Gospel of John [17:11-13]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 12. Psalms of the

Title: Gospel of John [17:11-13]. The Lord's priestly prayer; part 12. Psalms of the "name" of God.

 

 

 

JOH 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

JOH 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

The Lord's protection of them was by keeping them in the Father's name. This is obscure until we recognize what the word 'name' means concerning members of the Trinity.

 

The prayer concerns the fact that He will no longer be in the world and so the request is that the Father keep them in His name, the name given to Christ.

 

"name" - God's titles reveal authority, character, rank, majesty, power, and excellence. His name is associated with His attributes.

 

No one can hold this name. Even those who claim the name "god" are false gods with a minor "g". Only His name is associated with His eternal and perfect attributes.

 

Given to the Son: The Lord Jesus Christ. Master (deity and all authority given to His humanity); Jesus (Savior of all mankind, especially of believers); Christ (anointed One, Messiah, High Priest). All that is Yours is Mine. The I am; the first and the last; the Creator; the Word of life; The Son of God; The Son of Man; the Son of David; the Lamb of God; the Bridegroom; the Great Shepherd; the Light of the world; the Bright and Morning star; the Amen…

 

Attributes: Righteousness, justice, love, truth, immutability, eternal life, sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.

 

Only God possesses these. Mankind attempts to duplicate them from his own nature but falls far short. Man uses natural law, like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or property, but these laws come from the Creator or nature's God. God possesses them by His nature and anyone who can confidently say that he has and walks in eternal life, righteousness, love, truth or power, and can claim that he is justified has received them from God by grace.

 

"in His name" means to be in the sphere of these available attributes - possessing and walking in eternal life, righteousness, love, truth, and power.

 

PSA 20:1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!

 

PSA 29:2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name;

Worship the Lord in holy array [adornment].

 

PSA 44:5 Through Thee we will push back our adversaries;

Through Thy name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

 

Psa 52

 

For the choir director. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said to him, "David has come to the house of Ahimelech."

 

When David fled from Saul to Nob where the priest gave him the consecrated bread and the sword of Goliath, Doeg, the chief shepherd of Saul, went and told Saul that the priest had helped David. Saul then instructed his men to kill the priests, but they refused. Saul then told Doeg to kill them and he killed them all, 85 priests, as well as the men and women, children and infants of Nob; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep, he struck with the edge of the sword. David's poem could apply to both Doeg or Saul as they both followed the path of evil for wealth and power amongst the world of men.

 

PSA 52:1 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.

 

PSA 52:2 Your tongue devises destruction, Like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit.

 

PSA 52:3 You love evil more than good, Falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.

 

PSA 52:4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.

 

PSA 52:5 But God will break you down forever; He will snatch you up, and tear you away from your tent, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.

 

PSA 52:6 And the righteous will see and fear, And will laugh at him, saying,

 

PSA 52:7 "Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And was strong in his evil desire."

 

PSA 52:8 But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.

 

PSA 52:9 I will give Thee thanks forever, because Thou hast done it, And I will wait on Thy name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy godly ones.

 

PSA 54:1 Save me, O God, by Thy name,

And vindicate me by Thy power.

 

PRO 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong tower;

The righteous runs into it and is safe.

 

There are many, many more of similar passages in the OT.

 

So special in the sight of God is His name that He will write it upon those CA believers who have overcome through their faith.

 

REV 3:12

'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

 

If I am in the sphere of God's character and influence then I am protected or guarded from the world system, the effects of the sin nature in sin and human good, and the schemes of the KOD.

 

I won't be deceived if I have the truth. I won't fall for false systems if I have His power. I won't be looking in the world system for a fulfilled life when I possess eternal life. I won't be a sucker for self-righteousness when I know I am righteous in Him and am walking in that righteousness. This is guarding us from guilt and condemnation, the various lusts of the flesh and the eyes and the boastful pride of life.

 

JOH 17:11 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

JOH 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition [ruin or destruction], that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

Christ performed this function for the disciples when He was 'in the world.' By the Father's power, imparted to Jesus, Jesus Himself had guarded them as a treasure entrusted to Him by the Father, and now He gives an account of His stewardship. All of them were safe but one, and he was the traitor predicted in the OT. Judas was not lost against his will but with his consent. The offering of the morsel to him at the last supper was Jesus' last appeal, which appeal would have been senseless if Judas had not accomplished his treachery from his own self-determination.

 

The prayer is that the Father will keep us in this sphere of His character and influence.

 

Through the Son, the Father has given to the Church, election, predestination, the completed canon, and God the Holy Spirit.

 

Yet in this fulfillment of prayer, the Father cannot violate our free will. We can resist this sphere but God will have His way if He has to take us home to Him in physical death. Yet with positive volition, God the Father will put a hedge around us that is His essence, character, and influence as is revealed in His plan (election and predestination), His word, and His Spirit. All together it is the sphere of His love.

 

All believers who reside in the sphere of His love are one as the Son and the Father are one.

 

All believers are enveloped in God's love, but not all experience that love in time and so we use the word reside as it is in Joh 15 where the branch that abides in the vine bears much fruit. Our unity as the body of Christ is a present reality when we reside in the sphere of our Lord's agape love. When we don't there is division, faction, judging, maligning, slander, etc.

 

In the hours before His cross our Lord was protecting us through this prayer of prayers. He reveals His love for us right up to His last breath.  

 

This grace is meritless and it does not operate as the Law did.

 

When we speak in terms of love, we are on a plane where law, other than the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, is not at home.

 

If the Law in terms of rules, ritual, works, etc. is the basis of men's acceptance with God, then the details of personal merit and demerit are of the utmost relevance. But as stated so well in the NT it is not on the basis of works but by the response of faith - the faith which made possible by the love of God. It is never a matter of working for it, being more moral for it, or earning it in some way, but in coming to know it in faith and then walking in its environment. This is the exercise of eternal life and it is precisely why our experience can be the fullness of Christ's joy.

 

In our Lord's parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the last hired workmen did not bargain with their employer about their pay. If a denarius was the fair rate for a day's work, those who  worked for the last hour only might have expected a small fraction of that, but they accepted his undertaking to give them whatever seemed right to the owner. They received a denarius just as the others who worked all day. The point being that the grace of God, and included in those gifts, the love of God, is not to be parceled out and adjusted to the varieties of individual merit. There actually was a coin in use that was worth one twelfth of a denarius called a pondion. But there is no such thing as a twelfth part of the love of God.