John 17
Prayer for returned glory verse 1- 5
These words spoke Jesus – and lifted up HIS eyes to heaven
and said
Father – the hour is come – GLORIFY YOUR Son
that YOUR Son also may GLORIFY YOU
as YOU have given HIM power over all flesh
that HE should give eternal life to as many as
YOU have given HIM
And this is life eternal – that they might know YOU the only true God
and Jesus Christ – WHOM YOU have sent
I have GLORIFIED YOU on the earth
I have FINISHED the work which YOU gave ME to do
AND NOW – O Father
GLORIFY YOU ME with YOUR OWN self with the glory
which I had with YOU before the world was
Father’s gift to HIS Son verse 6- 8
I have manifested YOUR name to the men
which YOU gave ME out of the world
YOURS they were – and YOU gave them ME
and they have kept YOUR word
NOW they have known that all things whatsoever
YOU have given ME are of YOU
For I have given to them the words which YOU gave ME
and they have received them
and have known surely that I came out from YOU
and they have believed that YOU did send ME
Jesus wants disciples to have power verse 9- 12
I PRAY for them – I PRAY not for the world
BUT for them which YOU have given ME
for they are YOURS
all MINE are YOURS– and YOURS are MINE
and I am GLORIFIED in them
AND NOW I am no more in the world -BUT these are in the world
and I come to YOU – Holy Father
keep through YOUR OWN name those whom YOU
have given ME – that they may be ONE – as WE are
WHILE I was with them in the world – I kept them in YOUR name
those that YOU gave ME I have kept – and none of them is lost
BUT the son of perdition – that the Scripture might be fulfilled
Jesus desires safety for HIS disciples verse 13- 21
AND NOW come I to YOU – and these things I speak in the world
that they might have MY joy fulfilled in themselves
I have given them YOUR word
and the world has hated them – BECAUSE they are not of the world
EVEN as I am not of the world
I pray NOT that YOU should take them out of the world
BUT that YOU should keep them from the evil
they are not of the world – EVEN as I am not of the world
SANCTIFY them through YOUR truth – YOUR word is truth
as YOU have sent ME into the world
even so have I also sent them into the world
and for their sakes I SANCTIFY MYSELF
that they also might be SANCTIFIED
through the truth
Neither pray I for these alone
BUT for them also which shall believe on ME through their word
That they all may be ONE – as YOU – Father – are in ME and I in YOU
that they also may be ONE in US – that the world may believe that
YOU have sent ME
Jesus asks for unity in the believers verse 22- 24
AND the glory which YOU gave ME I have given them
that they may be ONE – EVEN as WE are ONE
I in them – and YOU in ME
that they may be made PERFECT in ONE
and that the world may know that YOU hast sent ME
and have loved them – as YOU hast loved ME
Father – I will that they also – whom YOU have given ME
be with ME where I am that they may behold MY glory
which YOU have given ME – FOR YOU loved ME
before the foundation of the world
Jesus offers continual protection for believers verse 25- 26
O righteous Father – the world has not known YOU
BUT I have known YOU – and these have known that YOU have sent ME
and I have declared to them YOUR name – and will declare it
that the love wherewith YOU have loved ME
may be in them – and I in them
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 4 I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do. (5048 “finished” [teleioo] means make perfect, concentrate, complete, full number, to bring to an end, or bring to full measure)
DEVOTION: Every time I read this word it reminds me of some of the unfinished projects that I need to finish. Most people have these projects. They start some and then they go for years before they are finished. Some families have so many unfinished projects that their house looks really different from one where the individuals finish what they start.
Jesus was returning to heaven with his work finished. HE wanted HIS glory that HE had before the world was created. HE couldn’t receive it until HE died on the cross for our sins. Praise the LORD for HIS sacrifice.
HE came to this earth to live thirty- three years. During that time period we have only one incident in HIS life at the age of twelve. HE was in the Temple asking questions of the theologians of HIS day. HE was even answering questions they thought were too hard for someone HIS age.
At the age of thirty HE started HIS public ministry with twelve disciples. There were many other followers. Some of them were genuine followers and others were just following to see what they could receive from HIM. When there was trouble they disappeared.
Now HE is on HIS way to the cross. This chapter is HIS prayer to the Father for HIMSELF and HIS disciples. HE wanted to return to heaven with all the glory HE had before HE left. HE told the Father that HE had completed the work HE had sent HIM to do.
That is quite a statement. We would think that to complete HIS assignment every human being would be a follower of HIM. HE gave them many miracles. HE taught them truth. The problem was that most of the people were not in the mode to become HIS followers because they thought they were good the way they were. They were lying to themselves but Jesus couldn’t convince them otherwise.
God gave man a free will. HE has allowed all of mankind to make their own choice regarding their relationship with HIM. Most have been deceived by the enemy. Satan has convinced people that they don’t have to straighten out and follow the LORD. He likes to bring up all the commandments of the LORD. He likes to show them a good time for a moment with the promise it could last a lifetime. They believe the lie.
Are we serving the LORD, so that, our work will be finished when we go to heaven? Remember that HE is coming as a thief in the night. We have to be ready for HIS return. HE wants to find us working. HE wants us to bring glory to HIS name.
CHALLENGE: Look at your life and see if you are completing your mission to this earth. The answer is only between you and the Holy Spirit. What is HE saying to you now?
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 5 And now, O Father, glorify YOU ME with YOUR own self with the glory which I had with YOU before the world was (1392 “glorify” [doxozo] means to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate, do honor to, adorn with luster, render it excellent or cloth with splendor)
DEVOTION: In this prayer, which is, the true LORD’S prayer. Jesus is communicating with the Father regarding those who were given him by the Father. Jesus was communicating that he wanted HIS luster given back to him that HE had before the foundation of the world. Jesus had this clothing of splendor before the world was.
HE existed before the world was created because HE is eternal just like the Father and the Holy Spirit. There was never a day when HE was created. HE was born but before that HE was active with the Father and Holy Spirit in the creation of the world.
HE was the one person of the Godhead that walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. HE was the Angel of the LORD that talked with many of the Old Testament saints. HE was the fourth person in the fiery furnace with the three Jewish men who refused to bow down to the image that was built by the king of Babylon. HE had many other appearances in the Old Testament which are called Theophanies by theologians. The word means the visible appearing of Deity in the Old Testament. We are waiting for HIS final appearing which is yet future.
Jesus wanted the Father to receive praise right along with him because HE was the one who sent HIM into the world to receive those who would be his followers. Jesus has willingly added a human body to his deity when HE took on the form of a servant.
With the addition of a human body, HE could not show forth the brightness HE had when he was in heaven. The three disciples received a taste of it on the mount of transfiguration.
We will see it when he calls us home to heaven. The relationship between the Father and Son was one that is co-equal and co-eternal. Yet, Jesus was communicating with the Father concerning the disciples both in the present and which will be in the future who would follow him. These disciples would be hated by the world, just as Jesus was hated by the world.
In this prayer, Jesus wanted them to be one as they were one. HE wanted the individuals in the church to have unity. HE wanted the church to form a united front against the world.
CHALLENGE: We are sanctified by the Word of God. Are we glorifying the LORD with our knowledge of HIS WORD?
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: 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which YOU have given ME: for they are YOURS. (2065 “pray” [erotao] means ask, beseech, desire, intreat, request, urge, inquire of, or beg)
DEVOTION: Here is a reality check. Here is Jesus Christ praying to the Father. Remember that the Scriptures state “HE is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”(II Peter 3: 9)
The verse in II Peter brings home the fact that the LORD is long-suffering. HE has not returned yet because HE is giving everyone many opportunities to repent of their sins and become a follower of HIM. HE promised that salvation was available to the whole world. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
If everyone would become a believer there would not have to be one more drop of blood shed on the cross for this to happen. Everyone is without excuse when they stand before the LORD at the Great White Throne Judgment. No one can say I didn’t have a chance to become a follower.
The LORD will be able to rewind their brain to every spot in their life when they had an opportunity and said NO to God.
Jesus is only praying for the believers in this verse. All those who will ever become believers have their name written in the book of life before the creation of the world. God doesn’t dwell in time only we dwell in time. HE has no past or present or future. HE is omniscient. HE knows it all.
CHALLENGE: With the knowledge that Christ is praying to the Father for us how should we be praying for others?
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 24 Father, I will that they also, whom YOU have given ME, be with ME where I am, that they may behold MY glory, which YOU have given ME: for YOU love ME before the foundation of the world. (2334 “behold” [theoreo] means see, perceive, consider, look on, to be a spectator, to view attentively, to perceive with the eyes, observe, or to see with attention.)
DEVOTION: It doesn’t seem possible that there can be unity in the church of Jesus Christ. There are so many denominations it is hard to even understand how there can be so many different beliefs between the groups. There are at least 22 (twenty-two) different types of Baptists in our world. Many of those who used to have Baptist on their sign in front of the church have changed their name because they are afraid of scaring people away from the church.
Jesus is praying HIS prayer to the Father before HE goes to the cross. HE spent many times in prayer on the mountain tops alone with the Father. We don’t have recorded what HE said in those prayers but John is recording this prayer.
HE has a desire that HE wants the Father to know. Now remember that both of them are omniscient. Yet they talk to each other. Do you think that the Father didn’t know what the Son wanted from HIM? The answer is NO! There is no limit to the knowledge of God.
Communication is important between the Godhead or Trinity just as it is important between us and the Father. We are to pray to HIM regarding our desires and HE will hear us and give us the desires of our hearts as long as they bring glory to HIS name. Giving Christ the glory HE had before HE came to the earth is a no brainer for the Father. But they give us an example of the necessity of communication.
Prayer is the way we show our dependence on the LORD and our willingness to ask HIM for what HE already knows what we desire and need. If it brings glory to HIM HE will give it.
CHALLENGE: Are we asking the LORD to show us HIS glory on a regular basis? HE wants to be seen by HIS own disciples and HE wants us to see HIM.
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Lifted up eyes to heaven verse 1
Jesus prayer for the disciples verse 1- 26
Prays we can be kept from evil verse 15
Jesus prays for future believers verse 20
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Scripture verse 12
Word is truth verse 17
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
Father verse 1, 5, 11, 21, 24,
25
Glorify your Son verse 1, 5
Only true God verse 3
Father sent Jesus verse 3, 8, 25
Holy Father verse 11
Father loved Son verse 24, 26
Righteous Father verse 25
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
Jesus verse 1, 3
Son verse 1
Son glorifies Father verse 1, 4
Christ verse 3
Jesus Christ verse 3
Finished the work verse 4
Glory before creation of world verse 5, 24
Prays for believers verse 9
Sanctify self verse 19
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God verse 3
ONLY true God verse 3
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
World verse 5, 6, 9, 11,
13- 15, 21,
23
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Son of perdition verse 12
Hate verse 14
Evil verse 15
Not know God verse 25
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Glorify Father and Son verse 1, 4, 10
Power verse 2
Know only true God verse 3, 25
Finished work verse 4
Manifest God in our life verse 6
Kept by God’s Word verse 6
Received words verse 8
Know surely verse 8
Believed verse 8, 20, 21
Pray verse 9, 15
Christ glorified in believers verse 10
Kept verse 11, 12, 15, 20
Joy verse 13
Given God’s Word verse 14
Hated by world verse 14
Sanctify verse 17, 19
Truth verse 17, 19
Sent verse 18
Unity verse 21- 23
Glory verse 22, 24
Perfect [Mature] verse 23
Loved verse 23, 26
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Son of perdition (Judas) verse 12
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
Eternal life verse 2, 3
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QUOTES regarding passage
17:9. For these disciples, then, Jesus prays (erōtaō, lit. ‘I ask’, here clearly with the sense ‘I ask for something’: cf. notes on 16:23). The Greek word order makes the contrast very sharp: ‘not for the world (cf. notes on 1:9) I pray, but for those you have given me’. The next words summarize all the grounds adduced so far: for they are yours.
The antithesis between the disciples and the world is extremely sharp, but it should not be made absolute. The Father loves the world so much he sends his Son (3:16), who is designated the ‘Saviour of the world’ (4:42; cf. 3:17; 12:47). On the other hand, the distinction between the disciples and the world should not be reduced to the merely utilitarian—as if Jesus restricts himself to praying for his disciples for no other reason than that they are his means for reaching the world. True, their mission is mentioned a few verses later (v. 18), and Jesus can pray for those who will believe in him through their message (v. 20). Even so, the fundamental reason for Jesus’ self-imposed restriction as to whom he prays for at this point is not utilitarian or missiological but theological: they are yours. However wide is the love of God (3:16), however salvific the stance of Jesus toward the world (12:47), there is a peculiar relationship of love, intimacy, disclosure, obedience, faith, dependence, joy, peace, eschatological blessing and fruitfulness that binds the disciples together and with the Godhead. These themes have dominated the farewell discourse. The world can be prayed for only to the end that some who now belong to it might abandon it and join with others who have been chosen out of the world. There is nothing intrinsic to the ‘world’ itself, granted what John makes of the world (cf. notes on 1:9), that could sanction prayers on its behalf. To pray for the world, the created moral order in active rebellion against God, would be blasphemous; there is no hope for the world. There is hope only for some who now constitute the world but who will cease to be the world and will join those of whom Jesus says for they are yours. (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 560–561). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.)
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9 At this point, Jesus’ intercession was confined to the Eleven who were present with him. He reminded the Father that these men were under his peculiar care. As in his prayer at Lazarus’s grave, Jesus took for granted the concern of the Father for the immediate need and the provision he had already made in order to meet it. (Tenney, M. C. (1981). John. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts (Vol. 9, pp. 163–164). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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17:9–10. Christ’s prayer (in vv. 6–19) was particularly for the Eleven, though it applies to all believers (cf. v. 20). At this point He was not praying for the world in its hostility and unbelief. This prayer is for two things: (a) the disciples’ preservation (“protect them,” v. 11) and (b) their sanctification (“sanctify them,” v. 17). The world is not to be preserved in its rebellion or sanctified in its unbelief. Jesus prayed this request because of God’s ownership of them by creation and election (they are Yours). Jesus’ words, All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine, reveal His claim to unity, intimacy, and equality with the Father.
In the old economy, God dwelt among people and showed His glory. In Jesus, God’s glory was displayed (cf. 1:14). Then Christ’s disciples glorified Him: Glory has come to Me through them. And now in the Church Age the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son (16:14) and believers are also to glorify the Son (Eph. 1:12). (Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, pp. 331–332). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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17:6–10 they were Yours. This phrase sums up all of Jesus’ ministry, including the cross that was just hours away. Again, the Son emphasized that those who believed in Him were given by the Father (see note on v. 2). “They were Yours” (cf. v. 9) is a potent assertion that before conversion, they belonged to God (cf. 6:37). That is true because of God’s election. They were chosen before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), when their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 17:8). Cf. Ac 18:10, where God says He has many people in Corinth who belong to Him but are not yet saved. See notes on 10:1–5, 16. (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Jn 17:6–10). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
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Ver. 9. I pray for them, &c.] This is to be understood of Christ, not as God; for as such he is the object of prayer; nor need he pray to any other; nor is there any superior to him under that consideration to pray unto; but as man and Mediator: nor is his praying any argument against his deity; nor proof of inferiority to his father with respect to his divine nature; since ’tis not in that, but in his human nature, that he prayed; though this may be ascribed to his whole person as God-man; hence he had the greatest qualifications and abilities for this work, and his prayers were always heard: praying, as attributed to Christ, must be restrained to his state of humiliation; prayer is never spoken of Christ but whilst he was here on earth; his intercession in heaven is never expressed by prayer; and the saints when they come thither, will have done praying. Christ whilst on earth, was an excellent pattern of prayer; of private and solitary prayer; of social prayer; for and with his disciples; of frequent and fervent prayer; of submission to the will of God in prayer; and of praying even for enemies: the persons he is here said to pray for are his apostles; which shews their danger and their wants, his care over them, and concern for them, and his love unto them: I pray not for the world; the inhabitants of it, the carnal unbelieving part of the world, which lie in sin, and will be condemned; as he died not for them, so he prayed not for them; for whom he is the propitiation, he is an advocate; and for whom he died, he makes intercession; and for no other in a spiritual saving way: but for them which thou hast given me; out of the world, as distinct from them, to be saved with an everlasting salvation by him; and to be preserved safe to his kingdom and glory; for these he prays, for the conversion of them, the application of pardon to them, their final perseverance and eternal glory: for they are thine; not merely by creation, and as the care of his providence, but by eternal election, and special grace in vocation; which is a reason why Christ prayed for them, and an argument why the father should, and would regard his prayers. (Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 2, pp. 85–86). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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FROM MY READING:
The main problem regarding false ideas about protein evolution is one of perception associated with the steady diet of academia’s evolutionary false teachings. We see a car, computer, or a toaster and immediately comprehend that it has been designed and engineered by human intelligence. However, when we see biological systems that are magnitudes of complexity more highly designed and engineered than the devices produced by mankind, then we are told that these things ‘somehow arose by random-chance processes” in some sort of cosmic naturalistic casino. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the data from molecular biology continue to prove it.
Once again, the details of intelligent design clearly displayed in molecular biology – even in a seemingly simple bacterial protein – point directly toward the creative hand of God. (p. 15, Engineered Protein “Evolution” Proves Biological Complexity by Jeffery Tomkins in Acts & Facts.)
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WHY OUR LORD PRAYS FOR THESE PEOPLE
I pray for them. John 17:9
Why does our Lord pray for these people at all? He is facing His own death, the greatest and most terrible moment in His life is at hand, and yet He pauses to pray for them. Why does He do it? The answer is all here. He does it first and foremost because of His great concern for the glory of God. While He is on earth, the glory of God is, in a sense, in His hands. He has come to glorify His Father, and that is the one thing He wants to do above everything else. And now as He is going to leave these people, over and above His own concern about dying is His concern about the glory of God; it is the one thing that matters.
Second, He prays for them because of who and what they are. They are the people to whom He has manifested the name of God, the people who have been given to Him, the people to whom He has given the Word, people who believe certain things. That is the definition of a Christian, and they, and they alone, are the people for whom He prayed.
Then He prays for them because of their task, because of their calling. He is going away, and He is leaving them in the world to do something; they have work to do, exactly as He had been given work to do. You see the logic of it all? God sent Him, He sends them, and He prays for them especially in the light of their calling and their task—the work of evangelizing. There are other people who are going to believe on Him through their word, and so they must be enabled to do this work.
He also prays for them because of their circumstances, the circumstances in which they were placed in the world. He says that they are going to have trouble in the world (verse 14). A Thought to Ponder: Over and above Christ’s own concern about dying is His concern about the glory of God.
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I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15
The primary object of Christ’s prayer is not so much that His followers may be one with one another as that they may be kept in true unity with Him, with God the Father, and therefore with each other. That is the nature of communion. Obviously this has to be worked out in greater detail, and never perhaps was this more necessary than today.
The next thing He prays for them is that they may be kept from the evil one the devil, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air and the evil that is in the world as the result of his activities and efforts. Our Lord does not pray that they may be taken out of the world. We sometimes wish we could pray that; the idea of monasticism is somewhere down in the depths of all of us. We want to retire out of the world and arrive in some magic circle where nothing can disturb us. There is a longing in the suffering, persecuted Christian to get out of the world. But our Lord does not pray that they may be taken out of the world in any sense, nor that they may be taken out of it by death, but rather that in it they may be kept from the evil.
Your business and mine as Christian people is to be in the midst of this world and its affairs and still remain true and loyal to God and be kept from the evil. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,” says James, not to retire out of every vocation in life, but rather “to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James1:27). The task of the Christian is to be in the midst of this world and its affairs in order that he or she may do this work of evangelism.
A Thought to Ponder: Our Lord does not pray that they may be taken out of the world but rather that in it they may be kept from the evil. By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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But for men that swim in the river of God’s goodness, whose mercies are renewed to them every morning, and who are visited with fresh tokens of his infinite unmerited loving-kindness every moment, for these favorite creatures to set their mouths against heaven and to blaspheme a gracious, patient, all-bountiful God is a height of sin which exceeds the blackness and impiety of devils and hell itself.
(p. 330, The Sermons of George Whitefield)
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Thus, as stated in chapter 1, the unifying principle of covenant theology is, in practice, soteriological. The unifying principle of normative dispensationalism is doxological, or the glory of God, for the dispensations reveal the glory of God as He manifests His character in the differing stewardships given to man.
(p. 107, Dispensationalism by Charles C. Ryrie)
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1 Peter 2
Spiritual sacrifice and personal holiness should be the Christian response to trials.
INSIGHT
A pilgrim is a wanderer. A sojourner is one who lives somewhere temporarily. Peter calls us pilgrims and sojourners in this world. We are no longer at home here; we are no longer a part of this world. Whatever we do should be evaluated in light of our true citizenship in heaven. As such, we live by the rules and values of heaven, not earth. Peter writes: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul”(v. 11). When we violate the principles of heaven, it is not only God and His honor that suffer – we suffer. (Quiet Walk)
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OVERCOMING BY FAITH
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:5
As a Christian, because of what has happened to me, I am able to exercise faith and to live by faith. Here is the second step. First you see “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,” and then “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (verse 4). In other words, my rebirth gives me this faculty of faith and enables me to exercise faith and to live by it.
Let me put it in this practical form: The world that I am fighting is very powerful; it is much more powerful than any one of us. The world conquers and masters everyone who is born into it, for indeed we have been born in sin and “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5); the world is in us the moment we begin to live. Read your Old Testament; look at those great heroes of the faith, the patriarchs, the godly kings, and the prophets—they all were conquered by the world, they all failed. “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10); the whole world is guilty before God (Romans 3:19); and therefore if I am to conquer and overcome that world, I need something that will enable me to do so. It is no use trying to fight the world immediately—that cannot be done. Monasticism recognizes that and says, “Run away from it.”
So what do I need? I need emancipation; I need to be lifted to another realm; I need a force and a strength and a power that I do not have myself. That is my need, and here is the answer: I am given faith—I am given an outlook and understanding—I am introduced to a source of power—I see something that another person has never seen. I see a might and a power that is even greater than all that is opposed to me. Christians are men and women who have been introduced to another realm.
A Thought to Ponder: Christians are men and women who have been introduced to another realm. (From Life in God, pp. 51-52, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Alive in Him
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
The final verse of Charles Wesley’s “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” provides a fitting climax to what’s gone before:
No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus, with all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, thru Christ, my own.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). “Who is he that condemneth?” Not Christ! “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (v. 34).
We’re now alive through Christ’s work on the cross, with a standing beyond our comprehension. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him” (Colossians 2:9-10). The song calls Him our “living Head.” Peter calls Him a “living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious. . . . The same is made the head of the corner” (1 Peter 2:4-7).
In response to His love, we “put off concerning the former conversation [way of living] of the old man . . . [and] put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Dressed in His righteousness, “let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day” (2 Timothy 4:8). (JDM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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