March
18, 2003
SANCTIFY
THEM BY YOUR TRUTH
"Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You have sent Me
into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And
for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified
by the truth" (John 17:17-19, NKJV).
Jesus,
in His prayer to His Father asks for His Father to sanctify
His disciples by "Your truth." Sanctify is often
translated as "to set apart as holy," "to consecrate,"
"to make holy." The Bible also conveys these interpretations.
Exodus 13:2, KJV states, "Sanctify unto me all the first
born," while in the NKJV the same verse is translated,
"Consecrate to Me all the firstborn." Christ's statement
conveys the meaning that Jesus is asking His Father to sanctify
(to consecrate, set apart as holy, to make holy) His disciples
(followers) by His truth. God had instructed Moses and the
Children of Israel, "For I am the Lord your God. You
shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy;
for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44).
Jesus
further states, "I sanctify Myself,
that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
God, and Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament and in the New
calls His people, His followers, to put away their worldly
ways and be consecrated, sanctified and made holy, by the
truth as revealed by God and Jesus. And the source of God's
"truth" is revealed in His "Word," "Your
word is truth." "You shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free." "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory." "It is
written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "
(John 17:17; 8:32; 1:1, 14: Matt. 4:4)
Jesus
is the "Word" of God made audible. "I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me" (John 14:6). We are sanctified,
consecrated and made holy by believing and trusting in the
words and messages we receive from God the Father and Jesus
Christ through the Holy Bible. "All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man (woman) of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped
for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16).
"Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
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