Now this is eternal life

 And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3

We are studying John in Bible study and this week’s lesson includes the verse above. Jesus prayed this verse before He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. God is using the verse to help prepare my heart for the Resurrection Celebration that is coming!

Only twenty words but enough to bring tears. As I read the verse, my heart and mind respond by saying, “this is why He came…that man [I] would know the Father and the Son [and the Holy Spirit].” Jesus desired that we would know the only True God and this is why “When the days drew near for Him [Jesus] to be taken up, He set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:61).”

Jesus knew what lie ahead for Him in Jerusalem – the rejection, mocking, spitting, false trials, scourging,  nails hammered, separation from the Father, a borrowed tomb…and yet He knew what lie ahead for man and resolutely, He set His face to go, to finish the work the Father had given Him.

Why? That we would know the only true and living God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Not just know about Him, not a second-handed relationship, but know Him intimately and personally. The Amplified translates it like this:

“And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.”  John 17:3

“And we [have seen and] know [by personal experience] that the Son of God has [actually] come [to this world], and has given us understanding and insight so that we may [progressively and personally] know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

I pray that you are included with me in 1 Peter 2:10, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” My heart is fixed and my mind made up…the Lord is worthy of all praise, honor, glory, majesty, and honor! I bow at His feet in worship and cry holy, glory to the Son of God!

“See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are!”
1 John 3:1

Lavished Love from the heart of the Father!

To Know Jesus as Lord and Savior

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