“And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full 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 do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”
John 17:11-19
Introduction
God makes a habit of taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things through them. The apostles were a small group of mostly fishermen from the Galilee region of Judea, lacking formal education, and became God’s primary tool for planting His church throughout the world. Other examples might include the prophet Amos who was a simple shepherd before his calling (Amos 1:1; 7:14-15) and likely was one again after his prophecies. Speaking of this profession, king David was also a shepherd before being anointed.
Daniel and his friends were simple youths before their calling, and Esther was a nobody in exile. In fact, she was selected to become queen by the hand of God for one singular purpose: to rescue His people from destruction (Esther 4:14).
Perhaps one of the most striking examples of this comes from Deuteronomy, which states:
Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8
If God chose the strong to do His will, the world might say, “it is because they are strong they were able to accomplish such a thing.” But because He chooses the weak, we are left with the only option, “it is because God is strong they were able to accomplish such a thing.” The glory belongs to Him from the least to the greatest.
Preserved by God’s name
It can often feel burdensome to think that only those who persevere to the end are saved (Hebrews 3:14). This easily feels like it is by the strength of the believer and his faith that God measures his worthiness to enter into eternity. But look carefully at how Jesus frames it in His prayer for you. He, Himself, guards the disciples. He, Himself, guards you.
Peter fails the Lord when he denies Him three times before the rooster crows. Judas fails the Lord when he betrays Him over to the hand of sinners. But Judas, being here called “the son of perdition” or “the son of destruction” was always meant to fall into destruction. God was pleased to use the evil of men’s hearts to save mankind. Peter, on the other hand, was “kept safe” by Christ and repented when he became aware of his failure.
The difference, then, between Peter’s endurance and Judas’ failing was not the strength, power, and endurance (or lack thereof) inherent to each man. Instead, the difference was in how God chose to act. Every Christian who perseveres to the end does so because he has been given protection by the name of God. It is the power of the almighty who was, who is, and who is to come that ensures endurance; and it is to Him that all 100% of the glory is to be given.
Sanctified by God’s word
Similarly, sanctification is granted by the word of God. To sanctify is literally “to make holy.” There is a command, “be holy as I am holy,” (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16) that can make it feel like the bar is simply set too high. We know from all of scripture that we can’t be holy like He is holy, since only He is truly holy. And yet repeatedly He calls His people holy.
This hopelessness to fulfill that command comes from a matter of perspective. If the expectation is to reach holiness entirely by our own power, then it fails. If the expectation is to reach holiness by some of our own power and some of God’s power, it still fails. That is because our power will always not only be insufficient, but outright poison by its own right.
Isaiah 64:6 reminds us that even the good things we do are filthy and tainted by sin. The only option left, then, is that we achieve holiness by God’s power alone. And that is what is revealed in the gospel, the power of God to save (Romans 1:16).
If you ever feel beaten down or burdened by the impossibly high bar set by scripture, remember that it is not your power or strength that achieves this. It is Christ who has already achieved it and lovingly applies His goodness to you through His word and by the application of His name. If you are His, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). If you are His, you will be with Him for eternity (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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