Guarding And Keeping In The Name

 

“Keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me…I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them” (John 17:11 – 12).

 

Jesus keeps us in the Name which He has manifested to us (17:6). We see this manifestation in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” There is a sense in which this glory is the Name, for the Name is the essence, the Nature, and in His Name is His glory.

 

How is Jesus keeping us in the Name that the Father has given Him? There are many facets to this, many dimensions of glory, who can see it all? What do you think, what do you see?

 

His mercy, His grace, His patience, His forgiveness, His sacrificial and self-giving love. His kindness. His justice and holiness. His defeat of the enemy of our souls. The Cross, for does not the Cross radiate the Name, the Nature of God?

 

Jesus clothes us in our Father’s Name, He calls us into the Father’s Nature. To abide in the Vine is to abide in the Nature and Name of God, to draw our life from Him, to know His blood flowing through our veins, to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood (John 6:53).

 

O friends, we can say the name “Jesus,” we can repeat, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” but this does not mean we know the Name Jesus, it does not mean we know the Name of God, for to know the Name is to know the Nature, to taste and eat and drink and partake of our Father (2 Peter 1:4). To declare the Name to others means to be as Jesus Christ, to live and act and speak and think and feel as Jesus toward others, to love others, to care for them; to allow the Father to give us to others as He has given His only begotten Son to the world.

 

To pray in the name of Jesus means so much more than saying, “In the name of Jesus.” Many people say these words but do not actually pray in His Name. How can we pray in His Name when our hearts are filled with hate and vitriol and unforgiveness and animosity? This is impossible. For sure there is an authority in the name of Jesus, but it is an authority given to those living in His Name, in Sonship, in familial relationship. Conversely, there are those who may speak a prayer but who may not conclude it with the words, “In the name of Jesus,” for whatever reason, but they may be truly praying in His Name, in His Nature…they may truly be praying in unity with the Trinity.

 

Praying in the Name is not a verbal formula, it is a holy way of life. Being kept and guarded in the Name which the Father has given means that we have been called into the koinonia of the Trinity, into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into the depths of eternity in Christ, as the Body of Christ, as the many-membered Son.

 

Being kept and guarded in the Name means, “That they may be one even as We are” (John 17:11). This anticipates 17:21 – 26, the depths of the Holy of Holies, our unity with the Trinity and with one another in the Trinity. Note the conclusion of Jesus’ prayer: “I have made Your Name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (17:26).

 

Living in the Name of Jesus means that we care “for the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), it means that we seek unity in the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:1 – 16), it means that we avoid the poison of the world-system (1 John 2:15 – 17; 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1), it means that we love the unlovable and touch the untouchable.

 

Knowing the Name of Jesus, being kept in the Name of Jesus, means that we are people of the Beatitudes; poor in spirit, mourning for the brokenness of both ourselves and those around us – and comforting others. It means that we hunger and thirst for righteousness, on behalf of ourselves and others. Living in the Name of Jesus means that we live lives of mercy, and that we seek purity of heart in order to love God and others.

 

Living in the Name of Jesus certainly means that we seek to fulfill our calling as peacemakers in a world of political, economic, social, cultural, and national warfare. If the result of this is ostracization and persecution, then living in the Name means that we rejoice with gladness, for our reward is great in heaven. Since the Prince of Peace was crucified, let us rejoice in our fellowship in His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).

 

Living in the Name of Jesus means that we give our lives for one another (John 15:12 – 13; 1 John 3:16) and that we give our lives for the world (John 3:16).

 

The name Jesus is our calling, our destiny – to live in Name and to know the Name living within us (Galatians 2:20).

 

Even as Jesus keeps us in His Name, the Name which the Father has given Him, we can learn in Him to keep others, to guard others – for Jesus has given His Name to us, and as the Body of Christ, with His Name upon us and within us, we guard one another and we call the world to know Him.

 

As we overcome, Jesus says that He will write the Name of His God on us, and the Name of the City of His God, and His own Name (Revelation 3:12). When we follow the Lamb wherever He goes, the Name of the Father and of the Lamb is written within us (Rev. 14:1).

 

O yes, we are indeed kept and guarded in the Name of God, Jesus…kept from eternity past into eternity present and forward into eternity future.

 

“The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 121:5 – 8).

 

As our Father keeps in us Christ, we are called to keep others in Him as His Body. We do this by manifesting His Name, by being the Presence of Christ to one another and the world, by being broken bread and poured out wine.

 

Shall we live in the Name of Jesus today?