This is Life Eternal- Knowing The Only True God and His Son
The Divine Readings – John 17:1-5
These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you: 2. As you have given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4. I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do. 5. And now, O Father, glorify you me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
Lectio Divina Prayer
Gracious Heavenly Father, before the world began, You, Father, with the Word your Son, and the Holy Spirit reigned in glory. You sent the Word in the wonderful working power of Your Spirit to create the heavens and the earth. You filled both the earthly and spiritual realm with beings, creatures, and all forms of life that reflect wonderfully your divine power and Godhead. Each day of your creation was ordered by the splendor of Your wisdom and might, so that by the perfection of their being, You would declare “it is good.” And then, You created the pinnacle of all Your creation, You created Man in Your very image and likeness, clothed in true righteousness and holiness. Adam and Eve walked and communed in the garden with You, being the perfection of Your will, and as You would in finality declare “it is very good!”
Father, how wonderful those first days of creation truly were, even Lucifer, the anointed Cherub, perfect in beauty and wisdom, abiding in the estate for which he was created, was serving You Father, and mankind. But iniquity was found in him through his malevolent pride and he murdered Man by leading Adam to break Your commandment and suffer the deadly wound of sin. But You, Father, would not leave the Devil’s attack on mankind go unanswered! You immediately promised to send forth Your beloved Son, to crush the head of that old serpent, the Devil, and redeem mankind, and all of creation, back into perfect righteous and holy communion with You.
How wonderful are Jesus’s redemptive words, “Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you: As you have given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.” The deadly wound Lucifer deliver to Adam was returned back unto his own serpentine head, and Jesus became the author and perfecter of our salvation. As the Devil hung on the garden tree to deceive and bring sin and death, the second Adam hung on the tree to bring abundant and eternal life to all those who would believe on His name and accept His redemptive work through faith.
How wonderful, Holy Father, is the eternal life you give! The very heart and substance of that eternal life is that we “might know You,” the One who is “Life Eternal.” This life is more than just an eternal existence, it is in reality a full and glorious relationship of “knowing” You. It is abiding in You and You in us. And so, most gracious Father, we await from Heaven, the second coming of Your Son, Jesus Christ, to fully restore all of creation, and transform our lowly bodies like unto the glorious resurrected body of your beloved Son, and bring us fully into Your glorious Kingdom of the new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness, forever, and ever!
Amen! Maranatha!
