Jesus’ prayer for his work on the cross is powerful and effective, his work is going to provide eternal life for all those who the Father has given him and thus come to him by faith, and now Jesus begins to pray for all of his people, all of them. That means you and me.
If you hear nothing else, hear that Jesus has prayed for you if you are his by faith, and his prayers are always answered because he always prays in line with the Father’s will, and is himself doing the Father’s will to pray effectively for you and me. Wow!
John 17:6-26 (CSB) 6 “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. 13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”
What does Jesus pray for us?
- Protect us by the name that Father has given him so that we may be one as God is one. V. 11
- Jesus asks that we’d be protected in his name by being one. This means that our protection is only as we are covered by him and identified as his, and the protection is from being something other than one people.
- Not to take us out of the world, but that we would be protected from the evil one. V. 15
- Jesus asks to be protected from Satan and his mission while keeping us on mission in the world.
- Sanctify us in the truth, which is his word. V. 17
- Jesus asks that we’d be made holy by his word.
- That we would be one people identified as God’s people. V. 21
- Jesus asks that we’d be identified as God’s people in unity on his mission.
- That we would be where Jesus is so we can see his glory. V. 24
- Jesus asks for us to see his glory.
Our protection comes as we are identified as Jesus’ people. In his name. On his mission. Doing his work NOT by our self-protective measures. We don’t get to escape the world. Rather we’ve been sent on mission with a message that will redeem the world, and we get protection from being ultimately defeated by evil. We might not be spared death, but we will be made holy. We don’t get to escape hardship and slander and abandonment and misunderstanding and a host of other hard things. But we will be kept as God’s people.
We don’t get to be individuals. Rather, we get the Trinitarian distinction of being one body made of many parts. We were created to behold the glory of God and take delight in his glory, and we will see Jesus in all his splendor and finally and fully experience great joy.
These will be accomplished because Jesus asked for them for us. If he asked for them for us, then we might need these more than we perceive we need them, and we may need the things we think we need less than we perceive. So, maybe this is an opportunity for self-evaluation.
Finally, the answers to these prayers have to be secured on an old rugged cross outside the gate under the condemnation of God the Father as Jesus is crushed for my transgressions.
These blood-bought glories are for my joy and God’s glory, and the payment is coming due on the Day of Atonement. The day of reckoning for my sin. A hard and dark road lies ahead for Jesus, but only goodness, mercy, and love for us.
Theology in the Dirt 