John 17:9-13, Jesus' Care and His Spirit

Jesus’ Care: Jesus is our good shepherd (10:11-15). This is not only seen in His prayer for His disciples but also in what He did for them while He was on earth: He guarded them and kept them in God’s name (17:12). To be in God’s name is to be in the presence of God. God’s name is God’s glory seen in His attributes.[1] Every day the disciples were with Jesus was another day beholding the character God. Jesus kept them there, in God’s presence, by His manifestation of God’s attributes. In Him they saw divine grace and truth (1:14), even the fullness of Deity in bodily form (Col. 2:9).

Holy Spirit: Jesus prays that this presence of God would continue with them through the Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of His prayer, “keep them in Your name.” Even as He said He would ask the Father for another Helper like Himself (14:16), so Jesus here made that petition (17:11). Although He would be physically absent from them, God’s presence would remain through His Spirit. This work of the Spirit is available to us today. We ourselves taste of God’s grace, patience, mercy, righteousness, truth, compassion, and more through the Holy Spirit who conveys God’s character via the Bible. This is not only for our blessing but also for our imitation.[2] As the moon basks in the light of the sun and so reflects its radiance, so it is God’s will that we reflect His character as we daily dwell in His presence. And as we reflect His communicable attributes[3] (17:11, 22), we become one as His image-bearers, attaining to one mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).

 



[1] This parallel between glory, word, and name is seen not only in Exodus 33-34, but also in this prayer. The Father gave them to the Son and the Son manifested/gave them to His own for our unity (17:6, 11, 12, 22).

[2] Cf. John 7:38-39; 14:17; 1 Cor. 12:13; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rom. 8:9-14; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 2:22; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 2:1-2. The central means by which this divine presence is manifested to us is His word. Even as Jesus gave God’s glory, so He gave His word (17:8, 14), and it is by His word that we were led to Christ ourselves (17:20).

[3] Communicable attributes refer to those attributes of God that can be imitated and reflected in His image bearers. These are attributes like righteousness, truth, love, mercy, compassion, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, wisdom, etc. which we are called to imitate. Cf. Matt. 5:44-45; Luke 6:36; Eph. 4:32; 5:1; Phil. 2:1-2, 5, 15; Heb. 12:10; 1 Pet. 1:15; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 4:11.