No man knew the name of God in the Old Testament. We are used to calling him Father, but we forget what a revelation this must have been to the Jews in the first century. The Father had been made known through the Son. But Jesus tells us that this was not a onetime act. For not only would his beloved know God by the name Father, they would come to know him as he lived out his name in their lives.

Jesus final statement in his high priestly prayer tells us that the Father loves us as sons. He loves us the same way he loves his only begotten Son. Every day the Son works in our lives to make that love known to us. As it is worked in us, we are changed, and made more like him. The more we know what it means to be loved, the more we are able to love God, love each other, and sacrifice ourselves for each.

This is not an easy process. Each day challenges us to trust the Father and the Son. But as we do, we see that they are in fact who they say they are. Every hard circumstance is designed to reveal that God really is our Father. He preserves us in trial, and seeks to strengthen us. He does not want us to remain children, but wants us to be fully mature saints, who are capable of enjoying him in every way. Which is why he sent his Son, and why the Son still works in us – neither will rest until we know him fully – until we know him as does the Son. That is their end.

No matter how much we love God there is always more that we can know. In their time with Jesus the disciples had come to know who the Father was, but their knowledge was not comprehensive. Their actions that night would reveal how ignorant they still were. Had they known the Father as Jesus knew the Father they would have acted like Jesus in the coming ordeal. They knew who the Father was but they did not yet grasp his power. If they had they would have known that they were not in danger, and would have stood with their Lord accordingly.

Because the disciples knew the name of the Father they would continue with him and his Son. Although they would falter badly that night their knowledge of the Father’s name would keep them from being cast off. Though they knew him but a little, the Father had known them from the beginning, and was set on their redemption. This was why he had come near to them in his Son. Through Jesus he had made himself known, and he would continue to reveal himself to them in his Son; even when the latter was no longer with them physically.

Throughout the rest of the New Testament we can see how Jesus continued to minister to his disciples. At the cross, and though the Holy Spirit in the following decades, he would show them the power of the name he had first taught them in Galilee. This knowledge would change them, enabling them to be like their Lord. And just as he did with his disciples, Jesus continues to reveal his Father to us. By the working of the Holy Spirit we are able to see the Father in the Son. We are not able to take in all that can be seen at once, but rather it is revealed to us throughout the course of our lives. Our ignorance of our God is revealed in our faults, but he will not cast us off. He has made himself known to us that we might come to a full knowledge of who he is, and partake of the glory associated with his name. If we know the name we will know the person. And we will know the person because the Son is, and will continue to make him known to us.

We know the Father through the Son. On our own we are like the world and do not know the Father. The Father is too great and glorious for us to understand. We cannot see him, for if we did we would be overwhelmed by his glory. It would be more tolerable to touch the sun than to come into the presence of the Father. However, because he is God, the Son, the second person of the Trinity, knows the Father completely; and it is he who makes the Father known to us.

Only Christianity maintains the otherness of God, while at the same time maintaining his relationship with his people. If God is perfect than he cannot interact with what is not perfect – he would have to be completely separate from his creation. But we know God is perfect and that he interacts intimately with those he has made – and this is possible because God is Triune. The Father is never corrupted by his contact with us because that contact comes through the God-man, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is one with his Father, and makes known to us what we could not know on our own.

All progress we make in our faith is through our knowing the Son. As we know him we know the Father. Jesus said the disciples knew the Father had sent him. This was the beginning of their knowledge of the Father. In knowing the Son was sent by the Father, they knew that the Father loved them. Sending the Son was an act of love which surpassed anything they or we could or can know on earth. And the only way to understand this love is to see the surpassing value of who we have been given. A valuable gift makes us appreciate the giver because it tells us some degree of sacrifice was needed to purchase the gift. And when that gift is given it means that the giver is parting with something very dear. This is how we come to know the Father – by knowing what he parted with in sending us his Son. Ultimately we know the Father by knowing his love for us; and his love is only known by drawing nearer to the Son.

Thus begins the last part of Jesus’ prayer. His petitions have been offered up, and he returns to the basis on which he knows they will be accepted – his and the Fathers righteousness. The righteousness of the Triune God is the reason we are both condemned to hell and accepted into heaven. Righteousness is not another word for sinlessness; being righteous means that God always does the right thing. His actions are always appropriate to the situation. Being sinners, it is only right that God condemn us. Sin must be followed by death. Sin is evil, putrid, entirely despicable, and therefore must be got rid of. It cannot, and God will not, allow it to exist.

At the same time, it is only right that goodness and purity be rewarded. For this reason the Son is glorified by the Father. Being righteous means the Father showers blessings upon the Son for the good in him, and worked by him. And, when we are in the Son, it is only right that we receive what the Son has earned for us. His good is so much greater than our evil that we are blessed out of all proportion to what we deserve. And these blessings come because the Father is righteous and does what is right by the Son.

The righteousness of the Father is the reason we are confident regarding our salvation. He will do what is right. And although his righteousness demands sin be punished, it also demands that the Son, and all those in him, be rewarded. We have every reason to doubt ourselves, but we have no reason to doubt our Father. He will do what is right, which means he will glorify us according to the merits of the Son. This is the assurance of our salvation – our holy Savior has asked for our blessing, and it is only right that our righteous Father do what his Son wants.

Jesus received what he asked of his Father. This means that we will be with him and will see his glory. But not only will we be with him, we are with him where he is, and are made to know more and more of that glory given him by the Father. We are united to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and therefore are made partakers of his glory.

Jesus created us to share his glory with us. The Father bestowed glory upon the Son before the foundation of the world. He did this because he loved him. Father and Son always loved each other and have always lived in a state of glory. It is because Jesus loves us that he has determined to share his glory with us. We have rejected his love and glory as a race, but that has not deterred him. Because he loved us he came for us, and secured our share of glory, which he gives to us in greater portions throughout our lives.

Our first parents fell because they wanted their own glory and not the glory offered them by their loving creator, and we have continued in that folly. We know that we should submit to our Lord, but day by day we continue to seek what we want. The glory of our personal desires cannot compare with the glory he offers us on a daily basis; indeed, all glory apart from him is no glory at all. Thanks be to our God that, foolish and fickle as we are, his love for us has not changed. Indeed, because of Jesus sacrifice, it will never change. What he asked for he received, even though it would cost him is life. And what he received, the glory of the Father, he gives to us in spite of our desires. This means that we will sometimes suffer disappointment by not getting what we want, but this disappointment in turn drives us to the glory of his love, which only increases and never disappoints.