"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am; that they may behold my glory."--John xvii. 24.
The Omnipotent Prayer.
This is not the petition of a suppliant, but the claim of a conqueror.
There was only _one_ request He ever made, or ever _can_ make, that was
refused; it was the prayer wrung forth by the presence and power of
superhuman anguish: "Father, _if it be possible_, let this cup pass from
me!" Had that prayer been answered, never could one consolatory "word of
Jesus" have been ours. "_If it be possible_;"--_but_ for that gracious
parenthesis, we must have been lost for ever! In unmurmuring submission,
the bitter cup _was_ drained; all the dread penalties of the law were
borne, the atonement completed, an all-perfect righteousness wrought
out; and now, as the stipulated reward of His obedience and sufferings,
the Victor claims His trophies. What are they? Those that were given Him
of the Father--the countless multitudes redeemed by His blood. These He
"_wills_" to be with Him "where He is"--the spectators of His glory, and
partakers of His crown. Wondrous word and will of a dying testator! His
last prayer on earth is an importunate pleading for their glorification;
His parting wish is to meet them in heaven: as if these earthly jewels
were needed to make His crown complete,--their happiness and joy the
needful complement of His own!
Reader! learn from this, the grand element in the bliss of your future
condition--it is _the presence of Christ_; "_with Me_ where I am." It
matters comparatively little as to the locality of heaven. "We shall see
_Him_ as He is," is "the blessed hope" of the Christian. Heaven would
be _no_ heaven without Jesus; the withdrawal of His presence would be
like the blotting out of the sun from the firmament; it would uncrown
every seraph, and unstring every harp. But, blessed thought! it is His
own stipulation in His testamentary prayer, that Eternity is to be spent
in union and communion with _Himself_, gazing on the unfathomed
mysteries of His love, becoming more assimilated to His glorious image,
and drinking deeper from the ocean of His own joy.
If anything can enhance the magnitude of this promised bliss, it is the
concluding words of the verse, in which He grounds His plea for its
bestowment: "_I will_--that they behold my glory;"--why? "For Thou
lovedst (not _them_, but) ME before the foundation of the world!" It is
equivalent to saying, "If Thou wouldst give _Me_ a continued proof of
Thine everlasting love and favour to Myself, it is by loving and
exalting My redeemed people. In loving _them_ and glorifying them, Thou
art loving and glorifying Me: so endearingly are their interests and My
own bound up together!"
Believer, think of that all-prevailing voice, at this moment pleading
for thee within the veil!--that omnipotent "_Father, I will_," securing
every needed boon! There is given, so to speak, a blank _cheque_ by
which He and His people may draw indefinite supplies out of the
exhaustless treasury of the Father's grace and love. God Himself
endorses it with the words, "Son, Thou art ever with me, and all that I
have is Thine." How it would reconcile us to Earth's bitterest sorrows,
and hallow Earth's holiest joys, if we saw them thus hanging on the
"_will_" of an all-wise Intercessor, who ever pleads in love, and never
pleads in vain!
"BE IT UNTO ME ACCORDING TO _THY WORD_."