In the prayer we call the “high priestly prayer”, Jesus prays on our behalf. Not just by extension, but as directly as possible.

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

John 17:13-21

What an amazing thing! God Himself, incarnate on Earth, prayed for our protection from the evil one! What better ally could we hope for than the one who is able to carry out that request?

By being set apart in truth, because that is what sanctified means, we have been removed from the influence of the evil one, and that one is no longer able to harm us. The only requirement for taking part in that protection is to remain in Jesus, just as Jesus remains in the Father.

Ethan Kirl