John 17:24

“Father, that which you have given me, I will that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

‘That which you have given me'. This refers to the gift from the Father to the Son of His true people, seen as one. (Although some authorities have ‘those whom you have given me'). In them will be fulfilled all the spiritual blessing of Ephesians 1:3, for it is to this that He has called and chosen them. They are ‘His own people' set apart to reveal His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9), chosen by God, set apart and precious, and secure in His hand (John 10:28)

‘I will that --'. Christ expresses His will for His people. He wants them to be with Him beholding all the glory which is His, the glory which He once laid aside, but which was now about to be restored to Him by the Father (John 17:5) in accordance with His eternal love for His eternal Son.

‘That they also may be with me'. His desire for them is that finally they may see and share His glory. What a wonder this is, that we are to share His glory. This is expressed vividly and pictorially in Revelation 21:22 where the light of the ‘city of God' is the Lamb, a light to be enjoyed by His people. Yet as Paul makes clear there is a sense in which His people may now share that position and that glory by faith as they recognise that they have been raised with Him and seated in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:19 to Ephesians 2:6). We do not have to wait for eternity to be with Him and to behold His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18 to 2 Corinthians 4:6).

‘My glory which you have given me --' This is not the glory which was His by right as very God. That was His by right, and only His (John 17:5). It is rather the glory given Him by the Father when He was chosen to be the Redeemer, the Saviour of mankind, a choice made before the foundation of the world when we also were chosen with Him (Ephesians 1:4), and it is His glory as glorified man.

‘Loved me before the foundation of the world'. He was not only chosen before the foundation of the world but was also loved as well, for unlike us He was there to enjoy the love of the Father from before the beginning.

That Jesus was the means by which, with the Spirit, the Godhead acted in the creation of the world, that He was the means by which the Godhead wrought salvation for the world, also along with the Spirit, means that sometimes we see Him described as though He were in a subordinate position to the Father within the Godhead. But we should recognise that this is as seen from our point of view and is more apparent than real. For they were always together as One, face to face in glorious unity (John 1:2), working as One for the fulfilment of Their purposes, always at One in will and purpose. It was only in their presentation to man, and in the positions that they took in the carrying out of the divine plan, that this idea of subordination was suggested. It describes more man's way of looking at things than God's. It was a subordination of presentation rather than of reality. In eternity they are co-equally One.