Our Lord Prays for His Own

Often times, modern Christian men don’t know about or don’t take the opportunity to read really old Christian literature. The book “Our Lord Prays for His Own” is a wonderful example of a little known book – especially to modern readers. I’m taking the liberty of giving you an excerpt here that hopefully will whet your appetite.

The book is a study of our Lord’s prayer in John 17. The context of this passage is where Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify the Son in verse 1. Jesus was about to be crucified and in so doing He would be fulfilling the agreement that He had made with the Father before the world began.

Read this section thoughtfully and prayerfully. If you haven’t read such old material before, you may get tangled up in the long sentences and some of the vocabulary. Also, there are phrases taken from Scripture that you may not be familiar with. Please feed your soul by taking the time to read and reread this passage, and then consider putting this book on your to-read list. It makes great devotional reading.

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Oh, if we could enter more fully into the thoughts of God as to the real nature, character, and consequences of sin; and His boundless love for sinners, manifested in the gift of His own Son—descended from heaven into our nature in order to effect our salvation, to vindicate the character of the broken law, and to declare the righteousness of God, that He might be just, and at the same time the justifier of him who believeth on Jesus, then should we understand what a glorious position Christ did really occupy, and what a marvelous grace Jehovah bestowed upon Him in appointing Him to be the manifestation and incarnation of His Everlasting Love, and “the daysman, to lay his hand upon both.”

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles…I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord; that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another” Isaiah 42:1, 6-8

This was the work Christ was about to accomplish; and to finish it was in His estimation to be glorified. Satan also, the enemy of God and man, was to be overthrown; the Goliath who had defied the armies of the living God was to be trampled under foot: and the Son of Man was to do it. Death, the wages of sin, was to be fully paid; and through death Christ was to “destroy him that had the power of death”; “to abolish death”; to extract its sting; “to swallow up death in victory”; and rise again, to die no more; but with authority to impart His own risen life to His people, so that henceforth they might live in Him, thus “delivering them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” This was the work He had in view, and the accomplishing of it was His glory.

Our Lord Prays for His Own by Marcus Rainsford; Moody Press, Chicago 1950