At that day you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you, that I will pray the Father for you:
At.
John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
that.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
John 17:9,19,24 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine…
Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
you will ask in My name.
Asking in Jesus' name implies praying with His authority and in alignment with His will. It reflects a deep relationship with Christ, where believers are united with Him. This concept is rooted in the understanding that Jesus is the mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). It also fulfills the promise of answered prayer when requests are made according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).
I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
Here, Jesus clarifies that His role is not to act as a barrier between believers and the Father but to facilitate direct access. This statement emphasizes the believer's direct relationship with God, made possible through Jesus' sacrificial work. It highlights the intimacy and confidence believers can have in approaching God, as seen in Hebrews 4:16, where believers are encouraged to approach the throne of grace with confidence.
• Jesus has just promised the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-15). “That day” points to the era that begins with His resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit’s arrival (Acts 2:1-4).
• After these events the disciples will experience a new, Spirit-empowered relationship with the Father (Romans 8:15-16).
• The Lord had said, “In that day you will no longer ask Me anything” (John 16:23). Here He circles back, showing what that day will look like in prayer life.
• Instead of directing questions to the earthly Jesus, believers will bring petitions to the Father (Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7).
• This assumes confidence: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16).
• The word “ask” covers every kind of request, from daily needs to kingdom matters (Matthew 6:9-13).
• Praying “in My name” means coming on the basis of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished—His death, resurrection, and ongoing lordship (John 14:13-14; 15:16).
• It reflects identification with His purposes, not a formula. Requests aligned with His character bear His endorsement (1 John 5:14-15).
• Through Him “we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18).
• Jesus guards against a possible misunderstanding: He is not retracting His mediatorship (1 Timothy 2:5) but clarifying how direct the believer’s access will be.
• He is not introducing a new layer of distance; He is removing it (Hebrews 10:19-22).
• We do not need Jesus to persuade a reluctant Father. “For the Father Himself loves you” (John 16:27).
• Yet Jesus still intercedes (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). The point is relational: the Father’s welcome is as certain as the Son’s advocacy.
• Therefore, believers stand before God as loved children, not as petitioners waiting for someone else to speak first (Galatians 4:6).
John 16:26 assures believers that, once Jesus completes His saving work and pours out the Spirit, they will enjoy immediate, confident access to the Father. Praying in Jesus’ name anchors every request in His authority and atoning work, while the Father’s own love guarantees a warm reception. Christ continues to intercede, but He invites His followers to come freely and personally, trusting that heaven’s door is already open to them.
(26) At that day ye shall ask in my name.--Comp. Notes on John 16:23-24. When guided by the Paraclete, the life will be subject to the will of Christ, and the prayer will be in His name.And I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.--These words have often been taken to mean, "That I will pray the Father for you, is a matter of course, of which I need not tell you; but this sense is excluded by the following verse. The thought is rather, "I do not speak of praying for you, because in the presence of the Advocate you will yourselves be able to pray in My name to the Father." His prayer is thought of as not necessary for them, and yet the form of the words implies that He will pray for them if it should be needed. While their hearts are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and they maintain communion with the Father, they will need no other Advocate, but "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1John 2:1). Comp. John 14:16; John 17:9, which refer to the time which precedes the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Verse 26. - In that day - pointing to "the hour" of these open declarations - ye shall ask (make petitions, not ask or demand of me, in the tone of equality) in my Name. The opportunity will come when all my Name will be appreciated by you, and your spiritual reception of me will teach you to approach the Father, who is thus revealed to you. Calvin in these verses calls attention to the familiarity of Israel with the idea of a Mediator, one by whom they drew near to God, and that Christ places himself here in the stead of the whole propitiatory service and ritual of the temple. "His Name" was the Divine equivalent of all the work of the high priest from one Day of Atonement to another and for evermore. And I do not say to you, that I will make my request to the Father concerning you (see note on ἐρωτάω and αἰτέω, Ver. 23, etc.). It will not do to argue, with Grotius, that this is just as if he had said, "To say nothing of my own intercessions for you," or, "You may take these for granted;" because the very next verse gives his reason for the assertion. Nor is it satisfactory to say, with Meyer, that the "prayers" of which he speaks (John 14:16; John 17:9, 20) are before the gift of the Paraclete, and not inconsistent with the higher condition of the disciples after the Paraclete should have been given; because John had received the Paraclete when he wrote, "We have an Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1). Nor can we suppose that the great utterances of Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 9:25 are vain imaginations, and that there is no sense in which the Lord does augment and complete our prayers, taking them upon his heart and going in his high-priestly prerogative into the holy place with his own blood; but the words must nevertheless be pressed, and their meaning held to be compatible with what Paul and John say of the" intercession of Christ." They reveal the perfect access to the Father's heart which he has secured for his disciples, the full reconciliation effected as well as devised and consummated by the Father's own love (cf. Ephesians 2:18, "By Christ we both [Jew and Gentile] have access (προσαγωγήν) in one spirit to the Father"). The end of the whole ministry of Christ is, in the power of the Holy Ghost's revelation of him, to bring men to the Father and let them know it. There is no need that Christ should (ἐρωτᾶν) make special prayer to the Father, as though he were merciful and the Father needed to be appeased towards those for whom he had prepared so great a salvation (see Romans 8:34, where Philippi, Calvin, and others show that Christ's ἐντυγχανεῖν is the effect of his own glorious and eternal work). His appearance in the presence of God for us is the perpetual pledge of the completeness of his sacrifice. These very passages in Hebrews and Romans have to be interpreted in harmony with this great statement of his own, viz. that there is no reason to ask the Father concerning them; all has been asked and answered, the intercession is complete; his whole work will have reconciled the Father with his children, and that by reason of the Father's own love.