Kept by the Name, Marked by the Cross
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 17:12-14
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Kept by the Name, Marked by the Cross
Our Lord speaks as the faithful Shepherd who has guarded His flock. None of those entrusted to Him are lost, not by accident, weakness, or neglect. Even the one who fell did so according to Scripture, reminding us that God’s saving plan is not derailed by human sin. Jesus has given His disciples the Father’s Word, and that Word creates a dividing line. The world resists it, not because it is unclear, but because it exposes darkness. Here the cross already looms. The hatred of the world will soon fall fully upon Christ Himself. He will be rejected, mocked, and crucified, not because He belongs to the world, but because He does not. Yet precisely there, in His suffering and death, He secures His people forever. We live under that same Word and bear that same mark. We are kept not by our faithfulness, but by His. Marked by the cross, guarded by His Name, we belong to Christ, even when the world hates us.
John 17:12-14
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Kept by the Name, Marked by the Cross
Our Lord speaks as the faithful Shepherd who has guarded His flock. None of those entrusted to Him are lost, not by accident, weakness, or neglect. Even the one who fell did so according to Scripture, reminding us that God’s saving plan is not derailed by human sin. Jesus has given His disciples the Father’s Word, and that Word creates a dividing line. The world resists it, not because it is unclear, but because it exposes darkness. Here the cross already looms. The hatred of the world will soon fall fully upon Christ Himself. He will be rejected, mocked, and crucified, not because He belongs to the world, but because He does not. Yet precisely there, in His suffering and death, He secures His people forever. We live under that same Word and bear that same mark. We are kept not by our faithfulness, but by His. Marked by the cross, guarded by His Name, we belong to Christ, even when the world hates us.
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