John 17:6-19 - Preserved by a Name

Chad Werkhoven
40 minutes ago
4 min read

You're protected by God's most powerful attribute: His Name.

Text on an image of Earth from space reads: “THAT THEY MAY BE ONE EVEN AS WE ARE ONE” and "John 17:11.” Stars visible in the black sky. — Knowing-Jesus.com

John 17:6-10 (NIV)

CONTEXT: This is part of what's often referred to as Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed on our behalf in the moments before His arrest and crucifixion.

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.⁷Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election

Point 2 - Limited Atonement

Point 3 - Total Depravity

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace

Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints

Article 8: The Certainty of This Preservation

It is
- not by our own merits or strength
- but by God’s undeserved mercy
- that we
  - neither forfeit faith and grace totally
  - nor remain in our downfalls to the end and are lost.
With respect to ourselves
- this not only easily could happen,
- but also undoubtedly would happen;
but with respect to God
- it cannot possibly happen,
- since
  - his plan cannot be changed,
  - his promise cannot fail,
  - the calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked,
  - the merit of Christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified,
  - and the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out.

Summary

This is one of those passages of Scripture that we could focus on for several weeks straight and still not uncover all of the treasure present in it. Isn't it just amazing to realize that in this moment of agony, where Jesus in His human nature felt the full measure of fear and despair as He faced the cross, remained focused on us, His disciples!

Notice how Jesus differentiates you as His disciple. He thinks of you as being holy - that is, one who is set apart. He prays, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. This is one of the key reasons you need to constantly be reminded that your life must look different from the world around you, for you are not your own. You've been given to Christ by our Father.

So today we'll limit ourselves to one of the key things Jesus asked for you of His Father: that He would protect you by the power of His name. Think of all the ways that God had protected His people in the past: He opened the Red Sea for them to pass through; He surrounded His people with His innumerable angel army; He tamed the lions and kept them from devouring Daniel; the list goes on and on.

But here Jesus asks our Father for something much more powerful: to keep you clothed in His Name, protected not only from the evils of this world, but from the temptations of Sarx you face from within so that nothing in all creation can ever separate you from belonging to Him.

Dig Deeper

The Canons root your preservation - that is, your ability to remain faithful to Christ until He returns or calls you home - in God's attributes. In other words, you're not holding on by your own merits or strength, but through the power of God's Name, which Jesus prayed that you would be kept in.

You cannot possibly be lost, the Canons point out, since:

God's plan cannot be changed,
God's promise cannot fail,
and God's calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked.

Jesus went on to implore His Father on your behalf: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. This aspect of Jesus' prayer often gets watered down into the trite phrase that we are in this world, but not of this world.

Perhaps a better way to phrase that would be to say that you are very much in this world, by God's will, but you are protected from both it and the evil one because you bear the name of the Triune, living God.

AAA Prayer (About)

ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who protects us in the power of His Name;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your life would reflect the Name you've been given;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: