John 17:11–13 (WEL) “Now, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. I am coming to you. Holy Father, through your own name, keep safe those whom you have given me, so they may be one as we. 12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them safe in your name. I have protected those you gave me, and none are lost except the son of perdition so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 “Now I am coming to you. I am speaking these things in the world so that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
V11 “Now, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. I am coming to you. Holy Father, through your own name, keep safe those whom you have given me, so they may be one as we.
Note the care that Jesus has for His people, believers, for the future. He has a plan and appeals to God the Father, Jesus’s father, to protect believers in every spiritual war we face.
Once we trust the good news of Jesus Christ (John 3:15–18) and God gently opens our hearts and minds (Acts 16:14), He invites us to believe (Matthew 11:28). In that moment, we become part of Jesus’ flock and are welcomed into His body, the church (Ephesians 3:6 and Colossians 1:18).
The one is the bond (attachment) by faith, love, trust, obedience, loyalty, etc. We are one because we work together for the glory of God.
V12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them safe in your name. I have protected those you gave me, and none are lost except the son of perdition so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Jesus as the completely wise and loving Shepherd protects those who believe in Him. We might physically be martyred, but our souls never die (Matthew 10:28).
Jesus does not teach that God decreed Judas Iscariot to hell as some theologies rejoice in. He knows who is evil and remains evil. Needing a traitor to betray Jesus, He chose a man who was self-serving. The same need showed itself in the choice of the Exodus pharaoh. Judas rejected God and His salvation.
The Greek word perdition is G0684 ἀπώλεια apōleia, which means (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (Louw & Nida)) “to destroy or to cause the destruction of persons, objects, or institutions— to ruin, to destroy, destruction.” Basically, as I understand it, Judas was not decreed to be a reprobate as some falsely accuse God. He has crossed God’s red line and is doomed to eternal destruction. God does know the future; it is a character trait that only God has. God knowing the future is not God decreeing the future and having a perfect memory, thus rendering it certain and unchangeable. God knows both what can be known naturally, as the position of a star or planet 1,000 years in the future, and what only God can know regarding someone’s decisions, thoughts, or actions in the future. Foreknowledge is foresight.
Romans 8:29 (WEL) Because whom he foreknew, he also predestined to conform to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Foreknowledge is different from predestination.
Foreknowledge is G4267 προγινώσκω proginṓskō, knowing beforehand:
- Acts 26:5 They who knew me from the beginning—if they would testify—have known that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee.
- 1 Peter 1:20 Truly foreknown before the foundation of the world but appeared in these last times for you.
- 2 Peter 3:17 Therefore, beloved, seeing that you know this ahead of time, be on guard lest you also get led away with the deception of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness,
Predestination is G4309 προορίζω proorízō, which means to predetermine, decide beforehand.
- Acts 4:27-29 “For truly against your holy child, Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered 28 “To do whatever your hand and purpose had decided beforehand to be done, 29 “Now Lord, see their threatenings and grant to your servants to speak your word with complete boldness
- 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 But we talk about God’s wisdom, which was kept secret in a mystery, which God already decided on before the world began for our glory, 8 Which none of the leaders of this age recognized because if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
Comments:
Augustine, “On Free Will”: (Augustine: Earlier Writings (1953), edited and translated by J.H.S. Burleigh, pages 176–177.)
“If you knew in advance that such and such a man would sin, there would be no necessity for him to sin. […] Unless I am mistaken, you would not directly compel the man to sin, though you knew beforehand that he was going to sin. Nor does your prescience in itself compel him to sin even though he was certainly going to sin, as we must assume if you have real prescience.
“So there is no contradiction here. Simply you know beforehand what another is going to do with his own will. Similarly God compels no man to sin, though he sees beforehand those who are going to sin by their own will.
- Why then should he not justly punish sins which, though he had foreknowledge of them, he did not compel the sinner to commit?
Just as you apply no compulsion to past events by having them in your memory, so God by his foreknowledge does not use compulsion in the case of future events. Just as you remember your past actions, though all that you remember were not actions of your own, so God has foreknowledge of all his own actions, but is not the agent of all that he foreknows. Of evil actions he is not the agent but the just punisher.
From this you may understand with what justice God punishes sins, for he has no responsibility for the future actions of men though he knows them beforehand. If he ought not to award punishment to sinners because he knew beforehand that they would sin, he ought not to reward the righteous, because he knew equally that they would be righteous. Let us confess that it belongs to his foreknowledge to allow no future event to escape his knowledge, and that it belongs to his justice to see that no sin goes unpunished by his judgment. For sin is committed voluntarily and not by any compulsion from his foreknowledge.”
V13 “Now I am coming to you. I am speaking these things in the world so that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
I’m sure Jesus has mixed feelings. On one hand, He wishes to remain and care for the sheep, but He also wants to go to heaven and begin His heavenly ministry.
We learn:
- About Jesus’s care for His people.
- About Jesus’s plan for His people through His appeal to His Father, God the Father.
- About His returning to heaven to begin His heavenly ministry.
Questions:
- Do you fathers show such interest in your wife and children?
- Do you rejoice in Jesus’s heavenly ministry to you?