Jesus Glorified by Gaining Eternal Life

John 17:1; 1. These words] The words of the Intercessory Prayer, so named because of the intercessory pleadings Jesus makes for his disciples and for all who believe on his name; called also the High Priestly Prayer, meaning a prayer by the great "High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" (Hebrews 3:1), who is about to perform his supreme priestly function by sacrificing himself for the sins of the world.

John 17:1; The prayer itself is one of the greatest ever recorded and is perhaps exceeded only by those which it is beyond the ability of the written word to preserve. Many of its petitions and statements were repeated by Jesus when he prayed for the Nephite disciples. Because of the greater faith of those ancient American inhabitants, the sacred account has this to say of additional prayers Jesus offered in their behalf: "And it came to pass that he went again a little way off and prayed unto the Father; And tongue cannot speak the words which he prayed, neither can be written by man the words which he prayed. And the multitude did hear and do bear record; and their hearts were open and they did understand in their hearts the words which he prayed. Nevertheless, so great and marvelous were the words which he prayed that they cannot be written, neither can they be uttered by man." (3 Nephi 19:31-34) Earlier in his Nephite ministry our Lord had also prayed with this same overpowering effect. (3 Nephi 17:14-18.)

John 17:1; The hour is come] Jesus had come into the world to suffer the trials of the approaching hour, the hour when he would work out the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice and fulfil the will of the Father in all things. Glorify thy Son] Jesus prays for himself. He asks for exaltation in the Father's kingdom, thus setting a pattern for prayer which all men should follow.

John 17:2; 2. Power over all flesh] All things are subject to Jesus. He
is the Creator and Redeemer. He judges all men. (John 5:22.) He is "the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity." (Mosiah 3:5.) He should give eternal life] Christ rewards men; the Father has placed all things in his hands. Salvation comes because of the Son. "There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah." (2 Nephi 2:8.)

John 17:3; 3. Life eternal] Also called everlasting life. "As used in the scriptures, eternal life is the name given to the kind of life that our Eternal Father lives. The word eternal, as used in the name eternal life, is a noun and not an adjective. It is one of the formal names of Deity (Moses 1:3; 7:35; D&C 19:11) and has been chosen by him as the particular name to identify the kind of life that he lives. He being God, the life he lives is God's life; and his name (in the noun sense) being Eternal, the kind of life he lives is eternal life. Thus: God's life is eternal life; eternal life is God's life—the expressions are synonymous.

John 17:3; "Accordingly, eternal life is not a name that has reference only to the unending duration of a future life; immortality is to live forever in the resurrected state, and by the grace of God all men will gain this unending continuance of life. But only those who obey the fulness of the gospel law will inherit eternal life. (D&C 29:43-44.) It is 'the greatest of all the gifts of God' (D&C 14:7), for it is the kind, status, type, and quality of life that God himself enjoys. Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation; they are sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, members of the Church of the Firstborn; they overcome all things, have all power, and receive the fulness of the Father. They are gods." (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 219-220.)

John 17:3; Included within eternal life is eternal lives meaning "a continuation of the seeds," or a "continuation of the lives" forever. (D&C 132:19, 22.) In speaking of having spirit progeny forever, which is a natural outgrowth of the doctrine of eternal marriage, the Lord taught the truth involved by paraphrasing the language of his Intercessory Prayer in this way: "This is eternal lives—to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent." (D&C 132:24.)

John 17:3; Know thee the only true God] It is one thing to know about God and another to know him. We know about him when we learn that he is a personal being in whose image man is created; when we learn that the Son is in the express image of his Father's person; when we learn that both the Father and the Son possess certain specified attributes and powers. But we know them, in the sense of gaining eternal life, when we enjoy and experience the same things they do. To know God is to think what he thinks, to feel what he feels, to have the power he possesses, to comprehend the truths he understands, and to do what he does. Those who know God become like him, and have his kind of life, which is eternal life.

John 17:4-5; 4-5. Jesus "was like unto God" (Abraham 3:24) before the world was; he had glory and dominion then; and he then became, under the direction of the Father, the Creator of this earth and of worlds without number. (Moses 1:31-33.) At the appointed time he came to this particular earth to work out both his own salvation and the atonement which would make salvation available to all men.

John 17:4-5; In this prayer, speaking as though the atoning sacrifice had already been made, Jesus is certifying to the Father that the Son has done the appointed work, and asks that as a consequence he be given again the state of dignity and honor he once held. That he was required to work out his own salvation, and did in fact do so, is set forth by John in these words: "And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was; . . . And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us. And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first. ... And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father; And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him." (D&C 93:7, 11-14, 16-17.)