John 17:26

26. Declared thy name Unfolding the mystery of grace and glory embraced in the name of the Father.

And will declare it Unfolding its still more gracious grace, and its still more glorious glory, to them, to the Church of all ages, and to their whole glorious assembly in eternity.

Love wherewith thou hast loved me Which, as said in John 17:24, was a love before the foundation of the world.

May be in them Love from God resting upon them, and to God dwelling in them. They thus, by faith, come into a participation of God’s eternal love to his Son. They come into the everlasting beams of the eternal Sun. They enter into the embrace of God’s eternal purpose to glorify all who believe in Jesus. They fasten themselves to the golden chain of God’s election to eternal life of all who know him through his Son.

And I in them As the life-spring of their immortal existence, the well-spring of their eternal love, the day-spring of their eternal glory. For eternal life, love, and glory, embodied in Christ dwelling in them, are the full consummation of all that the sufferings and intercession of Christ himself can bring to his chosen. And in this consummation does this intercession most fitly end.

Thus close the valedictory utterances of Jesus to his disciples, extending through the last four chapters of this Gospel. They are, first, the colloquy and events during the supper, (chap. 13;) second, the Lord’s after-supper discourse, slightly interrupted by questions, (chap. 14;) third, his parting address of prediction, warning, and consolation, (chap. 15, and 16;) fourth, and last, this High Priestly prayer, (chap. 17.) It is pervaded with pathos, which runs as an undertone even through the triumphant passages both of the valedictory and the prayer. The pathos and the sorrow are soon to deepen into the immediate agonies of Gethsemane and the crucifixion; the triumphal tone is sustained by a prophetic recognition of the victory in the more distant future.