His Wonderful Gifts
Read John 17
This high-priority prayer of the Lord Jesus is full of spiritual meat for your soul! To think that the Holy Spirit would record this conversation between the Father and the Son! But note, among other things, the three gifts Christ has left with us.
First, He has given us eternal life (v. 2). This is salvation. Eternal life, of course, is a Person: “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 Jn 5:12). Eternal life is a gift: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Note in verses 1-2 that the Father gave the Son authority to give eternal life to those whom the Father gave to the Son! What a wonderful blessing it is to be in the family of God!
He also has given us God’s Word (v. 14); this is for our sanctification. “Sanctify them through they truth; they word is truth” (v. 17). It is not enough to receive the gift of eternal life once and for all; we must daily receive His Word into our hearts for the strengthening and cleansing of the inner man. The Bible is God’s gift to us; what a sin to neglect it!
Finally, He has given us God’s glory (v. 22). Note the tense of the verb: “I have given them.” Romans 8:30 says, “And whom he justified, them he also glorified”–past tense! We have already been glorified; the blessing just has not been revealed! In fact, all of creation is groaning as it waits for the moment God’s children will reveal that glory (Ro 8:18-23).
These three gifts cover every aspect of our salvation–past, present, and future: salvation, sanctification, and glorification. What more do you want?
(Copyright, Warren W. Wiersbe. First appeared in Thoughts for Men on the Move. May not be copied or reproduced without express written permission of the author.)
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
