A very good way to find out the mind of the Holy Spirit on any one thing, is to trace out, in the Scriptures, what He has said on the subject. There is such a marvelous placement of truth in God’s Word, that we find in numberless instances an accumulating, or piling up, in some one chapter or book, of one certain expression, or idea, in the form of a pyramid or climax. Take, for example, the case of the successive “Beatitudes,” or the measurements of Ezekiel’s river, or the seven “Overcomeths” in Revelation, and many other portions of the Word. One of these striking climaxes of truth is found in the prayer of our Lord, in the 17th chapter of John, concerning how the true believer has been given to Him by the Father. The more clearly we apprehend that we are the special property of Jesus, and the more brightly we see the ties that bind us to Him, the more tenderly and ardently we love Him. In this wonderful prayer, Christ says, seven times, that the Father has given us to Him.  

1. “Thou hast given thy Son power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Here we see that the Father gave us to His Son, that He might impart His eternal life to us. All the life of the Godhead is focalized in the Lord Jesus, and through Him eternal life is poured into the penitent believer. All life given to angels, men and the things of creation is a life imparted through Jesus.  

The impartation of Divine life to our souls is the fundamental blessing of the Kingdom of God. There are countless gifts and graces, which follow this, but the Christ-life imparted to us is the foundation gift of all others. In the twelve blessings pronounced by Moses on the tribes of Israel, the gift of life comes first. In the seven “Overcomeths,” in Revelation, to eat of the “tree of life” is the first one. Thus always the gift of Divine life forms our starting point in the Heavenly kingdom. Now if Jesus, through His crucifixion and by the Spirit, puts into our nature that pure, sweet, eternal vitality, which flowed like an ocean through His being, see how that precious gift makes us His special property. Our Heavenly Father gave us to His Son for the special purpose of sharing His Son’s life.  

2. “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.” The term “world” here includes the impenitent millions of earth who always have rejected God, and will do so till the close of this age; this is the “world” that lies in the hand of the devil.  

Out from this ungodly world the Father gave to His Son those whom He foresaw would be willing and obedient to Christ. And He gave us to Christ that the name of the Father might be manifested unto us.  

A “name” in the Bible represents character, the inward predilection, the dominant disposition of a person. The word “manifest” means to make plain, to reveal clearly. Hence, for Jesus to manifest the name of the Father unto us is to reveal clearly to our minds and to our affections the radiant character of the Father and His eternal, fathomless and tender love. When the Father’s character, as a Being of unsearchable love, is manifested to us, how it causes us to cleave to Jesus! And the more the Father is revealed to us in Christ, the more thoroughly do we feel ourselves to be Christ’s chosen possession. We can never know anything of the Father except as manifested in Jesus. Jesus is like a beautiful avenue, through which our spirits pass up into the glorious manifestations of the Godhead.  

3. “Thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word.” Here, the giving of us to Jesus is put in connection with our keeping of the Father’s Word. The Father’s Word comes out from His character, and when that character has been manifested within us, we then have a Divine capacity for the keeping of that Word, which is the expression of the Father’s will.  

See how each of these thoughts rises in a climax, one above another. We cannot really keep the Father’s Word until His Name or character has been manifested unto us, and we cannot have that loving manifestation to us till after we are made alive with His eternal life. To keep God’s Word means far more than a literal preservation or a verbal memory of it. It implies an inward condition of heart and mind, in which God’s truth is rooted into us, as trees into the ground—an inward harmony of nature with that Word, so that as soon as His truth is made known to us, there is a cordial response on all lines, and a loving reception of it. This is not according to the narrow interpretation of man, but up to the measure of the fullness of its meaning which God puts into it. All of the Father’s Word is in His Son, so that in the highest sense, for us to keep the Father’s Word is to have His Son practically and continuously enthroned in our hearts and lives.  

4. “I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.” When Christ hung on the cross, He prayed for the sinners and ungodly church-rulers who were crucifying Him, but in this prayer He prays exclusively for His servants. Inasmuch as the Father has given us to Him, we are identified with His life, and experience, and destiny, and we thereby live in His thoughts and prayers. Every prayer which Jesus offered for Himself was virtually a prayer for those who were given to Him, for it was for their sakes that He took on Him our flesh and the conditions which made His prayer possible. He prays for us constantly, individually, in minute detail, and effectually, because the Father has given us to Him, to be His chosen spouse. Could we apprehend how that daily we are enveloped with the incense of Christ’s prayers, how the sense of His ownership of us would thrill through our entire spirits!  

5. “Holy Father, keep, through thine own name, those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are.” Here is a still higher stretch of thought, and the statement of a bolder truth than in the previous four. Because we are given to Jesus, the Father is to keep us, as He keeps His own Son. How long it takes us to begin to appreciate the depth and sweetness of these words! The Father identifies us with His only Begotten, loves us, guards us, works out His providences for us, as He sees us related to His Son.  

In addition to all this there is the counterpart truth that, by virtue of our having been given to Jesus, we believers are to be one, as Christ and the Father are one. What fathomless, boundless, brotherly love is opened up in these words! It takes a heart of great purity and charity even to believe in such a possibility. Only think of all the ways and degrees in which Christ is one with the Father: one in nature, one in every purpose, motive and intention; one in character, one in love, taste and affinity; one in majesty, glory and government, and one in life and fruition. And yet His infallible prayer is that we, poor, short-sighted, misjudging children of His, are to be so melted into Divine love, so beautifully illuminated with cloudless light, so lifted above all our narrowness and uncharitableness, and so baptized into the essence of Christ’s heart, that we flow like glittering drops of liquid silver into that shining sea of eternal unity. There, there will never be a discord, nor a harsh judgment, nor a cold suspicion, but as being one with Christ we become one with each other.  

6. “Those that thou gavest me I have kept.” In number five we had the keeping of the Father. But here is a double keeping. Jesus keeps us by virtue of being our Shepherd and Savior. And the Father keeps us as we are bound up in His Son. How these words harmonize with those of Paul about the double hiding where he says, “Our life is hid with Christ, and Christ is hid in God.” To look thoughtfully into these words will have a tremendous effect on our faith.  

7. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” Here we are given to Jesus for the purpose of abiding with Him forever and gazing with unspeakable joy on that uncreated glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was. This is the end of our being donated from the Father to the Son. The highest of all the joys of Heaven is the beatific vision, to look with our spiritual eyes on all the radiant Divine attributes of Christ, to perceive distinctly every perfection in His inner character. This will be infinitely more enrapturing than for our earthly eyes to wander delightfully over the most beautiful scenes of earth.  

These are the seven reasons why the Father has awakened us with the sharp pains of repentance, and drawn us to His Son, and given us to be the special property of that Son, that we may share in all things, in the life, character, and coming Kingdom of Jesus. These are the seven golden chains which God twines about us to bind us in the closest and sweetest union with Himself.