Jesus’ final prayer from John 17 for His disciples shows our Lord’s deepest desires for His followers’ including their spiritual well-being, both then, now and after. Jesus’ prayer is also a Spirit-inspired example of how all Christian leaders should pray for people and how Christian parents should pray for their children.  As a reminder, Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer is very instructive, renewing, and redeeming: In verses 1-5, Jesus prays for His glory; He prays for his disciples in verses 6-19. and then in verses 20-26, He prays for all believers. To avoid the rut of daily, monotonous prayers, Jesus calls us to a deep, intentional prayer for the people’s spiritual well-being, especially those close to us.

Jesus’ prayer points us to the mechanics of salvation as the source of the disciples’ spiritual well-being. Our well-being is first spiritual. Hence, we are connected to God through Jesus Christ by having a set of values, principles, morals, and beliefs that provide a sense of purpose and meaning in life and then using those principles to guide our actions. Paul wrote that God made us alive with Christ by forgiving us all our sins even when we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:5). The mechanics of salvation for spiritual well-being is based on our righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and one of the greatest paradoxes of the Christian faith.

Jesus’s High Priestly prayer is not only about a sense of mission and purpose in life or comfort in times of uncertainty. The prayer as the mechanics for salvation for spiritual well-being offers tools to regain personal forgiveness, calmness, and a pathway to make sense of grief in a time of loss, an increased capacity for unity, love, and forgiveness, thereby unlocking creativity and resourcefulness; reduction of stress and depression; an overall improvement in health and well-being; motivation to be of service to others and a sense of community and fellowship in those with shared beliefs.

Jesus said, “I have manifested your name to the people you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them” Jn 17:6-10.

The five verses are theologically packed and reveal how the Father gives the elect to the Son, Jesus Christ, and how the Son accomplishes redemption for them on the Cross. In the mechanics of salvation, the Cross is fundamental and indispensable for our spiritual well-being.

Our spiritual well-being is based on God’s plan for our salvation. Jesus says that we are God’s possession. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me…” The disciples are chosen by God just as Jesus says that God the Father had given them to Him. The nature and mechanics of salvation are ‘intra-trinitarian’ because God the Father elects man and woman to salvation. Then, it is Jesus who purchases our salvation on the Cross. The plan and mechanics of salvation are not based on human debate, inventions, resolutions, or definitions. It is a human choice to be a son of perdition.

The mechanics of salvation for spiritual well-being hinged on Jesus’ Cross, inviting the disciples to know and be confident that we are saved in Jesus Christ. Ensuring our salvation in Jesus Christ defines our sense of purpose and expands our meaning in life, joy, peace, hope, and eternity, including our moral and ethical values.

The mechanics of salvation are not just comforting as a source of our spiritual well-being; it is the joy of the Lord as our strength. God require growth as we abide in Him and He in us. Jesus revealed His identity and purpose concerning who He is, where He came from, and what He came for. Jesus said, “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me” (v.8). Jesus prays for His disciples’ salvation and their unity. The prayer for unity in this context does not ignore or deny grievous sin, error, and false teaching for the sake of unity.

Jesus’ final prayer as mechanics of salvation for spiritual well-being provides a model for us in praying for our family and those under our pastoral care and oversight; that they may know Jesus Christ and His Word intimately (Jn 17:2-3, 17, 19) so that God may protect them from the evil influences of the world, keep them from turning away from Him and give them discernment, that is, wise and godly judgement; to recognise and reject ungodly beliefs and false spiritual teaching (Jn 17: 6, 7, 14-17); that they may constantly possess the complete joy of serving Christ (v. 13); that they may live by God’s standards of purity and truth in thoughts, actions, and character; that they may be unified in love and purpose, just as Jesus and His Father are (vv. 11, 21-22); that they may lead others to Jesus Christ (vv.21-23); that their faith will endure so they will one day be with Jesus Christ in heaven (v. 24); and that they constantly experience God’s love and presence (v. 26).

Jesus’ prayer, as the mechanics of salvation for spiritual well-being, calls us to be sanctified and set aside for God’s purpose. Using Jesus’ words, “Sanctify them through thy Truth’ is both the living Word of God, that is, Jesus and the written Word of God as revealed in the Bible. To be sanctified means to be holy, morally, and spiritually pure, whole, separated from evil, and dedicated to God. The Holy Spirit accomplishes the process of sanctification as Jesus’ disciples.