God’s Mighty Love

In John 17:25-26, Jesus speaks of a love that is deeply intimate and powerful, a love shared within the Trinity that reaches out to us. Imagine a child who feels lost in a crowd, yet the warm embrace of a parent brings them comfort and assurance. That's God’s love for us; it's a beacon in our darkest moments, a reminder that we are never alone. This profound connection, echoing the love between the Father and the Son, encompasses all of who are redeemed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt.

Read John 17:25-26

John 17:25–26 LSB

25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Bottom Line: Am I being a living stone, or am I dead-weight in God’s Church?

Jesus Reveals the Character of God.

When we refer to YHWH as righteous, it is to speak of whom He is. YHWH is himself holy righteousness; that is to say, he is all just, all good, the very standard for goodness and justice.

The hearer (or reader) is called to pay attention to the ways in which the Holy Spirit refers to the Father and the Son:

Acts 7:52 “52 “And which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;”

Acts 22:14 “14 “And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from His mouth.”

1 John 2:1 “1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”

Here, too, we see that by calling the Father, “Righteous,” Jesus too is being acclaimed and affirmed as the standard of righteousness. This prayer echoes the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 23:6, and Jeremiah 33:16.

When God declares a man righteous he instantly sets about to make him righteous.

A. W. Tozer

If we begin to wrestle with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ, then we have a hope for grasping the immense nature of His love.

The Son Displays the Glory of the Father.

You may know God, but not comprehend him.

Richard Baxter (Puritan Divine)

The Holy Spirit inspired John Mark to write in what is called “Aorist” tense for the verbs in the text. Here this actions have been done in the past, and speak of God’s holy knowledge, wisdom, and glory of the Triune God, focusing on God the Father.

The Bible makes the case that the plan of salvation has been set upon the person of God long before there was a flash of lighting and creation resulted from God’s speech.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are displayed as being in harmony and concert from one end of eternity to another. Part of the Son’s display of the Father is the events that come after this prayer—Jesus’ betrayal, passion, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension.

1 Corinthians 13 “1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; 5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The love of God comes into a full expression of its purity when we observe and appreciate it through the full obedience of Jesus Christ our LORD.

The Church is Known to Know the Father.

God is that, nothing greater than which can be conceived.

Anselm of Canterbury

Jesus prays as we see that this “knowledge” is not from a despotic approach to humanity, or from a metaphysical, or mystical knowledge as the goal or object of God’s intentions.

The full knowledge of God hinges on His perfect, unwavering love for His people. Even though those who were to expect Him rejected Him, the church is the result of God’s unfailing steadfast mercy and love.

This truth sets the disciples free to have confidence of God’s overwhelming victory and our rejoicing in his unchanging nature.

John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Revelation 15:3 “3 And they sang the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!”

1 John 1:9 “9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

God’s compassion flows out of his goodness and goodness without justice is not goodness. God spares us because he is good, but he could not be good if he were not just.

A. W. Tozer

Living on a Timeless Prayer.

God can listen to no prayers without the intercession of Christ.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

I. If we hear the Gospel, it is the grace of God giving us either hope or judgement.

II. If we are His children, we should love His bride out of sheer gratitude and common grace/benefit.

III. Because God’s love is expressed through service and sacrifice, the church grows by following her head.

Bottom Line: Am I being a living stone, or am I dead-weight in God’s Church?