‘I Pray for Them’

‘I Pray for Them’

I pray for them:  I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

John 17:9

For whom does Christ intercede?  Christ makes some very plain and unequivocal statements regarding for whom He intercedes.  In our text for today, He makes the statement, ‘I pray for them:  I do not pray for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine.’  To whom does Christ refer?  In the immediate context, He refers to His disciples, as opposed to those who were not His sheep.  In the larger context, He must, of necessity, be referring to all the people whom God, His Father, has given Him.  The rest of Scripture bears this out.  Now that Christ has ascended, He ‘ever lives to make intercession for us.’  Christ has come to perform all His works, to live perfectly, to die sacrificially, to rise gloriously, and to intercede perpetually for the purpose of securing the eternal future of all those who belong to the Father.  These are those whom the Father has given to Christ.  Are we of that number?  The only way for us to be certain is to embrace Christ as the Gospel freely offers Him to us.  Therefore, we make a full and free offer of the Gospel to all and sundry.  Embrace this Christ so freely offered to you; so you may have eternal life and be assured that He prays for you.

Our Kind and Loving Savior,
we rejoice that You intercede for us, in every way.
We praise You that we may continually look to You,
to accomplish all that we cannot, in and of ourselves.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning