Jesus’s mission to the world.

John 17.6-8.

In Jesus’s John 17 prayer, after he asks his Father to glorify him, he tells his Father he’s been doing the job the Father sent him to do: He’s been collecting followers.

As I said in my previous article on this chapter, this isn’t a prayer we pray along with Jesus, like the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer Jesus uniquely prayed to his Father. We’re just agreeing with him as best we can; we’re asking that Jesus’s will be done, same as he wanted his Father’s will to be done.

John 17.6-8 KWL

6“I make your¹ name known to the world’s people,

whom you give me.

They’re yours¹ and mine; you¹ give them.

They kept your word.

7They now recognize everything you¹ gave me

is from you,¹

8for the words which you¹ give me,

I give them.

They accept the words

and truly know I come from you.¹

They believe you¹ send me.”

’Cause we do believe the Father sent Jesus, and how all Jesus’s teachings originate with the Father. Right?

So that, in turn, is what we oughta likewise pray. We belong to Jesus—and our Father. Our Father gave us to Jesus; he’s our Lord now. We accept him.

I should point out in verse 8, when Jesus says his followers ἔλαβον/élavon, “take, receive, choose, accept,” is properly interpreted “They accept the words,” like I have it, or “They accepted them,” like the NIV and most other bible translations have it. Problem is, every so often some preacher with a shaky handle on Greek will notice there’s no actual pronoun there after élavon. Context makes it obvious Jesus is talking about his teachings, but some of these guys will insist Jesus is really talking about himself—“They accept me.” If you ever catch someone preaching that, feel free to ignore them, and go with the way most bible translators have put it.

Jesus and the elect.

From time to time you’re gonna find determinists love to quote this passage, and read their ideas into it.

Before we read the text, we oughta recognize “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Ps 24.1 Or one of the verses which just came before this one: “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Jn 17.1 Humanity already belongs to God, and God the Father gave it to God the Son.

Many Christians might claim humanity really belongs to the devil, but that’s only because y’notice people ordinarily follow the devil, not the LORD. We’re selfish; the devil appeals to oour selfishness because it’s likewise selfish, and that’s how it gets followers—whether they recognize they’ve joined its side, or not. But the one who really owns ’em is God. Otherwise he’d have no right to condemn the wicked—if they don’t already belong to him, who’s he to object to their Law-breaking, Mt 7.23 and their many trespasses against him?

So when Jesus talks about people whom his Father gave him, who belong to them both, he’s not necessarily talking about the elect, the people particularly, obviously chosen by God to follow him. People like those God, his angels, and his Son appeared to, and instructed to do this and that, and follow him. People whom God singled out for a mission, like when he picked Saul ben Kish to be king of Israel, or when Jesus picked Judas Iscariot to be one of his apostles. And you notice those two examples I gave of God’s elect, significantly blew it—’cause sometimes God totally chose a person, but that person either didn’t want the mission at all, or had their own ideas about the mission which had nothing to do with the will of the One who called them.

Nope; Jesus is talking about humanity, because Jesus is Lord of all. God loves the world enough to send us his Son, Jn 3.16 to atone for everyone, and make it so everyone can be saved—once we repent, and trust Jesus to save us.

That’s who Jesus is speaking of. Now obviously the whole world hasn’t fulfilled the rest of this prayer. Some of us keep his word. Some recognize Jesus came from the Father, and trust him. Not all; not even all Christians. All can, but not all yet do. In the next book of the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles, more were gonna join Jesus’s followers, his church. Jesus’s prayer includes them even though they weren’t yet in his group; weren’t yet keeping, recognizing, accepting, believing. Even determinists believe not everyone Jesus was praying about, had come into Christendom just yet.

But determinists clearly have their own spin on this passage. To their minds, “the world’s people, whom you gave me,” doesn’t mean all the world’s people. Only some people, extracted of the world, specially chosen to be saved for God’s own secret reasons. Jesus only means these people—and they presume they’re one of those people. Because don’t they fulfill the rest of this prayer, and keep God’s word, accept Jesus’s teachings, and believe the Father sent him?

As Jean Calvin puts it:

Thine they were, and thou hast given them to me. By adding these words, he points out, first, the eternity of election; and, secondly, the manner in which we ought to consider it. Christ declares that the elect always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishes them from the reprobate, not by faith, or by any merit, but by pure grace; for, while they are alienated from him to the utmost, still he reckons them as his own in his secret purpose. The certainty of that election by free grace lies in this, that he commits to the guardianship of his son all whom he has elected, that they may not perish; and this is the point to which we should turn our eyes, that we may be fully certain that we belong to the rank of the children of God; for the predestination of God is in itself hidden, but it is manifested to us in Christ alone. Commentaries, at Jn 17.6-11

See, determinists believe God is so almighty, he always gets his way—like the kings of France whom Calvin grew up under. God wouldn’t just elect you, then allow you to reject him and go your own way. He will have you. You were chosen to be saved, so you will be saved. And hey, isn’t it comforting to know you will be saved?—that once saved, always saved? Now you’re free to ignore God as much as you please, knowing you’re saved no matter how irreligious you are, because God always gets his way!

Plus there’s this odd little phenomenon in which determinists feel really good about themselves for being elect; for being plucked out of humanity to save no matter what. While at the same time admitting he didn’t choose them on merit; he only graciously selected ’em for his own secret reasons. Regardless, they still feel rather pleased with themselves… which makes you wonder whether they’re only saying they recognize they don’t merit God’s favor, just to remain consistent with their churches’ doctrines—but deep down they kinda really believe some part of their salvation comes from merit. Although they’d never say this, nor admit this. Still, y’know, the prideful attitudes: They don’t just come from nowhere.

But I digress. The determinists’ spin on this passage doesn’t jibe with the rest of the scriptures—not without having to redefine a bunch of terms so that they form some kind of Calvinist secret code, then reading the code instead of the bible. Jesus came to save everybody; everybody can repent and turn to Jesus; the Father has already made the first move in that direction by giving the world to Jesus. You are elect, in a sense—now let’s make that election certain 2Pe 1.10 by sticking to Jesus.