Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
I will.
John 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Matthew 25:21,23 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord…
may.
Genesis 45:13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
for.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Proverbs 8:21-31 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures…
I want those You have given Me
This phrase indicates the divine selection and predestination of believers, echoing themes found in John 6:37 and John 10:29. It underscores the security and assurance of salvation for those chosen by God, reflecting the doctrine of election.
to be with Me where I am,
Jesus expresses His desire for believers to be in His presence, pointing to the promise of eternal life and fellowship with Him. This reflects the eschatological hope found in John 14:3, where Jesus promises to prepare a place for His followers.
that they may see the glory You gave Me
The glory refers to the divine majesty and honor bestowed upon Jesus, which believers will fully witness in the afterlife. This connects to the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8) and the resurrection, where Jesus' glory is partially revealed.
because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
This phrase highlights the eternal nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son, emphasizing the pre-existence of Christ. It aligns with the prologue of John's Gospel (John 1:1-2) and supports the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ, indicating that the plan of salvation was established before creation.
• Jesus addresses God with the intimate title “Father,” reminding us that every request in this prayer flows out of a perfect, loving relationship (see John 17:11).
• The Son’s confidence in the Father’s willingness to hear Him echoes earlier moments such as John 11:41–42, where He thanks the Father for always hearing.
• By starting with “Father,” the Lord anchors the entire petition in divine authority and unbreakable covenant love (Jeremiah 31:3).
• “I want” reveals not a mere wish but the settled will of Christ, aligning perfectly with the Father’s purpose (John 5:19–20).
• His desire underscores that redemption is not reluctant but deeply passionate—He delights to save (Hebrews 12:2).
• This confident “want” assures believers that their future with Him is guaranteed, echoing John 6:38–40, where the Son came to do the Father’s will and lose none whom He has been given.
• The phrase looks back to John 6:37 and John 10:28–29, affirming that believers are a gift from the Father to the Son.
• It highlights divine election (Ephesians 1:4–5) while safeguarding human dignity: we are treasured presents placed securely in Christ’s hands.
• Because we are the Father’s gift, our security rests not in our grip on God but in His grip on us (Jude 1).
• Jesus promises personal presence, not mere proximity to blessings. John 14:2–3 echoes this pledge: “I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also”.
• The destination is ultimately the new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:3), yet it starts now through the Spirit’s indwelling (John 14:17).
• For the believer, “with Me” dismantles fear of death (2 Corinthians 5:8) and fuels courage in life (Hebrews 13:5–6).
• The purpose of being with Christ is active perception: eternal life means knowing and beholding Him (John 17:3; 1 John 3:2).
• Salvation culminates not merely in deliverance from wrath but in delight—seeing, savoring, and enjoying the unveiled beauty of Jesus (Psalm 17:15).
• This vision transforms; “we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
• The Father granted the Son a unique, radiant glory displayed in the incarnation (John 1:14) and climactically at the cross (John 12:23–24).
• Hebrews 1:3 affirms that the Son is “the radiance of God’s glory,” and believers will witness that splendor unhindered.
• Christ’s glory is not borrowed but shared within the Godhead, yet graciously revealed to His people (2 Thessalonians 1:10).
• The ground of the Son’s glory is the Father’s everlasting love (John 3:35; John 5:20).
• This love is the fountain from which every redemptive blessing flows; what God does for us springs from what God is within Himself—love (1 John 4:8).
• Knowing that the Father loves the Son secures the believer, for we are united to Christ and thus welcomed into that same love (John 17:26).
• The timeline stretches into eternity past, emphasizing that redemption is no afterthought (1 Peter 1:20).
• God’s plan, rooted in pre-creation love (Ephesians 1:4), assures believers that nothing can derail their destiny (Romans 8:29–30).
• The phrase anchors our hope beyond temporal circumstances, reminding us that an eternal God orchestrates our salvation (Revelation 13:8).
John 17:24 reveals Jesus’ heartfelt desire: that every believer, gifted to Him by the Father, will eternally share His presence and behold His divine glory. This promise rests on the Father’s eternal love for the Son, a love that predates creation itself and guarantees our future. Because the Father gave us to Christ, Christ wills that we be with Him; because the Father loved Christ from eternity, we will gaze on His glory for eternity. In this single verse, assurance, purpose, and hope converge, inviting us to live now in confident anticipation of forever with Jesus.
(24) Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.--Better, Father, I will that that which Thou hast given Me, even they may be with Me where I am. The thought of the unity of the Church is still prominent. It is conceived as one collective whole, "that which Thou hast given Me" (comp. John 6:39), and the members of it are thought of as individuals composing the whole, "even they may be."The "I will" expresses the consciousness that His will was that of the Father, and is the prayer of Him who is one with the Father. He had before said, "I pray" (John 17:9, and Note on John 17:20), but the thought of the union with the Father, expressed in John 17:23, leads to the fuller expression of His confidence that the prayer will be answered.
For the words, "with Me where I am," comp. Note on John 14:3. . . .
Verse 24. - Now passing from this glorification of his people in the convictions and knowledge of the world, our Lord offers "as a Son to a Father," and therefore with profound naturalness, the prayer of the incarnate Logos to the eternal Father, and therefore an address indubitably supernatural and lifted above all human consciousness. It is a prayer, too, which rises from the high and unique term ἐρωτῶ (one which he never puts into the lips of his disciples) to a yet higher one, θέλω, as one who speaks with ἐξουσία which God had given him over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to those whom God had given him. Θέλω means less than "I will," and more than "I desire," and is destitute of that element of "counsel" or deliberation that is involved in βουλόμαι. Very soon after this, when the full force of his human consciousness pressed upon him, he said (Mark 14:36), "Not what (ἐγὼ θέλω) I will, but what thou wiliest." But here he is so conscious of the Father's will concerning others that he cries, Father, as for them whom - or, as some ancient codices read, that which - thou hast given me, regarded as a mystic unity, as the Bride which he has redeemed, I will that they also be with me where I am. Κἀκεῖνοι resolves the ὅν into the elements of which it is composed. This is the first part of the final petition, and it embraces everything. "With Christ;" "Forever with the Lord;" in his glory and part of it, in the place which he is going to localize and prepare for them, is heaven. The glory which he had already given to his disciples (Ver. 22) falls far short of this fellowship with him where his undimmed radiance shines, is only a preparation for sharing with him in his ultimate triumph over the world and death, and also for sitting down with him on his throne (Revelation 3:21). In this world fellowship with him in his suffering humanity did not finally reveal the transcendent glory (though in John 1:14 the apostle says, "We beheld his glory," etc.) of his Person. To realize this he prays, And that they may also behold the glory which is mine, which thou hast given me. The glory given cannot be the glory of the λόγος ἀσάρκος, according to Meyer, for that is not given, but belongs to him by eternal right; yet Meyer admits that the Father gave the Son to have life in himself; and that even the eternal Sonship itself may be regarded as the eternal bestowment of an infinite love. Seeing that the Lord goes on to give a reason of his θέλημα founded on an eternal or at least pre-mundane manifestation of a conscious love, surely he is thinking of the exaltation of humanity into the eternal glory, which he distinctly relinquished and veiled in the days of his flesh. That which they had hitherto seen they only partially apprehended, though he had even given it to them (ver. 22), and though they had been drawn out of the world to high places of transfiguration, that they might behold it and learn how it coexisted with and was compatible with a perfect resignation to the will of God in human redemption. Our Lord prays, nay, wills, that they should hereafter see it in its fullness of grace and beauty, see it when relieved from obstructive hindrances due to the flesh and to the world, see it on the grandest scale, see it as it really is, see the full capacity and infinite momentum of the glory which he had already bestowed upon them. For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. This, say Meyer and Luthardt, is given as a reason of the prayer for his disciples, not as an explanation of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. It is often said that the exaltation of the Son of man is a reward for his self-humiliation, and the crown of his sacrificial death (Philippians 2:9; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 1:1, 2), but these very passages couple that exaltation with the premundane glory of him who was, to begin with, and before his work of redemption, the "Effulgence of the Father's glory," who was "in the form of God," and regarded the being equal with God as no ἁρπαγμός ( νοτ as a thing to be seized, prized, and held in its integrity. And in Hebrews 2:9, "He was by reason of his intended passion crowned with glory and honor, in order that he might taste death for every man." So that the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and therefore before his incarnation, was that very glory of self-devoting and unutterable love into which he would come again with all the trophies of his redemptive work. The new and higher embodiment of his humanity would prove of such a kind that his essential glory would shine through it in undimmed luster. If this be the meaning, we cannot dilute this pregnant saying, one of the most mysterious of all his words, one which leads us up to the highest possible conception of the relations between the Father and the Son. The eternal love of which the Godhead itself is the SOURCE and the OBJECT is that to which we shall be introduced, and which our Lord would have us see and share (cf. 1 John 3:1-3).