CHAPTER XVII.

These words baked Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

" These verses begin one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible. It is a chapter in which we see our Lord Jesus Christ addressing a long prayer to God the Father. It is wonderful as a specimen of the communion that was ever kept up between the Father and the Son during the period of the Son's ministry on earth. It is wonderful as a pattern of the intercession which the Son, as in high priest, is ever carrying on for us in heaven. Not least, it is wonderful as an example of the sort of things that believers should mention in prayer. What Christ asks for His people, His people should ask for themselves.

It has been well and truly said by an old divine that the best and fullest sermon ever preached was followed by the best of prayers. It is needless to say that the chapter before us contains many deep things. It could hardly be otherwise. He that reads the words spoken by one person of the Blessed Trinity to another person, by the Son to the Father, must surely be prepared to find much that he cannot fail understand, much that he has no line to fathom. There are sentences, words, and expressions in the twenty-six verses of this chapter which no one probably has ever unfolded completely. We have not minds to do it, or to understand the matters it contains, if we could.

But there are great truths in the chapter which stand out clearly and plainly on its face, and to these truths we shall do well to direct our best attention. We should notice, firstly, in these verses, what a glorious account they contain of our Lord Jesus Christ's office and divinity. We read that the Father has given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life. The keys of heaven are in Christ's hands. The salvation of every soul of mankind is at His disposal.

We read furthermore that it is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The mere knowledge of God is not sufficient and saves none. We must know the Son as well as the Father. God known without Christ is a Being whom we can only fear and dare not approach. It is God in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, who alone can give to the soul life and peace.

We read, furthermore, that Christ has finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. He has finished the work of redemption and wrought out a perfect righteousness for His people. Unlike the first Adam, who failed to do God's will and brought sin into the world, the second Adam has done all and left nothing undone that he came to do. Finally, we read that Christ had glory with the Father before the world was. Unlike Moses and David, He existed from all eternity long before He came into the world, and He shared glory with the Father before He was made flesh and born of the Virgin Mary.

Each of these marvelous sayings contains matter which our weak minds have not power to fully comprehend. We must be content to admire and reverence what we cannot thoroughly grasp and explain. But one thing is abundantly clear. Sayings like these can only be used of one who is very God. To no patriarch or prophet or king or apostle is any such language ever applied in the Bible. It belongs to none but God.

Forever let us thank God that the hope of a Christian rests on such a solid foundation as a divine Savior. He to whom we are commanded to flee for pardon and in whom we are bid to rest for peace is God as well as man. To all who really think about their souls and are not careless and worldly, the thought is folk of comfort. Such people know and feel that great sinners need a great Savior and that no mere human redeemer would meet their wants. then let them rejoice in Christ and lean back confidently on Him.

Christ has all power and is able to save to the uttermost because Christ is divine. Office, power, and pre-existence all combine to prove that He is God.

We should notice, secondly in these verses, what a gracious account they contain of our Lord Jesus Christ's disciples. We find our Lord Himself saying of them, They have kept thy word. They have known that all things thou hast given me are of thee. They have received thy words. They have known surely that I came out from thee. They have believed that thou didst send me.

These are wonderful words when we consider the character of the eleven men to whom they were applied. How weak was their faith! How slender their knowledge! How shallow their spiritual attainments! How faint their hearts in the hour of danger! Yet a very little time after Jesus spoke these words, they all forsook him and fled, and one of them denied him three times with an oath. No one, in short, can read the four Gospels with attention and fail to see that never had a great master such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles.

Yet these very weak servants were the men of whom the gracious Head of the Church speaks here in high and honorable terms. The lesson before us is full of comfort and instruction. It is evident that Jesus sees far more in His believing people than they see in themselves, or than others see in them. The least degree of faith is very precious in His sight. Though it be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, it is a plant of heavenly growth, and makes a boundless difference between the possessor of it and the man of the world.

Wherever the gracious Savior of sinners sees true faith in Himself, however feeble, He looks with compassion on many infirmities and passes by many defects. It was even so with the eleven apostles. They were weak and unstable as water, but they believed and loved their Master when millions refused to own Him. And the language of Him who declared that a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple should not lose its reward shows clearly that their constancy was not forgotten. The true servant of God should mark well the feature in Christ's character which is here brought out, and rest his soul upon it. The best among us must often see in himself a vast amount of defects and infirmities, and must feel ashamed of his poor attainments in religion. But do we simply believe in Jesus? Do we cling to him, and roll all our burdens on him? Can we say with sincerity and truth, as Peter said afterwards, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee? Then let us take comfort in the words of Christ before us and not give way to despondency.

The Lord Jesus did not despise the 11 because of their feebleness, but bore with them and saved them to the end because they believed. And he never changes. What he did for them, he will do for us.

Notes, John chapter 17 verses 1 to 8. Verse 1, these words speak Jesus. The chapter we have now begun is the most remarkable in the Bible. It stands alone and there is nothing like it. A few introductory remarks will not be out of place.

Henry remarks that this was a prayer after sermon, a prayer after sacrament, a family prayer, a parting prayer, a prayer before a sacrifice, a prayer which was a specimen of Christ's intercession. We have here the only long prayer of the Lord Jesus which the Holy Ghost has thought good to record for our learning. That He often prayed we know well, but this is the only prayer reported. We have many of His sermons, parables, and conversations, but only this prayer.

We have here the prayer of one who spake as never man spake, and prayed as never man prayed, the prayer of the Second Person of the Trinity to the Father, the prayer of one whose office it is, as our High Priest, to make intercession for His people. We have a prayer offered up by the Lord Jesus on a specially interesting occasion, just after the Lord's Supper, just after a most striking discourse, just before His betrayal and crucifixion, just before the disciples forsook Him and fled, just at the end of His earthly ministry.

We have here a prayer which is singularly full of deep and profound expressions. So deep, indeed, that we have no line to them. The wisest Christian will always confess that there are things here which he cannot fully explain. Bible reader who attaches no weight to such considerations as these must be in a very strange state of mind.

Augustine remarks, The prayer which Christ made for us he hath also made known to us, being so great a master, not only what he saith in discoursing to the disciples, but also what he saith to the Father in praying for them is their edification. Calvin remarks, Doctrine has no power unless efficacy is imparted to it from above. Christ holds out an example to teachers not to employ themselves only in sowing the word, but by mingling prayers with it, to implore the assistance of God that his blessing may render their labor fruitful.

Bollinger remarks that it was the duty of the Jewish priests to pray for the people as well as to offer sacrifice for them. About the place where this prayer was offered, we know nothing certain. Some, as Alfred, have conjectured that it was in the upper room, where the Lord's Supper was held. This, however, seems inconsistent with Arise, let us go hence. Chapter 14, verse 31. It seems more likely that it was prayed in some quiet place, outside the walls, before our Lord crossed the brook Cedron. John, chapter 18, verse 1. One thing at least is almost certain. It is a totally different prayer from that which Our Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, although Rupertus asserts it was the same. About the hearers of this prayer, there seems no reason to doubt that all the eleven apostles were present, and all heard it. All heard the discourses in the last three chapters, and I cannot see why all should not have heard the concluding prayer.

About the general plan and order and arrangement of the prayer, I decline to express any opinion, thinking it more reverent not to define too closely such a matter. We can all see at a glance that our Lord prays about Himself, prays about the disciples and prays about those who were after to be disciples. But it is best to pause here and not to dissent and analyze and systematize too minutely such a prayer.

One thing only may be remarked, and that is, the singular frequency with which the world is mentioned. The phrase occurs no less than nineteen times. I conclude these introductory observations by advising all who wish to study thoroughly this wonderful chapter of Scripture to consult, if they can, the following works specially devoted to the elucidation of it, viz., Manton's Sermons on 17th John, 400 folio pages, George Newton's Exposition of the 17th John, 560 pages folio, and Burgess's Expository Sermons on 17th John, 700 pages folio.

These three books, having been written by Puritans two hundred years ago, are ignored by some and despised by others. I simply venture to remark that he who cares to examine them will find that they richly repay perusal, Manton's work especially will bear a comparison with anything written on this chapter since his days.

It is curious that the other prayer, commonly called the Lord's Prayer, has been frequently made the subject of books and expositions, while this much larger prayer has been comparatively little handled. Melanchthon says, There is no voice which has ever been heard either in heaven or earth more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than this prayer. Luther says, And he lifted up his eyes to heaven. This sentence shows that bodily gestures in prayer and worship of God are not altogether to be overlooked as unmeaning. There is a decent and reverent manner and gesture which suits the action of addressing God. It also seems clearly to show that the prayer was prayed before witnesses. John writes this one describing what he saw and heard.

It is perhaps too much to say that the expression proves the prayer to have been in the open air. A person may look upward and heavenward, even in a room. Yet it certainly rather increases the probability that our Lord was in the open air. Calvin says, Newton observes that gesture and demeanor in God's worship, though not everything, are something. The hour here named is the hour appointed in God's eternal counsels for the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and the final accomplishment of His atonement. That time, which had been promised by God and expected by saints for four thousand years, ever since Adam's fall, had at length arrived, and the seed of the woman was actually about to bruise the serpent's head, by dying as man's substitute and redeemer.

Up to this night, the hour was not yet come, John 7, verse 30, chapter 8, verse 20. Until it had come, our Lord's enemies could not hurt Him. Now, at last, the hour has come, and the sacrifice was ready.

Augustine says here, Time did not force Christ to die, but Christ chose a time to die. So also the time at which He was born of the Virgin, He settled with the Father, of whom He was begotten without time.

Let us remember, though in a far lower sense, that believers are all immortal till their hour is come, and till then they are safe and cannot be harmed by death.

Let us note how our Lord addresses God as Father. In a lower sense, we may do the same if we have the spirit of adoption and are His children in Christ. The Lord's Prayer teaches us to do so.

It is worth notice that our Lord uses the phrase Father six times in this prayer. Glorify thy son, glorify thee. I think the meaning of this sentence must be this. Give glory to thy son by carrying him through the cross and the grave, to a triumphant completion of the work he came to do, and by placing him at thy right hand, and highly exalting him above every name that is named. Do this in order that he may glorify Thee and Thy attributes. Do this that he may bring fresh glory to Thy holiness, and justice, and mercy, and forgiveness, and prove to the world that Thou art a just God, a holy God, a merciful God, and a God that keepeth His word.

My vicarious death and my resurrection will prove this and bring glory to Thee. Finish the mighty work. Glorify Me, and in so doing glorify Thyself. finish thy work, not least, that thy son may glorify thee by bringing many redeemed souls to heaven to the glory of thy grace.

" Stier remarks, these words prove the son to be equal to the father as touching his Godhead. What creature could stand before his creator and say, glorify me that I may glorify thee,

The glory of God in His attributes is the grand end of all creation and all of God's arrangements and providences. Nothing brings such glory to God as the completion of the redeeming work of Christ by His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.

Our Lord seems to me to ask that His death may at once take place that he through death may be taken up to glory, and that there the justice, holiness, mercy, and faithfulness of the Father may be glorified and exhibited to all creation, and many souls may be at once saved and glorify the divine wisdom and power.

Augustine remarks, some take the Father's glorifying the Son to consist in this, that he spared him not, but delivered him up for us all. But if he be said to be glorified by passion, how much more by resurrection? For in the passion it is more his humility than his glory that is shown forth, as the apostle says in Philippians chapter 2 verses 7 to 11.

Verse 2. As thou hast given him power, etc. The Greek part of this verse is peculiar as it contains a nominative absolute and a literal translation seems impossible. It would be that with regard to all that body or thing which thou hast given him, he should give eternal life to them.

There seems a distinction between the whole body and the particular individual members. The body is given to Christ, in the mass, from all eternity. The members of that body are called in time, separately, and one by one, and eternal life given to them.

There certainly seems a connection between this verse and the concluding clause of the preceding verse, Let thy Son glorify thee by saving souls even as thou hast appointed he should do, seeing that thou hast given him power and authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all the members of that mystical body which thou hast given him."

When we read here of the Father giving power to the Son, we must carefully remember that it is not the giving of a superior to an inferior. It signifies that the arrangement in the councils of the Eternal Trinity by which the Father gives to the Son especially the carrying out of the work of redemption. Newton thinks the power includes the dignity of judgment at the last day, as in John 5.22.

The expression, all flesh, seems to me, as it does to Augustine, Bollinger, Newton, and others, to denote all mankind. All are not saved, but Christ has power and authority over all. Some confine it to the elect, but I cannot see the force of their argument. To my eyes, it is like John 3.16, where world and believers are in contradistinction. So it seems here, all flesh and given ones.

Christus thinks that the phrase all flesh has special reference to the calling of the Gentiles into the church and that our Lord meant that henceforward he was to be a savior of Gentiles as well as Jews.

The phrase eternal life includes everything that is necessary to the complete salvation of a soul, the life of justification, sanctification and glory. The Son gives eternal life to none but those who are given to Him in the everlasting counsels of the Trinity from all eternity. Who these are men cannot say. Many of the given ones, says Traill, do not for a long time know it.

All are invited to repent and believe without distinction. No one is warranted in saying, I was not given to Christ and cannot be saved. But that the last day will prove that none are saved except those given to Christ by the Father is clear and plain.

Poole remarks, We need not ascend up to heaven to search the roles of the eternal counsels. All whom the Father hath given to Christ shall come to Christ, and not only receive him as priest, but give themselves up to be ruled and quickened by him. By such a receiving of Christ we shall know whether we are of the number of those who are given to Christ.

Trail remarks, This giving of men to the Son to be redeemed and saved is the same thing with election and predestination. There is a two-fold giving of men to the Son by the Father. One is eternal, in the purpose of His grace, and this is mainly meant here. The other is in time, when the Father by His Spirit draws men to Christ. John 6, verse 44.

All the elect are given from eternity to the Son, to be redeemed by His blood. And all the redeemed are in due time drawn by the Father to the Son, to be kept to eternal life.

Verse 3. And this is life eternal, etc. This verse is mercifully given to us by the Lord as a description of saved souls. The secret of possessing eternal life, of being justified and sanctified now and glorified hereafter, consists simply in this, in having a right saving knowledge of the one true God and of that Jesus Christ whom he sent to save sinners.

In short, our Lord declares that he who rightly knows God and Christ is the man who possesses eternal life. Of course we must distinctly understand that mere head knowledge like that of the devil is not meant by our Lord in this verse. The knowledge He means is a knowledge which dwells in the heart and influences the life.

A true saint is one who knows the Lord. To know God on the one hand, His holiness, His purity, His hatred of sin, and to know Christ on the other hand, His redemption, His mediatorial office, His love to sinners, are the two great foundations of saving religion. Right knowledge, after all, lies at the root of all vital Christianity, as light was the beginning of creation. We need to be renewed in knowledge, Colossians chapter 3 verse 10. We must know what we believe, and we cannot properly worship an unknown God.

Do we know God, and do we know Christ aright, are the two great questions to be considered. God known out of Christ is a consuming fire, and will fill us with fear only. Christ known without God will not be truly valued. In short, it is life eternal to know rightly God and Christ. To know God without Christ, says Newton, is not to know Him savingly. Trail remarks, the secret moth and poison in many people's religion is that it is not Christianity at all. God out of Christ is a consuming fire. God not worshipped in Christ is an idol. All hopes of acceptance out of Christ are vain dreams. A heaven out of Christ is little better than the Turks paradise.

The Greek of the phrase, that they might know, would have been better rendered, to know. It is the same phrase that has been so rendered in John chapter 4 verse 34, my meat is to do thy will. Literally, this is, my meat is that I may do the will. Let us learn that knowledge is the chief thing in religion, though we must not make it an idol. Most wicked men are what they are because they are ignorant. Godly people are often described in scripture by one single phrase. they know God.

The argument which Arians and Sosinians have always loved to found on this verse appears to me extremely weak. Their idea that the Lord did not lay claim to divinity because he speaks of the Father as the only true God is foolish and unreasonable. Chrysostom, Cyril, Toletus, and others remark very sensibly that the word only was not meant to exclude the Son and the Holy Ghost, but only those idols and false gods with which the heathen religions had filled the earth when Christ appeared. The very fact that eternal life consists in knowing not only God but Christ goes far to prove Christ's divinity. Mantum remarks that the expression in this verse has a twofold object, firstly, to exclude the idols and false gods, and secondly, to show the order and economy of salvation. Let us note that this is the only place in the New Testament where our Lord calls himself Jesus Christ.

Verse 4, I have glorified thee on the earth. The meaning of these words I take to be this. I have now glorified thee during my life on earth by keeping thy law perfectly, so that Satan can find no defect or blemish in me, by witnessing faithfully to thy truth in opposition to the sins and false teachings of the Jews, by showing thee and thy mind towards men in a way that was never known before. I have finished the work to do. The meaning of these words I take to be this. I have completed the work of redemption which thou didst send me into the world to accomplish, my death and resurrection being so near that to all intents and purposes it is finished.

On the use of the past tense here instead of the future, Augustine remarks, Christ saith he has finished that which he most surely knows he will finish. Thus long before, in prophecy, he used verbs of past tense when that which he said was to come to pass after many years, they pierced, says he, my hands and my feet. not they will pierce. Psalm 22, verse 16. It has been truly remarked that Christ alone, of all born of woman, could say literally, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. He did what the first Adam failed to do, and all the saints in every age failed to do. He kept the law perfectly, and by so keeping it brought in everlasting righteousness for all them that believe,

Yet, here is the model we ought to keep before our eyes continually. We must aim to finish the work our Father appoints for us, whether great or small. Miscalus remarks that true godly obedience is to be seen not merely in doing such work as we arbitrarily take up, but in doing such work as God appoints us to do. It admits of doubt whether there is not a latent reference in the end of this verse to Daniel's prophecy that Messiah would finish transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. Let it be carefully noted that Christ's redeeming work on earth was work which the Father gave Him to do. He was the person commissioned in the councils of the everlasting Trinity to do this work. On the earth must include the whole period of Christ's incarnation, from His birth until His ascension. During all that period He glorified the Father by perfect unvarying holiness.

Verse 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me, etc. Having briefly recited his work on earth, or, as it were, rendered an account of his ministry, our Lord now repeats the one prayer with which he began, Glorify me. The meaning of this verse I take to be as follows. Father, my earthly work being now finished, I ask to be restored to that heavenly glory which in an unspeakable manner I had with Thee, as one of the co-equal and undivided Trinity, long before this world existed. The period of my humiliation and self-imposed weakness being accomplished, let me once more share Thy glory and sit with Thee on Thy throne as I did before my incarnation. It is needless to say that the things asked in this prayer, both here and elsewhere, are very deep and reach far beyond man's understanding. The glory which the Son had with the Father, in the time before the creation of the world, is a matter passing our comprehension. But the pre-existence of Christ, the doctrine that Father and Son are two distinct persons, and the equal glory of the Father and the Son, are at any rate taught here very plainly. It seems perfectly impossible to reconcile this verse with the Sassanian theory that Christ was mere man, like David or Paul, and did not exist before he was born at Bethlehem. Let us also learn the practical lesson that a prayer for glory comes best from those who have done work upon earth for God. A lazy wish to go to glory without working is not according to Christ's example.

Verse 6. I have manifested thy name. In this part of the prayer, our Lord begins to speak of his believing people, directly of the eleven apostles, but indirectly and partially of all believers in every age. And the rest of the prayer, from this point, is entirely taken up with the case of the disciples. The sentence before us means, I have made known thyself, thy character, and thine attributes to my disciples. The word name is continually used in this sense in the Bible. Thus, Psalm 22 verse 22, Psalm 52 verse 9, Psalm 119 verse 55, Isaiah 26, verse 8, Acts 9, verse 14, Proverbs 18, verse 10. A right knowledge of God the Father was the first thing which Christ revealed and taught to his disciples. Burgon remarks, the word name is here used in that large signification, so well known to readers of scripture, whereby it is made to stand for God himself. Psalm 20, verse 1. The evangelist says, They shall call his name Immanuel, meaning that our Savior would be what the name Immanuel means, viz., God with us. As often thus as our Lord made known to men the mind and will of the Eternal Father, so often did He manifest His name.

Trail remarks, What is the Father's name? Many think they know it, to whom Christ never revealed it. If you ask them whether they know Christ's Father's name, they have a ready answer. He is the first person of the Trinity. He is the Almighty, the Maker and Ruler of heaven and earth. Yes, but this is the name of God only, and thus in general. The name of Christ's Father is that name and discovery of God wherein He stands related to the Son.

Unto the men gavest them me. In this sentence, Our Lord describes His disciples. He calls them Lamb thinks that men are emphatically mentioned here to the seclusion of angels. Believers are given to Christ by the Father according to an everlasting covenant made and sealed, long before they were born, and taken out from the world, by the calling of the Spirit, in due time. They are the Father's peculiar property, as well as the property of the Son. They were of the world, and know wise better than others. Their calling and election out of the world to be Christ's people, and not any foreseen merit of their own, is the real foundation of their character.

These are deep things, things to be read with peculiar reverence, because they are the words of the Son addressed to the Father, and handling matter about believers, which the Eternal Trinity alone can handle with positiveness and certainty. Who these are who are given to Christ by the Father we can only certainly know by outward evidences. But that all believers are so given by the Father, predestined, elect, chosen, called by an everlasting covenant, and their names and exact number known from all eternity, is truth which we must reverently believe and never hesitate to receive.

So long as we are on earth, we have to do with invitations, promises, commands, evidences, and faith, and God's election never destroys our responsibility. But all true believers, who really repent and believe and have the Spirit, may fairly take comfort in the thought that they were known and cared for and given to Christ by an eternal covenant long before they knew Christ or cared for Him. It is an unspeakable comfort to remember that Christ cares for that which the Father has given Him.

and they have kept thy word. Here our Lord continues the description of his disciples, and names things about them which may be seen by men as well as God. He says, They have kept, or observed, or attended to, the word of the gospel, which thou didst send them by me. While others would not attend to or keep that word, these eleven men had hearing ears and attentive hearts, and diligently obeyed thy message. Practical obedience is the first great test of genuine discipleship.

Verse 7. Now they have known, etc. In this verse our Lord proceeds to give an account of his disciples. The meaning seems to be, they have now attained to such a degree of knowledge that they know that the words they have heard and the works they have seen from me are words and works given me to speak and do by thee. The idea is that they know my mission to be divine. They know that thou hast sent me to be the Messiah, and hast commissioned me to speak and act as I have done. Here as elsewhere, it is striking to observe how Jesus dwells on a right knowledge of the Father as the great truth which he came into the world to reveal.

Verse 8. For I have given, words gave us me. In this sentence, Our Lord declares what He had done in teaching His disciples. He had given them the words, doctrines, or truths, which the Father had given Him to proclaim to the world. The words which Our Lord spoke, and the works which He did, were both alike given Him by the Father to speak and to do in the eternal counsels of the Trinity about man's salvation. For the peculiar use of the phrase, words, to denote the truths or doctrines taught by our Lord, see John 3.34, 6.68, 12.48, and 14.10. Specially, we should remark Peter saying, Thou hast the words of eternal life.

They have received, etc., etc. Our Lord here declares three remarkable things about His disciples. They had willingly received and embraced the truths He brought them from the Father. They had known and acknowledged that their Master came from God the Father. They believed and were persuaded that the Father sent Him to be the Messiah. And all this had taken place when the vast majority of their countrymen neither acknowledged nor believed anything of the kind.

We should carefully note the high character given the disciples by our Lord. It seems wonderful at first sight, when we remember their many defects in faith and knowledge, that our Lord should commend them for knowing and believing. Yet when we think of their immensely difficult position, and the opposition they had to meet, we shall see it was no light matter to believe at all. It is, after all, a very comfortable reflection that our Lord does not despise weak grace, and that He honors reality and sincerity of faith, although it may be very small. Believers make a better appearance in heaven than they do upon earth.

The word rendered surely is literally truly. It is translated surely in Matthew chapter 16 verse 73 and Mark chapter 14 verse 70. The idea is they have known for a sure and undoubted truth. Manton observes, the faith of the apostles was weak. They had but a confused view of Christ's Godhead and eternal generation. They knew a little of His death, were filled with the thought of a terrene kingdom and a pompous Messiah, and understood not His prediction of His death and passion. Though they knew Him to be the Redeemer and Savior of the world, yet the manner of His death and passion they knew not.

We trusted that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. yet observe how Christ commendeth their weak faith. Certainly he loveth to encourage poor sinners, when he praiseth their mean and weak beginnings. Trail observes, Christ tells all the good he can of his disciples and covers their failings. How poorly had they received Christ's words! How weak and staggering was their faith! How oft had Christ reproved them sharply for their unbelief and other faults, yet not a word of all this in Christ representing them to His Father. This is the constant, gracious way of our High Priest. He makes no mention of Israel's faults in heaven but for their expiation.