“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23,24
In Jesus’ high priestly prayer just prior to His crucifixion, one of the things He prayed for was that the Father would “sanctify” His disciples, and this by His truth, clarifying this even further by saying, “…You word is truth.” (Jn. 17:17) What did Jesus mean by this prayer, and why is it so very important?
The word “sanctify” means to set apart, in particular in the Biblical sense, and with respect to God, set apart for a holy use and purpose unto God. The Lord Jesus was sanctified, set apart wholly, in every aspect of His being for the purpose and pleasure of the Father, to accomplish the work of redemption for all men. (Jn. 17:19) This was possible by the power of the Holy Spirit which was the “Cause” of His birth, but also, the power of His life from the cradle to the cross, every aspect of His being always under the control and blessing of the Father. Though Christ’s ministry would not begin until He was thirty years old, His Life as the Anointed one of God, set apart by the Father to be, become, and remain, the “Lamb of God which takes aways the sin of the world,” would always remain a constant reality. What then of the sanctified life to which every child of God is called to live, know, and show forth on this earth? Where does it begin, and how is it practically embraced?
The beginning of “sanctification” begins with the thought of it in the mind and heart of God. For God it is not something new for men, for He has from the beginning of time, lived and manifested it. God has always been sanctified from all that He created, always set apart from the result of His works, manifesting His holy life in a good and perfect creation in the beginning. When sin came into the world, the fact that He was sanctified, or set apart from sin was even more evident and revealed. God in His holiness will have nothing to do with sin, Satan, and this world’s system of godlessness. He is completely set apart, distinct, removed from it, for His very nature opposes all that is not of His holiness. How then, could the Holy God have anything to do with sinful, selfish, and Satan-oriented men, who defy and despise Him, reject and oppose Him, being His enemies? The answer is simple, and yet as profound as God Himself, for He is NOT as sinful men are. He is what the Scriptures call, “Love,” perfect and complete. In the perfection of His righteousness, and His justice, with His judgment upon all that is sin in opposition to Himself, there is the underlying, overwhelming manifestation of the holy nature of God in His love. The cross of Jesus Christ not only was a symbol, and bold declaration of God to all men everywhere, for all time, and eternity, of God’s judgment of sin, that which is in opposition to His holy Life and nature, but also, of the outstretched hand of God to lost men everywhere, ever seeking to save them by declaring that God alone, and forever, has provided a singular, perfect way by which sinful men can KNOW the Savior’s intervention in the life to awaken the soul to its lost condition, but then, convict the soul of the necessity of seeking God alone for the remedy. There in that cross, and especially, in the One who died upon it, the terrible picture of God’s judgement upon the sin(s) of the world, but also, of the determined and deliberately revealed love of God, is revealed for all men to see, and believe. The sanctified gift of God was His beloved Son the Savior.
Sanctification in the life of a believer begins with Christ, our entire sanctification.
Dear Father, Sanctify us today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.