Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 14-21 continued

Jesus prayed that His Father would protect His Church from any evil acts that the world would commit against it, but He also meant that His Father would keep His believers saved by grace from the practice of any evil act. Rarely does a backslider commit a willful and deliberate act of rebellion against God. God usually severely punishes such evil acts. Nevertheless, God has promised that He will thoroughly cleanse His entire Church of all sins and evil either before or at the time that He Raptures His Church. This means that all backslidden believers who have committed evil acts will eventually repent of them. Repentance and faith demonstrate a humble remorse and a desire to be rid of that sin or evil and to be reconciled with God. Repentance and faith always touches the compassion of God so that He can cleanse and forgive. When God sees repentance and faith, He can turn an evil act into an ordinary sinful act that He can cleanse and forgive by His use of the water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. God had also annulled the evil act when He saved that believer by His grace. John 5:24. Evil and spiritual death are the same. Christ tasted death for every believer saved by grace just as He has for every other living human. Hebrews 2:9-15. Jesus came to also purge all sins because they all cause spiritual death, and to purge all evil which causes sin and spiritual death, from His entire creation, including all living humans whom He creates and loves. Romans 8:18-23; John 16:11; John 12:31-32; John 12:47; I John 3:8.

God is Almighty and His Love is Everlasting and His Intellect is Infinite. This means God has all the power He needs to endure the cross to bear the sins and evil of all living humans so that He can purge it all from all His living humans that He creates in His image and that He loves. Having an Infinite Intellect, He knows exactly how to plan the salvation of the entire human race. God has all power over the Devil. Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18. Christ will not just defeat the Devil, He will absolutely crush his head which can only mean that He will purge him and all of his evil from His eternal creation. Genesis 3:15; Revelation 21:5.

The fact that Jesus came to save the entire, living human race from all sins and evil can be seen in His prayer that He taught His disciples. Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus prayed that His Father's Will be done on earth to the same extent that He will do His Will in Heaven. Since God's Will happens to be that all believers saved by grace will go to Heaven to live with Him there forever, then to that same extent, God's Will must be that He will recover and recreate all other living humans to live on His recreated earth forever. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5.

Jesus also taught His disciples to pray that His Father would "deliver us from evil." Jesus did not pray that His Father would deliver His believers from the commission of sins because He knew that their retained, fleshly natures would cause them to sin. But evil means that spiritual death will last forever if not dealt with. Since God's Will for the living human race happens to be the same on earth as it is in Heaven, then Christ has purged all evil, which is spiritual death, from all living humans. John 5:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15. The "every man" of I Corinthians 3:11-15 who is saved by fire cannot be living humans saved by grace because they become saved only by being washed in the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. Matthew 26:28; I John 1:9; I John 5:6-8; Revelation 1:5. When Jesus prayed about "deliver us from evil," He referred directly to His mission to earth to purge the entire, living human race from  spiritual death.