1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:1-3
Jesus said on occasion during his ministry that the time or hour had not yet come for him to act as suggested. That time had finally arrived. Time to move from one dispensation to another, one in which Jesus, by dying, would exchange his life that he might save those whom the Father had given him. Note the tenses. The selection process was in the past, the glory exchange would occur on the cross, and the invitations to receive eternal life would be delivered thereafter.
It should not be glossed over that this verse clearly indicates the sovereignty of God in the choices he made. This does not negate our responsibility to accept our invitation through faith, but it’s arguable that we could spurn him. Based on the truths presented in this lofty exchange, one necessarily must consider the invitation irresistible, to use a loaded theological term. I am asked to accept the paradox that he chose me, yet I chose him of my own free will. Both are theologically sustainable truths. When we allow both to coexist, we are the happiest.
The kind of knowing indicated here in the Greek, ginōskō, to come to know, recognize, perceive, can be best described by the experience of a virgin bride on her wedding night. This is an experience that cannot be unknown. The divine invitation causes one to come face to face with Jesus, to see his hands and feet as did Thomas (John 20:26-29), to realize with certainty that he is alive and that he has come with a gift in his hand. Thomas responded by emphatically declaring “my Lord and my God.”
Consider the words of the writer of Hebrews.
4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Hebrews 6:4–6
You can’t step back over the line once it’s been crossed by an act ordained by God. To “deconstruct” that which God has rendered is impossible. If you have experienced all aspects of the faith as described, which are very real, how could one then reject the endowment already in one’s possession, that is, the enlightenment, the heavenly gift, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the living word of God, and the powers that will be exercised in full in the age to come?
Only a counterfeit faith concocted with one’s own power can be dismantled like a tent. It is possible, however, to be truly miserable in a temporarily sinful, unrepentant state. Like Thomas, you admit your “faithlessness,” declare your allegiance, and go on.
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