Give Us Eternal Life

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Give Us Eternal Life

It’s like driving through fog. There isn’t much fog here in our area of MN. There’s too much wind. But when I used to live in PA there was fog. And one of the more frustrating and even fearful tasks was to drive down the road. What was around the bend? What was over the hill? God’s word this morning shares with us that sort of thought. We live our lives and then we die. And no one who has died has come back to tell us what is on the other side. We become afraid. We wonder if there’s life at all on the other side. Do we just die and cease to exist? Or, if there is life on the other side, is it good or bad? And so, right here, right now, living this life is like driving through the fog. What we yearn for and what we crave is eternal life. In these words in John 17, that is what Jesus prays that we would have. In John 17, we read: “¹ After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:1–5 NIV11-GKE)

Jesus here is praying a long, beautiful prayer for his disciples. And he starts out by praying that they would have eternal life. And right after he begins, he answers some questions for us. First, he answers the question, What is eternal life? Eternal life is knowing God, the Father. This is one of these amazingly simple statements like we find all throughout John’s gospel that seems simple…at least until you think about it. How do we define eternal life? I don’t know about you, but if I were put on the spot and made to answer that question, what is eternal life, I might say that eternal life is having all the good stuff here in this life and not having it go away. It’s like having beer and pizza that doesn’t make you overweight. It’s like being strong and healthy and never growing old. And, if I thought about it a little, I could find parts of the bible that would support my claim. But that’s not the heart and core of eternal life. Eternal life is knowing the Father. Eternal life is not just seeing your brand new, strong and perfect, body in heaven. Even more and better than that, eternal life is knowing, seeing, and being with the Father in heaven.

Here is where we see our own sin. And it’s a sin of omission. We should yearn for and look forward to seeing our Father face to face in heaven. Instead, we yearn to see our new bodies. Instead, we yearn for baseball or football season to start. We fail. We fail to lift our eyes as high as Jesus does. And for that failure we need forgiveness so that we can have this eternal life. And in the words that follow, we see what that forgiveness looks like: “⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:6–11 NIV11-GKE)

Along with Jesus, we pray that we would have eternal life. If we ask the question, what is eternal life, we heard the answer. It is knowing the Father. But here in these words we find a different question. We find the question, how. How do we get this eternal life? And the answer to that question is found in a very strange and shocking statement that Jesus makes here. Jesus tells us that these disciples of Jesus have kept his Father’s word. Now think this through for just a moment. Is it true that these twelve have kept his word? Remember when these words were spoken. Jesus speaks these words on Holy Thursday night—the night Jesus was betrayed. Earlier on in that day the disciples got into an argument about which of them was the greatest. No one can say that these disciples kept his word. And yet he does.

And my dear friends, if you are troubled by these words—if you are uneasy about the fact that Jesus seems to be saying words that are not true, realize that the problem is not with Jesus. The problem is with you. For inside of everyone of us is this person that feels the need to correct Jesus. And in these words it shows itself in two ways. First, we tell Jesus that it’s not true. None of these disciples kept his word. And second, if it is true, that’s not something we should ever say. Because if Jesus tells them that they have kept his word, then they will have no incentive and desire to keep God’s word in the future.

But, my friends in Christ, it is our voice inside of us that needs to be corrected. Let’s take up the issue of whether Jesus is lying here in these words. How can Jesus say that these disciples have kept his word? The reason he can say this is because Jesus is the one who kept his Father’s word. Jesus is the one who obeyed his Father’s commands perfectly. Jesus is the one who never doubted. Jesus is the one who never desired the people and things he should not have. And all this Jesus did in our place because we could not. Jesus kept his Father’s word because we could not. And it’s not just true that Jesus kept his Father’s word in our place. It’s also true that it has to be that way. The only way you get eternal life is through Jesus living a perfect life in your place. And in Jesus that’s what you have—eternal life.

But let’s take up the other issue. Jesus says that they have kept his word. If it is true, then this is not anything we should say. Because if we say it, people will abuse it. My dear friends in Christ, here is where we learn the powerful truth that there is a difference between use and abuse. We see and reject the abuse of these words. Is it true that there will be people that come along and conclude that if Jesus tells people that they have kept his word because he kept the word in their place, then they will abuse these words? Yes. But we do not let the abuse destroy the proper use. And my dear friends in Christ, you could say that about every part of the bible. For there are so many parts of the bible in which Jesus makes shocking statements that people can abuse. Last week in 1 Peter we learned that Jesus died for all sin.¹ There is that voice inside of us that says that we should not say this because if we say that all sin is forgiven, it will just encourage people to live ungodly lives. A couple of verses later, Peter told us that baptism saves.² And we might get frustrated and squeamish because there are examples of people who have their child baptized and then never bring them to church after that. But my dear friends, we do not let the abuse of God’s gifts destroy the proper us.

And that’s why these words are so meaningful and wonderful for us to read. For we, just like these twelve disciples have not kept his word. And our Father says about us, “these people here in Gibbon have kept my word.” And the reason he can say them is because his Son has kept these words in our place. The reason our Father can say this is that when his Son prayed that he would keep us by his name, he put that same name on us in our baptisms. And where this finally leads us to in eternal life.

And so, my dear friends in Christ, pray for eternal life. And know that in Christ you have eternal life. Eternal life is knowing the Father. And since you know Jesus, you know the Father. And eternal life comes to us through Jesus. He is the one who kept his Father’s word for us.