THOSE WHOM YOU GAVE ME
By Tomm | May 23, 2024 | Comments 0 Comment
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
John 17:12
God has given people to Christ. This is true in a narrow and in a broad context. Our text derives from the High Priestly Prayer, uttered by Christ on the night of the Last Supper. John heard it and recorded it. In that prayer, Christ has quite a lot to say about the people God had given Him. In the immediate context He speaks of the disciples. These were those twelve men into whom He had poured Himself for the last three years. They were a ragtag group of unlikely candidates to potentially change the world. They were however, by Christ’s Own statement, ‘those whom You gave me.’ They included Judas Iscariot, the one of the twelve who betrayed Him. Christ took upon Himself the responsibility of teaching them spiritual truth as He exemplified it. He ‘kept them in Your name,’ as He says in our text. In time we intend to consider, not only how He kept them, but also how He keeps us. This is important to our understanding of the security we have in Christ. He kept them. He will keep us also.
O Great Shepherd of the sheep,
we rejoice that You keep Your people.
We praise You that we have in You
absolute security.
Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning