I wonder what it was that you looked forward to the most in the past few years? It might have been an examination result, or a new baby in the family, or a special anniversary or holiday. Different things are special to different people. Today we will be surprised to find out what it was that Jesus Christ looked forward to very much, and we will discover how important it was for you and me.
Jesus had just finished talking to His disciples when He began to pray. His prayer was of course to God in Heaven. That Holy God who had looked down from Heaven and had seen “there is no-one who does good, not even one”! But in His great Love for sinful and condemned mankind He had planned a way for it to be possible for you and me to be saved from the destruction we deserved.
God’s wonderful plan involved sending His Perfect Son into the world.
The disciples listened carefully as Jesus continued His prayer:
"Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him." (verse 1-2.)
The Son of God had come on earth to have the right to give eternal life to those who would come to trust in Him as their Saviour and Lord. But a vital part of the Father’s plan had yet to take place. Jesus certainly wanted it to go ahead. “The time has come. Glorify Your Son,” He said.
Do you realize what it was that Jesus was agreeing to?
God was about to make “Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus knew exactly what this would mean. About seven hundred years earlier the prophet Isaiah had already described what was about to happen! “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all....It was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.” (Isaiah 53:6-11.)
How could allowing Jesus to suffer a horrible death ever bring glory to the Son, or to the Father who planned it?
Never would greater love be known and shown for undeserving creatures! Here the Great Creator was willingly laying down His own life, in order to provide a way of forgiveness for sinners like you and me! There could never be Love like this! “God demonstrated His own Love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus went on to say in His prayer; “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (verse 3.)
Now that you know what Jesus did for you, has that made you want to KNOW HIM as your own pensonal Priest and Saviour? Do you love and trust Him and depend on the power of His Spirit to live to please Him? Know and trust Him NOW!
You will find this prayer of Jesus in John’s gospel chapter 17, verses 1-5.
John Nixon, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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