we are His own

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Joh 6:37-39

“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. Joh 10:29

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” Joh 17:6

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.” Joh 17:9

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Joh 17:12

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” Joh 17:24

Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,” that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.” Joh 18:8-9

I discovered something interesting reading Thayer's Greek Lexicon this morning. The Greek verb to give in all the above places in John (Strong's G1325) is in a unique construction. It means, specifically, to give one to someone. Now the text from Thayer's, explaining what this means, says:

“In these passages God is said to have given certain men to Christ; i.e. to have disposed them to acknowledge Christ as the author and medium of their salvation, and to enter into intimate relations with Him. Hence Christ calls them, 'His own' (Joh 10:14).”

“I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.” Joh 10:14

But equating the verb construction with the phrase “intimate relations” shines a spotlight on the unsanitized meaning of the word. In the traditional marriage ceremony, the question is asked, “Who gives this woman to this man?” and the father of the bride answers, “I do.” The marriage relationship represents the highest form of intimate relationship. Even still today in modern English, when a woman is said to have given herself to a man, intimate relations is understood. In the old days, before liberalism and feminism moved our culture away from its foundation, when that giving took place, the man then believed that the woman was his own.

So here we have all this marriage and wedding and intimate relations connection with this form of the verb to give in these places in John. John is not trying to describe a natural wedding or a physical union between a man and woman by using this verb, obviously. But he uses the wedding form of the words, because he is showing the nature of the relationship between our Messiah Yeshua and those who are His own - it is a marriage relationship, an intimate relationship of love, of trust, of giving, of friendship, of loyalty and exclusivity, of passion! He is returning as the Bridegroom for His Bride, and that is us!