John 17:4 Commentary and Bible Study

‘I have glorified thee on the earth’, he says, by his teaching, by his example of the compassion of God in the great healing ministries, by his teaching of the twelve to prepare for the new church, but most of all by his atoning work on Calvary’s cross. He speaks as a priest. ‘I have finished the work which though gavest me to do’, representing God to man, and in due course, representing man to God. There will be a union which cannot be broken.But then my last heading, he prays as a king. Christ was a king. In preparation for the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he sent disciples to collect the animals, the colt on which he would ride into the city. And they were to say to the people who owned those things, ‘Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.’ He said it himself when Pilate said to him – ‘Art thou a king then?’ He said, ‘Thou sayest it’, or as we would say today, it is as you say. He was the prophesised King – Prophet, Priest and King.So he prays here in voluntary humiliation as a man, but we can only call John 17 an executive prayer. It is a petition; he says, ‘I pray’, ‘I pray’, but it is more than a petition; it is an executive prayer. As he says it, it will gladly be done by the Father because it is what they have agreed to do, and because Christ is about to purchase it and procure it by his own blood on Calvary’s cross. So it will be infallibly answered. The Father is delighted to respond.