Jesus Prays For Himself (J64)

“Father, my time of passion has arrived;
Glorify me, that you may be glorified,
For pow’r o’er people you have given me,
That those you have given, I have set free!
Freedom is that they know you, the true God,
And me, who you sent this land to trod;
I have glorified the Lord that is true,
By doing the work he sent me to do!
Now, Father, give me the glory again,
I had with you before the world began!"

Commentary on: John 17:1-5 (NIV)
Jesus and the eleven apostles have arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, a grove of olive trees. Eight of them stop near the entrance. Peter, James, and John walked on a short way, and they stop, while Jesus goes further. He spends the brief remaining time of freedom in prayer to the Father. He begins with a prayer for Himself. The poem above is a very close paraphrase of His supplication to the Father.

By the sacrifice He is prepared to make on the morrow, He is giving His sinless life as a man to die on the cross as atonement for all the sins of all humanity. From God’s viewpoint, this is the greatest event in the history of man. God had decreed that “the wages of sin is death!” (see Romans 6:23). The first man, Adam, sinned, and every man and woman who lived has sinned, thus by God’s law all men are condemned to death. The soul, which is the essence of life within every person, will never die; therefore God defines death as being cast into the lake of fire forever, to live in the same torment as will Satan and the fallen angels (see Revelation 20:14-15). But God loved the man He had created so much, that He planned from before the beginning of the world to send His Son to live as a sinless man on earth and maneuver things so that the very people He had chosen, the Jews, would kill Him as they would an innocent lamb to pay the sin-debt of all men and women who believes in His Son; thereby saving some of mankind.
To die in this way and on this Passover day was the mission on which the Father had sent Jesus. He had manipulated the Pharisees and chief priests exactly right, so that He was prepared to be arrested by the guards at any moment. Dying for the sins of men was glory to the Son and to His Father, especially since He and His Father are one, God Himself. So Jesus asked the Father to restore the glory to Him that He had had with God before the world began. He had given up His glory as God to enter the world as the baby of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. How hypocritical is a world that celebrates Christmas and not give glory and praise to the babe that became a man who would die for their sins; and more, would give up His perogatives as God to do it!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)