John 17:2

“Even as you gave him authority over all flesh that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life.”

‘Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh.' The idea is that this One Who goes to His death is primarily the Judge of all the earth (John 5:27 compare Genesis 18:25; Acts 17:31), and has authority over all men. In consequence He has the authority to do whatever He will, and as a result He has also the authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). He came to the world from the Father and the world was under His feet. Thus He could have done what He would, for He had authority over all. He could have taken power and ruled as Satan tempted Him to do (Matthew 4:8). But this would not have achieved the object of redemption. So He willingly and tenaciously chose a different path, the path that God had laid down, giving eternal life to those given to Him by the Father in full awareness of the consequences of His choice. Notice the contrast between ‘being given authority over' and ‘receiving as a gift from the Father', the one authoritarian and judgmental the other personal and redeeming. The idea of His being given authority over all flesh is monumental. All things had been committed into His hands. He was sole arbiter of the destinies of all men (compare Matthew 7:21).

“All whom you have given Him.” The people of God are here described as God's gift to Christ. This gift of the Father to His Son has been mentioned earlier in passages where Jesus has made plain that men respond to God because He has chosen them and drawn them. All those whom the Father gives Him will come to Him (John 6:37; John 6:39), for they put their trust in Him (John 6:40). Indeed no man can come to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). So that no man comes fully to Christ unless it is given to him of the Father (John 6:65). The Judaisers did not respond to Him because they were ‘not of His sheep' (John 10:26), while those who did follow were those given to Him by the Father (John 10:29). These verses stress that God is positively active in redeeming men, playing a full part in the bringing of men to Jesus Christ, and that those who are so redeemed are His gift to His Son.

‘He may give eternal life.' By virtue of His projected offering of Himself He was able to bestow ‘the life of the age to come' (John 17:2 compare John 3:14; John 6:52), that life which consists of new life in the Spirit (John 3:1), to all those given to Him (John 6:37; John 6:39 compare John 6:65; John 10:26). It is a life of wonderful quality whereby they know God through personal experience and have the certainty of being raised at the last day.