John 17:6-216I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:6‑21)
THE first and pre-eminent desire of the heart of Christ is to secure the glory of the Father. This is the great object in the first portion of the prayer. The second desire of the heart of Christ is that He, Himself, may be glorified in His saints, as He can say, “I am glorified in them” (10). This desire, apparently, underlies the requests in this fresh portion of the prayer.
The Lord in His path on earth had glorified the Father in heaven. Now, as He takes His place in heaven, He desires that His disciples should glorify Him in their path on earth. In order to give effect to this desire, He very blessedly sets the feet of His disciples in the path that His feet had trodden, before the Father.
(Vv. 6-8). In the opening verses of this part of the prayer the Lord designates those for whom He prays, and presents the characteristics that endear them to Himself and call forth His prayer on their behalf.
First, they are a company of people who have been drawn out of the world, and given to Christ by the Father, and hence loved by Christ as a gift from the Father.
Second, they are a company to whom the Lord had manifested the Father’s name. In Scripture a name sets forth all that a person is. When Moses is sent by Jehovah to Israel, he says they will ask, “What is His name?” This amounts to saying, “If I tell them your name they will know who you are.” So the manifestation of the Father’s name is the declaration of all that the Father is.
Third, not only had the Lord declared the Father, but He had given to His disciples the “words” which the Father had given Him. He shared with them the communications that He had received from the Father, so that they not only learn who the Father is in all His love and holiness, but, through the “words,” they learn the Father’s mind. If the “word” reveals who He is, the “words” reveal His mind and thoughts.
Further they are a company who by grace had responded to these revelations, and thus the Lord can say of them, “They have kept Thy word:” “They have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee:” “They have received” the words: they “have known surely that I came out from Thee;” and lastly “they have believed that Thou didst send Me.”
(V. 9-11). Having thus designated those for whom He prays, the Lord very blessedly intimates why He prays for them. Ever thinking of the Father, the Lord states “they are Thine” as His first reason for praying for them. Already the Lord has said, “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me,” but He can still say “they are Thine.” They did not cease to be the Father’s, because the Father gave them to the Son, for the Lord adds, “All mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” Rich with meaning is this double statement, for, as Luther has been reported to have said, Any one might justly say to God ‘All that is mine is Thine,’ but no created being could go on to say, ‘And all that is Thine is mine.’ This is a word for Christ alone.
Then, as a second great reason for praying for His disciples, the Lord adds, “I am glorified in them.” We are left in this world to represent the One who has gone to glory, and the measure in which Christ is seen in His people, is the measure in which He is glorified before the world.
Moreover, there is yet another reason that calls forth the Lord’s prayer. Christ is no more in the world to protect His own by His actual presence with them. He is going to the Father, while His own are left behind in the midst of an evil and Christ-hating world. How great then will be their need of the Lord’s prayer on their behalf.
(V. 11). In the latter half of verse eleven we pass from hearing the reasons for the Lord’s prayer, to listening to the definite requests that the Lord makes to the Father. These petitions are fourfold. First, that His disciples may be kept in holiness; second, that they may be one; third, that they may be kept from evil; lastly, that they may be sanctified. At once we can appreciate how necessary are these requests, for if Christ is to be glorified in His own how needful that they should be holy in nature, united in heart, separate from evil, and sanctified to the Lord’s use.
The first request is that the disciples may be kept in accord with the name of the Holy Father. This involves our maintenance in the holiness that His nature demands. Peter, in his epistle, may have had this request in his mind, when he exhorted those who call on the Father to be holy in all manner of conversation.
The Lord’s second desire is expressed in the words, “that they may be one as We.” It is important to remember that holiness comes before unity, for there is the danger of seeking unity at the expense of holiness. This is the first of the three “unities” to which the Lord refers in the course of the prayer. It is primarily the unity of the Apostles. The Lord desires that they may be “one as We.” This is a unity of aim, thought, and purpose, such as existed between the Father and the Son.
(Vv. 12-14). Between the second and third requests we are permitted to hear the Lord presenting to the Father the reasons for His intercession. While in the world He had kept His disciples in the Father’s name, and guarded them from all the power of the enemy. Now that the Lord was going to the Father, He permits us to hear His words so that we may know His guardianship does not cease, though its method is changed. Before He goes to the Father He would have us know that we are put into the Father’s loving care. This would lead to Christ’s joy being fulfilled in the disciples. Even as the Lord had walked in the unclouded enjoyment of the Father’s love, so He would have us to walk in the joy of knowing we are under the care of the Father, who loves us with the eternal and unchanging love wherewith He loves the Son.
Moreover the Lord has given His disciples the Father’s word. The “word” of the Father is the revelation of the eternal counsels of the Father. Entering into these counsels we drink of the river of His pleasure—a river that widens as it flows, bearing us along through millennial ages into the ocean of eternity. Thus, even as the Son, the disciples would not only have the joy of knowing they were under the guardian love of the Father, but they would also know the blessing that love had purposed for them.
Furthermore, if they enjoyed the Son's portion before the Father they would also share His portion in relation to the world. The world hated Christ because He was not of it. There was nothing in common between Christ and the world. He was but a Stranger here, moved by motives and governed by objects entirely foreign to this world. If He was misunderstood and hated, we also, if following in His path, will be hated by the world.
Thus most blessedly the disciples are set before the Father in the same position that the Son had occupied before the Father as a Man on earth. The Father’s name is revealed to them; the Father’s word is given to them; the Father’s care is assured to them; Christ’s joy is their joy; Christ’s reproach and Christ’s strangership is their portion in this world.
(Vv. 15, 16). Now the Lord resumes His requests. The first two requests were connected with things in which the Lord desires His disciples to be kept—holiness and unity. The last two requests are more in connection with things from which He desires they may be preserved. Thus it is the Lord prays that the disciples may be kept from the evil of the world. He does not pray that they may be taken out of it—the time for this had not come—for He had work for them to do in the world. The world, however, being evil, is an ever present danger to His own, hence He prays “Keep them from the evil.”
(V. 17). Separation from actual evil is not enough, therefore the Lord also prays for our sanctification. The distinctive truth in sanctification is not simply separation from evil, but rather devotedness and suitability to God. The sanctification for which the Lord prays is not the absolute sanctification which is secured by His death, brought before us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we read “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” In the prayer it is the practical sanctification by which we are divested of all that is unsuitable to God in our thoughts, habits, and practical ways, in order that we may be “sanctified and meet for the Master’s use” (2 Tim. 2:2121If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21)).
We gather from the Lord’s words that there are two ways in which this practical sanctification is effected. First by the truth. The Lord speaks of the truth as being “Thy Word,” that is the Father’s Word. All Scripture, indeed, is the Word of God, but the Father’s Word has probably more in view the New Testament, revealing the Father’s name, the Father’s mind, and the Father’s counsel. Every declaration of the name of God calls for a corresponding separation from the world and sanctification to God. To Abraham, God declared, “I am the Almighty God,” and immediately adds, “Walk before Me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:11And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1)). To Israel God revealed Himself as Jehovah, and God looked that Israel’s ways should correspond to this name. They were to “fear this glorious and fearful name” (Deut. 28:5858If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; (Deuteronomy 28:58)). How much more should there be a sanctification that corresponds to the full revelation of God as the Father.
(V. 18). This separation from evil, and sanctification to God is in view of the disciples’ service—that they may be morally fit to carry out their mission. This we may gather from the Lord’s words that follow, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Already the Lord has viewed the disciples as in His position before the Father; now He views them as having His place before the world.
(V. 19). Now we learn that there is a second way by which the Lord effects our practical sanctification. Verse 17 has told us of the sanctifying effect of the truth. Here the Lord speaks of sanctifying Himself that we might be sanctified through the truth. The Lord sets Himself apart in the glory to become an Object to attract our hearts outside this present world. We have not only the truth to enlighten our minds, search our consciences, and encourage us in the path, but we have, in Christ in the glory, a living Person to powerfully affect our hearts. Attracted by His excellencies, and held by His love, we shall find ourselves increasingly sanctified by the truth that is livingly set forth in Him.
(Vv. 20, 21). At this point in the prayer the Lord very blessedly thinks of all those who will believe on Him through the Apostles’ word. He looks down the long ages and brings within the scope of His requests all those who will compose His assembly. In connection with this wider circle the Lord adds a second request for unity, yet differing somewhat from the first request. There the unity was limited to the Apostles, and it was a request that they might be “one as We.” Here, taking in the wider circle, it is a request that they might be “one in Us.” This surely is a unity formed by their common interest in the Father and the Son. In social position, intellectual abilities, or material wealth, there may be, and will be, great differences, but the Lord prays that “In Us” —the Father and the Son—they may be one. This oneness was to be a testimony to the world—an evident proof that the Father must have sent the Son to effect such a result. Was there not at Pentecost a partial answer to this prayer when “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul”?