The Finished Work of Christ

John 17

John chapter 17 can be broken into three pericopes: Jesus prays for Himself (John 17:1-5); Jesus prays for His disciples (John 17:6-19); and Jesus prays for all believers (John 17:20-26). The focus of this article will be what Jesus asks of the Father in the prayer for Himself in verses 4 and 5: “I have glorified You on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. Now Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You before the world existed.”

Jesus implores the Father that He restore Him to the place where He existed before time began based on the work the Father gave Him to complete. What is this work? It is the work to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 5:17). The agreement between the Father and the Son is what’s called the Covenant of Redemption. In describing the Covenant of Redemption, The Westminster Handbook to Reformed Theology states:

A connecting
link between the divine decree and God’s covenant with humanity
was the covenant of redemption, which many Reformed theologians
defined as the eternal pact between the Father and the Son
whereby the Father commissioned the Son to be the Savior and gave
him a people. The Son agreed to fulfill all righteousness and
give his life for the salvation of humankind. Thus, before the
foundation of the world a covenantal relationship existed in the
Godhead as the archetype of that which was to appear later in
history. Scriptural support stemmed from John 3:16; John 5:20,
22, 36; John 10:17-18; John 17:2, 4, 6, 9, 24; Psalm 2:7-8;
Hebrews 1:8-13. "mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=
""> "MsoFootnoteReference">¹

There are many theologians that deny that such a covenant between the first and
and second person of the trinity exists. They fail to see that there is
covenantal language used throughout Scripture even though the
word covenant does not always appear. For instance, in Genesis
2-3 we do not see the word covenant when God tests Adam in the
Garden. Nevertheless, we read in Hosea, “But they, like Adam,
have violated the covenant; there they have betrayed Me” (Hosea
6:7).

Jesus speaks of “completing the work” in which His Father gave
Him. Therefore, there must be some agreement between the Father
and the Son or why else would the Son speak of completing what
the Father gave Him to do. In defending the Covenant of
Redemption and its connection to election, Dr. Michael Horton
states:

In the ministry of Christ, for example, the Son is
represented (particularly in the fourth Gospel) as having been
given a people by the Father (John 6:39; John 10:29; John 17:2,
4-10; Ephesians 1:4-14; Hebrews 2:13, citing Isaiah 8:18) who are
called and kept by the Holy Spirit for the consummation of the
new creation (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:11-13; Titus 3:5; 1
Peter 1:5). href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""> "mso-special-character:footnote" class=
"MsoFootnoteReference">²

He goes on to say, “Not only were we chosen in
Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV);
Christ himself is spoken of as “the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 KJV). "mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=
""> "MsoFootnoteReference">³ By viewing the
whole of Scripture through covenantal lenses, we answer the
question “How does God save sinners?”

Christ as the second Adam accomplished what the first Adam
could not (Romans 5:18-19). Adam as the federal representative of
all humanity failed to keep God’s covenant which then caused sin
and death to pass to all of Adam’s posterity. On the other hand,
Christ, the federal representative of the elect, fulfilled the
Covenant of Works. So then, our sins are imputed to Him and His
righteousness is imputed to us. This is why the apostle Paul
through the Spirit could testify “Therefore, no condemnation now
exists for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The law can no
longer condemn us to death because Christ fulfilled the law and
His fulfillment is imputed to us and not to us alone but all
those who place their faith in Him.

³ Ibid., 80