The Revelation of Daddy’s Name

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26, ESV).

This is it. This is the final sentence of Jesus’ prayer before leading His disciples to Gethsemane. The very last line. Thus, the very most important.

In that most critical moment, He prayed that Daddy’s love would be in us. Not only is that what our great Intercessor prayed then – it’s what He continues to pray for us now. It’s what He intensely longs for us to have.

How does it happen? The answer is in His preceding words. “I made known to them Your name.” Jesus has personally shown us, made real and tangible and personal to us, Daddy’s name. His identity. The essence of His heart. As The Message wonderfully expresses it, “I have made your very being known to them.”

Jesus has revealed to us who Daddy is, and He has committed here in this eternal Scripture to continue to make this known to us more and more. This revelation deep in our hearts – this is what will reproduce Daddy’s own love inside of us. The more intimately we know Him, the more profoundly His love will transform the fundamental substance of who we are.

The Passion Translation renders is this way: “I have revealed to them who you are and I will continue to make you even more real to them, so that they may experience the same endless love that you have for me, for your love will now live in them, even as I live in them!”

I find this breathtaking. Jesus is praying for you and me to experience the same infinite depths of passionate, exultant, consuming affection that Daddy has for Him. Not to just hear about it, not to just know about it, but to experience it. To taste it. To drink it. I could just sit here all day and let this truth saturate my whole being. I want it to go deeper and deeper and deeper into my heart. I want it to keep changing who I am.

Jesus prayed that prayer, and He stepped out the door, and He went to the cross. He went to pay the unimaginably costly bill for this to become your reality, and mine. And now He addresses us again with urgent tenderness:

Dear, precious one, stay in my love.
I love you with the same love that the Father loves me. You must continually let my love nourish your heart.
Please, My child…live in my love. (John 15:9, CJB, TPT, GW, personalization mine).

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Jesus prayed this prayer right before He was to die, resurrect, and ascend to heaven. If He was about to leave, how did He intend to “continue to make known” the Father’s name to His disciples?