More Verses: Jesus Gives His All

With these final verses in what is known as the prayer of Jesus or Jesus' last discourse, Jesus speaks to the Father about those who the Father has given Him--those who believe in Jesus and who are called out of the world yet live in the world.  He prays for us. That is any of us who believe in Jesus Christ, remain in His love, obey His command.  Jesus iterates that we know that He comes from the Father, and He asks that we be made one as they are one.

John 17:3  'Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.'

John 17:6-11  'I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 

'I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.'

Jesus reveals much in His words confided to the Father and expressed to us through Scripture.  He protected us when He was with His followers on earth, and He secures our protection from the Father after He returns to the Father.  Only Judas was lost, in order for the Scripture to follow its course.

John 17:12-19 'When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. 

'I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 

Jesus repeats that we may share in His joy completely.  He explains why the world hates His followers:  We do not belong to the "world" any more than Jesus belongs to the "world".  We belong to the Kingdom of God.  Yet Jesus asks that we be protected from the devil, and we have been and are protected...unless we choose not to remain in Christ's love and obey His command.

Jesus next asks the Father to consecrate us in His word which is truth.  Jesus already consecrated Himself for us so that we may be consecrated in the truth.  To consecrate means to make sacred, to dedicate formally to a divine purpose.  We are consecrated to the truth [and the holy Spirit of truth] and sent into the world.  Why?  To fulfill our consecration, our sacred purpose, which is to tell the world the truth of Jesus Christ, His words and salvation for all souls.

'Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Again Jesus tells His heavenly Father that He prays not only for us, but for any who will believe in Jesus through what we tell them.  The divine purpose is that we all may be one with Jesus Christ and the Father, as they are one.  This is a Trinitarian union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

We are consecrated with the divine purpose to tell the world about Jesus and our salvation, that He redeemed our sins, laid down His life for us.  Jesus repeats that He has given them the glory that the Father gave Him, so that we may be in union and brought to perfection as one, and that the world will know this as a testimony that the Father sent Jesus, His Son, and loves us as the Father loves the Son.

John 17:20-26 'I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 

And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. 

Jesus makes clear that we are the Father's gift to Him.  A gift is something freely given to another, without payment.  Can we fathom the height of Jesus' love for us, that He considers us a gift, when He gave up His life in reparation for our sins, so that we may have salvation for eternity?  

Then Jesus desires us to be where he is, so that we might see His glory and the love of the Father since before the earth existed.  In being with Him, does Jesus mean in the spiritual perfection of divine union, as well as in the reality of the truth of Jesus' being one in the Father and the Holy Spirit? 

Jesus states the reality: the world does not know God. But Jesus knows God the Father, as He they are one, and we know Jesus was sent by God because we believe Jesus, believe in Him. And Jesus has made it known to us that the love that God has for His Son may also be in us, and Jesus in us...because when we believe in Jesus we may remain in His love.

'Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.'