to those whom He gave to Him? The answer
is the cross as the cross would make this possible. As we read about the trial of Jesus we see
that those wicked men were allowed to put Jesus on the cross, and yet this was
the plan of God to allow this to happen showing it really was He who had the
authority to do this. Remember when we
were studying the book of Mark and we learned that the Pharisees did not really
want Jesus to die on Passover because they thought that the people would rebel,
and yet because it was the plan of God to have His Son die at the exact time
the Passover lambs would die that that is how it happened.
John MacArthur writes “In dying for the sins of those who
would believe in Him, He was given the right to grant eternal life to them.”
“Jesus, the Son of Man who
is about to be glorified and thus will fulfill His earthly mission, here
anticipates His exalted, authoritative position subsequent to His crucifixion
and resurrection. This authority enables
Him to bestow eternal life on all those whom God has given to Him (cf.
6:39). God granting of authority to
Jesus (cf. 1:12; 5:27) marks the inbreaking of a new era (cf. Isa. 9:6-7; Dan.
7:13-14). All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to Jesus (Matt. 28:18), including the authority to judge
(John. 5:27). (Andreas Kostenberger),”
(From John MacArthur’s commentary.)
Jesus authority is given over all creation, however what
we are talking about here is His authority that applies to redemption, those
that the Father has given to Him for redemption which He chose in eternity past. MacArthur adds “That Jesus Christ is the
source of eternal life is a central theme of John’s gospel (cf. 3:15-16, 36;
4:14; 5:21, 24, 40; 6:27, 33, 35, 40, 47, 48, 51, 54, 68; 10:10, 28; 11:25;
14:6).”
While Jesus was on earth He was doing things that His
Father chose for Him to do and had authority to do them, things like His
teaching, as it was characterized by diving authority, same as His healings,
and the casting out of demons, going against Jewish tradition, to forgive sins
and to receive worship for others, and also He was given authority to judge the
world “26 “Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power
and glory. 27 "And then He will
send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds,
from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven (Mark
13:26-27).” The Jewish leaders clashed
with Jesus because they were angered by His authority as they certainly did not
understand or agree with it and so they ultimately plotted to kill Him.
Now I realize that it is hard for us to understand that
in the plan of God it was for Jesus to die, even though in John 10:17-18 we
read “17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life
so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own
initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up
again. This commandment I received from My Father."” Yet we read of the account of Peter in Acts 2:23
“this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,
you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” It was the plan of God for this to happen,
and yet those who did this were responsible for doing it, and I think the
reason was that is exactly what they wanted to do.
John MacArthur writes “At the time of His crucifixion approached,
Jesus did not relinquish the authority His Father had given to Him. Rather, He
anticipated the full authority He would have as a result of the cross. Following His resurrection, He knew that He
would ascend to heaven where His Father would seat ‘Him at His right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to
come. And He [would give] Him as head over
all things to the church’ (Eph. 1:20-22).”
Jesus alone has the authority to grant eternal life,
which comes through His death on the cross and this also underscored the exclusively
of the gospel message. Some want to say
they can obtain eternal life without having anything to do with Jesus, but no
one can as Jesus stated in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” We also read in John 3:35-36 as we close this
portion of this SD, “35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into
His hand. 36 “He who
believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him."” (Sobering
words!)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Seeing all the
things we are learning from this 17th chapter of John warms my
spiritual heart.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to remember that I need to
communicate with the Lord throughout the day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Cyrene” (Matthew 27:32).
Today’s Bible
question: “What name did Zacharias give
his son?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/21/2017 10:51 AM
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