as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that [as to] all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal.
Hours before the cross, Jesus speaks to His Father about authority. The first thing He says about it is why He holds it: to give life. The verse holds two circles at once: a rule that reaches every human being, and a gift that lands on a named company.
Jesus does not claim this power as His own. He speaks of it as handed to Him, and one writer ties that to the place He took as man.
Though God, He exercises no power in His own right. He is true to the place He was pleased to come into, and as man He receives authority from the Father. Yet that authority would be unthinkable — so wide in its sphere, so special in its object — if He were not God.
The verse moves from the widest possible circle to a narrower one. The two must stay distinct. (Where the ESV says "authority," the older wording in the quotes below says "power.")
"As You have given Him power over all flesh" (John 17:2) — here the Father gives the Son whom He loved a title over more than the chosen nation, and more than the elect in general: over "all flesh." Then comes the inner circle of blessing: "that He may give eternal life to as many as You have given Him." So we have concentric circles on the earth. There is the universal one of "all flesh," and the special one of all Christians — those who have eternal life in the Son through faith.
That outer circle also marks a change from what came before.
It was no longer authority given to Christ as the Messiah in connection with the Jews, but the far wider authority over all flesh — Jew and Gentile alike. And the blessing has in view not only a godly remnant from the Jews, but that far greater company that takes in all believers gathered from "all flesh" and given to the Son by the Father.
At the time, the claim looked absurd. One writer presses that objection, then answers it.
Power or authority over all flesh! Who would have supposed that, when the Jews were plotting against His life? Who, on the next day, would have guessed it — unless God taught them? They saw Him stretched out, seemingly helpless, on the cross, put to death by His creatures, His body then hidden in the dark tomb. How would He display the power? How has He displayed it, but in giving everlasting life to as many as the Father has given Him?
This authority is also a comfort. The flesh has real power in this world, but a greater power overrules it.
In this world we see the terrible power of the flesh energised by Satan. Yet this prayer comforts us. We know from it that the Lord has been given a power above every other power. So no power of evil, however great, can stop Christ from carrying out God's purposes: to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given to the Son.
Being "given" to the Son is not a bare transaction. One writer traces where the giving is meant to end up.
There are those whom the Father has given to the Son. It is the thought and settled purpose of the Father. They are given to the Son. The Father has committed them to His hands. His aim is to bring them into the glory, and to fit them for the presence, the nature and the glory of God... and that He may place them, according to God's infinite love, in a position which answers that love — the position of the Son, become Man for this very purpose. Marvellous grace, of which we are the objects!
If some are given to Him for life, the wider circle is still His — and that is not neutral.
Some are given to Him that He may give them eternal life; but He has power over all flesh — all is His. He has not redeemed all, but He has purchased all, the lost as well as the saved... His rights, because of the cross, reach to all, and all must bow the knee to Him. The redeemed own it in grace; those who reject grace must own it in judgment.
- Given — the Son does not seize authority; as man He receives it from the Father, and receives it for a purpose.
- Wide — the sphere is "all flesh," no longer one nation; every human being stands under His rule whether they own it or not.
- Narrow — inside that circle is a company the Father gave to the Son; they receive eternal life, a life that knows and enjoys God.
- Unstoppable — His power outranks every power of evil, so nothing can block the gift of life.
- Owned — every knee bows in the end: the redeemed in grace, those who reject grace in judgment.
And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.