Summary:
It is as true of us as it was of the Hebrew kingdom saints of whom the Lord said to the Father, “all mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine” (v. 10). But is He glorified in you as He was “glorified in them” (v. 10)? To answer must ask…
…how could He be glorified in the likes of the 11? Well, He was worthy to receive glory in them because He died for them (Rev. 5:11, 12), as a fireman is glorified in a child he rescues. And He is glorified in you if you are saved—although you could glorify Him more by serving Him!
Of course, if you don’t let Him be glorified in you, He will be glorified in you when He has to judge you (cf. Ezek. 28:21, 22), just as it glorifies a judge when he judges a criminal guilty and gives him the death penalty, and shames him when he doesn’t give it to a man worthy of death.
How could the Lord say, “I am no more in the world,” when He was still here (v. 11)? He calls things which be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). That’s also how He can say you are glorified (Rom. 8:30) and seated in heaven (Eph. 2:6). And since God has promised these things, He considers them as good as done. Since the Lord was sure He’d die for us, He considered Himself as good as gone!
The disciples were still “in the world” (Jo. 17:11) but not of the world (15:19). That’s what God wants of us as well!
The Lord asked the Father to “keep” the 11 (17:11), i.e., keep them saved (Ju. 1:24). He called Him “Holy ” because when God swears an oath, He swears by His holiness (Ps. 89:35), and He swore an oath that Christ is an anchor to the believer’s soul (Heb. 6:17-20). The Lord was reminding the Father of His holiness in asking Him to keep them.
He added pressure by saying, “keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me” (Jo. 17:11). God promised to keep believers safe, and He’d get a bad name if He didn’t (cf. Ezek. 20:13, 14; Jer. 14:7, 20, 21). It’s the only reason Israel will someday get their kingdom after sinfully crucifying God’s Son (Ezek. 36:22-25). In teaching them to pray “hallowed be Thy name,” the Lord was teaching them to pray as He prayed, reminding God of how He always protects “the honor of his name” (Ps. 66:2). No wonder saints are told to flee for safety to His name (Pr. 18:10).
But if the 11 were eternally secure (Jo. 10:28, 29), why’d the Lord have to ask the Father to “keep” them? Here we have an example of praying in accord with the revealed will of God, as when God told Israel He’d curse them with no rain if they were bad and Elijah prayed for a drought (Ja. 5:17).
The Lord and His Father were “one” (Jo. 10:30), and He prayed that the 11 would be as one as they were (Jo. 17:11), a prayer God answered (Acts 4:32). This too was praying in accord with God’s revealed will (Jer. 32:39; Ezk. 11:19, 20).
The Lord kept the apostles safe when He was here, but He was leaving (Jo. 17:12), so He asked the Father to keep them safe. But if “none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,” does that mean they weren’t secure? Well, when Paul said, “there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship” (Acts 27:22), the ship wasn’t part of the lives that couldn’t be lost, and Judas wasn’t part of the apostles that couldn’t be lost. If you are wondering why, the Lord said it was the Father’s will “that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing” (Jo. 6:39), but He added that “this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth… may have everlasting life” (v. 40), and Judas didn’t believe.
That’s why he was called “the son of perdition” (Jo. 17:12), not the son of God. Perdition is a name for hell, where the antichrist is going (Rev. 17:11), so being a son of perdition was opposite of being “children of the kingdom” (Mt. 13:38). Antichrist is also called the son of perdition, and will be Judas raised from the dead (Rev. 17:8). John was told the beast “was” on the earth, wasn’t at that time, but would rise from the pit of hell. The two are often connected (Ps. 55:12-14 cf. 55:20, 21). Judas (Ps. 109:8 cf. Acts 1:20) is said to persecute the poor (Ps. 109:16) as Antichrist will.
