That the saying might be fulfilled which he
spake
( John
17:12 ) ;
of them which thou gavest me have I lost none;
which though it has a peculiar respect to the apostles, is true
of all the elect of God; who are given to Christ, and shall none
of them be lost, neither their souls nor bodies; for Christ's
charge of them reaches to both: both were given to him, both are
redeemed by him, and both shall be saved in him with an
everlasting salvation: he saves their souls from an eternal
death, and will raise their bodies from a corporeal one;
wherefore that his care of his disciples, with respect to their
bodies as well as souls, with respect to their temporal lives as
well as eternal happiness, might be seen; he made this agreement
with the Jews that came to take him, or rather laid this
injunction on them, to dismiss them; and which it is very
remarkable they did; they laid hands on none of them, even though
Peter drew his sword and struck off the ear of one of them: and
which is a very considerable instance of the power which Christ
had over the spirits of these men, to restrain them; and so a
proof of his proper deity, as well as of the care of Christ for
the preservation of his apostles, whilst he was here on earth;
for to that time only the words cited have a respect; in which
Christ speaks of his keeping them whilst he was with them, and
uses this as an argument with his Father to keep them, now he was
removing from them: wherefore their losing their lives afterwards
for his sake, as they all did excepting the Apostle John, is no
contradiction to this expression of his; and besides, they were
preserved by the power of God so long, until they had done the
work which was appointed them to do, and for which they were
given him, and chosen by him to be his apostles, and for which
they were better furnished after his resurrection and ascension;
for had they been, apprehended by the Jews at this time, in all
probability, according to an human view of things, such was their
weakness, they would have fallen most foully and shamefully, as
the instance of Peter, the strongest of them, shows; and
therefore to prevent such a temptation and to preserve them, our
Lord took this method to deliver them out of the hands of the
Jews; the saving clause, "but the son of perdition", is here left
out, because Judas, who is designed by that character, was now
openly declared to be what he was; he was no longer among the
disciples; he was separated from them, and had betrayed his
master, and was not of the number of those Christ insisted upon
might be let go.