RUSSELL SANDERS
OUR LORD’S PRAYER JOHN 17
LESSON 19 – vs 17 19 Part 2
SANCTIFICATION
Jesus prayed for us to His Father, (KJV- John 17:17a, 19), “
Sanctify them through Thy word…I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”
Jesus is the Truth. Being “born again” in Him, we are “set apart” (sanctified) at salvation through Jesus, the Word. Yet people struggle with being fully “set apart” unto Him alone. The flesh still has some pull on us. What should this sanctification look like?
We see in the Old Covenant that the Temple was totally sanctified unto God. Everything that was brought into it, the bowls, the lavers, candlesticks, all had to be sanctified, totally clean and purified with no blemishes.
In the New Covenant, we are the Temple; our physical bodies are the temple. We must keep our temple undefiled, clean, and pure. That is the very essence of sanctification.
I Corinthians 3:16 says,
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the (Holy) Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
The next verse (17) goes on to say,
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
How do people defile their “temples?” We do things which abuse our body like tobacco or alcohol use, drugs, gluttony, sexual misconduct, etc. We abuse our soul (mind, will, emotions) with impure thoughts, gossip, untruth, lust, offenses, etc. None of these things have place in God’s holy and sanctified temple (i.e., you and me).
We are set apart (sanctified) unto God to be His holy habitation. Hebrews 14:12 says,
“follow…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
We must follow a path of holy living, a temple set apart, for His glory.
This takes self-discipline, especially in the “battlefield of our mind.” This is where thoughts come to us that do not follow holiness. Hebrews 12:1 says,
“…let us lay aside every weight (hindrance) and the sin which doth so easily beset (set us back) us…”.
It is choices we must make; by our will (a soul function) we must choose what thoughts to entertain and which thoughts to cast off. Philippians 4:8 says,
“…whatsoever things (and thoughts) are honest…just...pure…lovely…of good report…virtue…think on these things.”
We must control (discipline) our thoughts because whatever we allow our thoughts to dwell on (to linger on), we end up acting them out.
John 17:17, and 19 make it clear that we become sanctified through the knowledge, and understanding, and getting a real grasp on truth. That truth comes through God’s Word which is twofold. One is the written Word, the Holy Bible. The other is Jesus, who is the living Word (John 1:1-5). As we look to the Word, and pray, our weaknesses are made strong through Him.
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