April 7, 2002

KEPT THROUGH HIS NAME

John 17:11-19

   "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou has given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, and I have guarded them, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:11-12). The common reading indicated the Lord was asking the Father to keep the men, "those Thou hast given Me..." It is true that these men were distinctly given to the Lord by the Father, but in verses 11 & 12 it is the name which the Father had given Christ by which the men were to be kept.

   The Lord said in 17:6, "I have manifested Thy name to the men..." and it was this name by which they would be kept. God had said to Israel , "I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, and provoke him not...for My name is in him" (Ex. 23:20-21). "They that know thy name will put their trust in Thee..." (Psa. 9:10). "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee...in the name of our God will we set up our banners...but we will remember the name of our God" (Psa. 20:1,5,7). "The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).

   The Lord had indeed manifested the Father's name referring to Him as "Holy Father," "Righteous Father," "Heavenly Father," and "Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (John 17, Matt. 6 & 11). "If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also, and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him. He that has seen Me has seen the Father...How sayest thou, 'Show us the Father'?" (John 14:7-9).

   Thus the Lord prayed that the Father would "keep through Thine own name" those He was leaving behind just as He had "kept them in Thy name" while He was with them. And thus He would conclude His prayer, "I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it; in order that the love wherewith Thou has loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26). Thus the Lord's declaration of the Father is the crowning revelation of God and far exceeds all previous revelation.

Ivan L. Burgener