Series: The Theological Blueprint — Study 13 (Study Edition)

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." — John 17:3

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED...

  • If you could hear Jesus define God, what would he say?
  • Did the risen, glorified Jesus still have a God?
  • What creed leads to eternal life?

THE NIGHT HE DEFINED ETERNAL LIFE

1 Suppose you could ask Jesus one question: "Teacher — who is God?" You do not have to suppose. On the last night of his life, praying aloud with his disciples listening, Jesus answered it — and defined eternal life while he was at it. Read John 17:1–3. "Father... this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Read it slowly, because every word is placed. The Father is addressed as "you" — and called "the only true God." Only: total exclusivity. And then Jesus names himself as a second, distinct object of knowledge — defined not as the true God, but by his credential: "whom you have sent."

2 The sentence's structure is the whole Blueprint in miniature: the one God — and his commissioned human Messiah, the Sent One (Study 07's shaliach). The Sender, and the sent; the only true God, and the man he anointed. Jesus prayed the Shema's theology in Greek, on the night of his supreme test — and made knowing it the definition of eternal life. Whatever we believe about Jesus must be something Jesus himself could pray.

1, 2. (a) Whom does Jesus call "the only true God"? (b) How does Jesus identify himself in the same sentence?

THE CREED ACROSS HIS WHOLE LIFE

3 Was that one dark night's humility? Trace the confession across his entire career. At the height of public ministry, asked for the greatest commandment, he recites Israel's creed: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one" — and when a scribe glosses it strictly, "there is no other besides him," Jesus commends him: "You are not far from the kingdom" (Mark 12:29–34; Study 01). To a rich inquirer he deflects even a compliment upward: "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18). In the upper room: "the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). On the cross, the creed becomes a cry in his mother tongue: "Eloi, Eloi — my God, my God" (Mark 15:34).

4 Everything he had, he described as received. Read John 5:26 and 5:30. "As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." "I can do nothing on my own... I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." Authority to judge — given (5:22, 27). His teaching — "not mine, but his who sent me" (7:16). The disciples, the words, the glory, even the divine name he bore — all "you gave me" (17:6–8, 11–12, 22–24). His life is one long cascade of gifts from his God, handed faithfully onward. That is not a diminished Son. That is the perfect Son — whose glory is precisely that nothing originates with him and everything is received and returned.

3, 4. (a) How did Jesus confess the creed at ministry's height, in the upper room, and on the cross? (b) What did he say about everything he possessed?

THE DATUM THAT SETTLES IT: AFTER THE RESURRECTION

5 Here is where many explanations quietly fail. It is often said that Jesus' God-ward statements reflect only his temporary humbled state — etiquette for the earthly mission, set aside at glory. Then read what the risen Lord says, death behind him, on resurrection morning. Read John 20:17. "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." My God — after the tomb is empty.

6 And follow the confession upward into glory itself. The apostles bless "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:3) and pray to "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory" concerning his exalted session (1:17, 20). And in the book of Revelation, the glorified Christ — walking among the lampstands in blazing majesty — says "my God" four times in one verse: "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God... the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God" (Revelation 3:12). The Son's God-ward relation is not the costume of a thirty-year mission. It is his permanent, joyful posture — from Galilee to the throne — exactly as Paul says the story ends: the Son himself subjected, "that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28; Study 19).

5, 6. (a) What did the risen Jesus call the Father? (b) How many times does the glorified Christ say "my God" in Revelation 3:12?

HONORING THE SON THE WAY THE FATHER DOES

7 Does this creed shrink Jesus? Hear how it locates his glory instead. "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (John 5:22–23). The Father's own arrangement is maximal honor for the Son — as his sent one, his exact representative: "whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (14:9), because "the Father who dwells in me does his works" (14:10). No one comes to the Father except through him (14:6). The creed does not choose between loving the only true God and honoring his Messiah; it commands both, in the Father's own order.

8 So: what did Jesus believe about God? That his Father is the only true God — and that he himself is that God's sent, anointed, beloved Son. The church confesses most safely where her Lord prayed most plainly. And the stakes could not be higher or sweeter, for he attached eternal life to this knowledge: not to a formula about natures, but to knowing — covenant-knowing — the only true God, through the Messiah he sent. That knowledge is open to you tonight, in the very words he prayed.

7, 8. (a) How does the Father want the Son honored? (b) To what did Jesus attach eternal life?

📖 KEY SCRIPTURES IN THIS STUDY

John 17:1–8, 22–26 · Mark 12:29–34 · Mark 10:18 · John 14:6–10, 28 · Mark 15:34 · John 5:19–30 · John 20:17 · Ephesians 1:3, 17 · Revelation 3:12 · 1 Corinthians 15:28

💬 SHARING THIS TRUTH

A way in: "If you could hear Jesus define God in his own prayer — would you want to read it? It's one verse." Discussion questions:

  1. "In John 17:3, who is 'the only true God' — and how is Jesus identified?"
  2. "The risen Jesus said 'my God' (John 20:17) — and the glorified Jesus said it four times in Revelation 3:12. What does that settle?"
  3. "How does John 5:23 command us to honor the Son?"

✅ IN REVIEW

  • Jesus defined eternal life: knowing "you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
  • He confessed the creed across his whole life — Shema, "no one is good but God," "the Father is greater than I," "my God, my God."
  • Everything he had, he received — and that receiving is his glory.
  • The confession continues after the resurrection and in glory: "my God," four times in one verse.
  • The Father commands the Son be honored as himself — the Sent One, through whom alone we come.

For the full evidentiary treatment, see the complete Study 13 in this archive.

Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one — so prayed the Messiah on his darkest night: the only true God, and the Son he sent — and to know them both is life everlasting.