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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For 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. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ~ John 17:6-9
In this chapter-long prayer, the Lord Jesus prays that He may be glorified (v.1-5), His disciples may be protected and sanctified (v.6-19), and the church may be unified (v.20-26). Today, we will consider v.6-9.
Through this prayer, the Lord Jesus brings attention to the concept of "giving" which is used six times in four verses in various forms. This theme, "giving," occurs 75 times in John's gospel. Yet again, we see a subtle hint to the theme of this gospel: the fullness of God, the emptiness of man.
This theme of giving is linked to the oneness the Lord Jesus longs for with the Father, as it was before time began. In this section of His prayer, both the Father and the Son are seen as "givers" and their mutual giving highlights the greatest concept known to man: grace.
Nothing changes the heart like grace. Like water, grace always runs down hill. Spurgeon once said, "We stand before God as if we were Christ because Christ stood before God as if He were you and me." This is the product of such grace.
Grace is God giving to us something that we cannot obtain on our own. Grace is being accepted by God even though we do not deserve it. When God laid on the Lord Jesus our sin, He made it possible for us to enter into a relationship with Him. The Lord Jesus received our deserved punishment, which Romans 6:23 declares is death. God declared that if we believe that His Son paid the penalty for that which separated us from Him, we will be forgiven of every wrong thing we have ever done or will ever do. This is the provision of His grace.
As He did in v.2, the Lord Jesus says in v.6 that the Father "gave" the disciples to Him. As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we are the precious possession of the Father who has carefully entrusted us to His Son. This enables us to know the security which comes from belonging to the Father and the Lord Jesus. To know that we belong to God is to know the dependability of His sovereignty, and even though He may take us through some rough stuff, we can rest assured that we are in the safe and firm grip of the Father for eternity.
The Lord Jesus says, in v.6, His disciples "obeyed" the Father's word, a phrase that He elaborates on in v.7-8. The disciples, He says, now know the giving heart of the Father. The disciples accepts the definition of all things from the Father and therefore are being defined by them. Obedience is steeped in our understanding of the Father's heart for us.
According to v.7-8, the disciples now "knew with certainty" that the Lord Jesus came from the Father and "believed" that the Father sent Him. The disciples "obeyed" God's word after receiving the words of the Lord Jesus and believing in His divine origin. Obeying the word of God shows the power changing nature of His word. The Bible is not simply words about God, it is the Word of God.
The Word of God is the voice of God in print, and it changes us from the inside out. In Hebrews 4:12, we read, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
In the scriptures, we learn of God's heart for us. In v.6, we learn that the Lord Jesus had "revealed" the name of God to us and He has give the words of God to us (v.7) so that we might believe the gospel and know God. Earlier, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that "I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15). Because the Lord Jesus considers us His friends, He has shared with us the truth from God.
The Lord Jesus is the possessor of this special treasure, and He has shared it with us. In v.9, we see that the Lord Jesus prays for the disciples, not for the world, because He's sending the disciples into the world to reach it (John 17:20). God's exclusivity of us should produce inclusivity for the world. This has always been His plan. In fact, He said to Abraham, "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
