John 17 Commentary: God’s Promise to Keep Us

It can be a very hopeless thing to believe that once God has saved you from certain death that you can be lost (unsaved). God promises that no one can pluck us out of His hand once He gives us eternal life (John 10:28) and that once we are saved because we believe that Jesus died to pay our wage for sin (Romans 6:23) we are sealed (kept) until He comes back to get us to live with Him in Heaven (Ephesians 4:30).

The Apostle John wrote down the words that Jesus spoke in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John. In them we see so many promises made by God to believers. Here are some of the things that I have found during my study about God’s promise to keep us.

We Are Kept in the Name of the Father

John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

We Are Kept Safe in Jesus

John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

We Are Kept in the Joy of Jesus

John 17:13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

We Are Kept from Evil through Jesus

John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

We Are Kept Separate from the World in Jesus

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

We Are Kept in the Process of Sanctification

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

We Are Kept for Service in the World Like Jesus

John 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

We Are Kept in Unity Through Jesus

John 17:20–21 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 thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

We Are Kept in His Love for the Coming Glory

John 17:22–24 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Final Thoughts

God promises to keep us through Jesus. God always keeps His promises, because God is not a man, that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). When He says it, we can believe it. Your salvation is just as sure 20 years after you first believed in what Jesus did for you as it was on the day that you first believed. I love how the writer recorded it in Hebrews 6:18–20: “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

More to read about promises: 7 Bible Promises That Have Impacted My Life

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, King James Version

Tagged as: eternal security, God Keeps us, God's Promises, kept in Jesus