Within the last sentence of His prayer in John 17, Jesus declares that He made recognized God’s identify to His disciples and “will proceed to make it recognized.” Then He explains why: “that the love with which you may have cherished me could also be in them, and I in them.” In his last sermon within the sequence The Excessive Priestly Prayer, Alistair Begg considers the place this love comes from and the way it’s expressed:
Keep in mind, in John 13, John tells us that Jesus, “having cherished his personal who had been [with him] on the planet, he cherished them to the tip.” Right here he’s, loving all of them the best way to the tip. And the like to which he refers right here within the twenty-sixth verse shouldn’t be our like to God. Discover: It’s God’s like to us. “That the love with which you may have cherished me,” he says to the Father, would possibly “be in them, and I in them.” That’s dramatic, and it’s vitally essential. I’m glad it doesn’t say that “their love for you” is likely to be the important thing. As a result of if we’re trustworthy, our love in the direction of God and in the direction of each other, really, ebbs and flows on every kind of bases. That isn’t the bottom of our safety. That isn’t the idea of our understanding of issues. If that was the case, we may by no means have sung, “I Am His, and He Is Mine”: “Cherished with eternal love.”
What love? The love that the Father had for the Son has been manifested in Jesus in order that we’d know that love—that God is love and that the best assurance of his love has been in sending Jesus. That’s why we learn, once more, Psalm 118. “The steadfast love of the Lord by no means ceases.” God’s love is such that he doesn’t hand over on us. Why has he stored us? As a result of he loves us! Why is he sanctifying us? As a result of he loves us! Why does he need us to be united? As a result of he loves us! Why would he need us to share his glory? As a result of he loves us! It’s so apparent. His love is unchangeable. His love is irreversible. “How deep the Father’s love for us”!
