May 12, 2024 Daily Dose of Discernment

“I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from the Evil One. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world." (John 17:15, 18)

One grossly erroneous version of the gospel offers a false hope and a skewed view of salvation. According to it, the world will proceed from bad to worse and will be beyond redemption because the devil reigns here. Jesus will then have to bail us out one day and take us to heaven. But the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. He will not give it up to a malicious destroyer. He doesn’t discard; He restores. He’s not just able; He’s passionate about making all things new.

This is why Jesus’ prayer is not for His Father to take His disciples out of the world but to keep them from the evil one and to enable them to overcome him. Because He’s sending them into the world so that they may participate in freeing it from the power of the devil and making it paradise again. Then “There, with the whole of creation, freed from the corruption of sin and death, we may glorify God through Christ our Lord, through Whom He bestows on the world all that is good.” This is the true good news.