9 I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and [all things that are] Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.
Who does Jesus pray for?
Jesus continues His prayer for His disciples. Here He prays for the 11 and in v20 He extends it to all disciples, including us. As we saw yesterday, all first belonged to the Father then were given to the Son. And lest we get proud about this, consider this thought from John Piper:
“In other words, God chose you freely to belong to him. By an act of free grace. You did not qualify for God’s choice. Nor did I! It was in spite of disqualification. We were unwilling to come. We loved darkness and hated light and would not come to the light (John 3:19–20). In spite of knowing this about us, God chose some darkness-lovers to be his. And then, to save us from our rebellion and guilt, he gave us to Jesus. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me” (John 17:6).” (desiringgod.org)
Why does He pray?
What does Jesus pray to the Father for His disciples? We will see as we continue in the passage:
- V 11 – keep them in Your name so they may be one.
- V 15 – protect them from the evil one – “deliver us from evil” (The Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:9).
- V 17 – sanctify them in the truth.
- V 20 – talking about future disciples – that they (you and I) may be in the Father and the Son
- V 23 – to be one and perfected in unity. And, so the world may know.
- V 24 – that they (we) would be with Jesus in Heaven. And, see Jesus’ glory!
Father & Son are God
Verse 10 is another clear statement by Jesus that He is equal to the Father; He is God. “Everything we have belongs to God, but not everything He has belongs to us. Anyone can say to God the Father ‘all mine are Yours’; but only Jesus could say ‘and Yours are Mine.’” (enduringword.com)
Glorified in disciples
I struggled a while to see how Jesus is glorified in (not by) the disciples. Verse 22 gives the answer: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”. It’s not our doing, it’s His. He gives us the glory. Ponder that for a while!
RЯeflection
- It would do you well to reflect on these truths. Ponder them in quiet.
