1. Preserve me. “Keep,” or “save,” or, as
Horsley thinks, “guard me,” as
bodyguards surround their monarch, or as shepherds protect their flocks.
Tempted in all points as we are, the humanity of Jesus needed to be preserved
from the power of evil; and though in itself pure, the Lord Jesus did not
confide in that purity of nature, but as an example to his followers, looked to
the Lord, his God, for preservation. One of the great names of God is “the
Preserver of men” (Job 7:20),
and this gracious office the Father exercised towards our Mediator and
Representative. It had been promised to the Lord Jesus in express words that he
would be preserved (Isaiah49:7–8). This was fulfilled to the letter, both by providential deliverance and
sustaining power, in the case of our Lord. Being preserved himself, he is able
to restore the preserved of Israel, for we are “preserved in Christ Jesus and
called.” As one
with him, the elect were preserved in his preservation, and we may view this
mediatorial prayer as the petition of the Great High Priest for all those who
are in him. The intercession recorded in John 17 is but an amplification of
this cry.
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