Matthew Henry
John 17:26. And I in them.
There is no getting into the love of God but through Christ. Nor can we keep ourselves in that love but by abiding in Christ – that is, having Him to abide in us. Nor can we have the sense and apprehension of that love but by our experience of the indwelling of Christ – that is, the Spirit of Christ in our hearts. It is Christ in us that is the only hope of glory (Col 1:27) that will not make us ashamed.
All our communion with God, the reception of His love to us with our return of love to Him again, passes through the hands of the Lord Jesus, and the comfort of it is owing purely to Him. Christ had said but a little before, “I in them” (v23), and here it is repeated (though the sense was complete without it), and the prayer closed with it, to show how much the heart of Christ was set upon it; all His petitions centre in this, and with this the prayers of Jesus, the Son of David, are ended: “I in them”; let Me have this, and I desire no more”. It is the glory of the Redeemer to dwell in the redeemed: it is His rest for ever, and He has desired it. Let us therefore make our
1Taken, with slight editing from Henry’s Commentary, on the words at the top of the article. Henry is pointing out from these words that the only way to have communion with God is to be in union with Him in Christ.
union with Christ sure, and then take the comfort of His intercession. This prayer had an end, but that He ever lives to make.