Sanctify Them

The work of sanctification is a blessed and glorious work of God upon the soul and in the life of a believer. It is a work of the Triune God. The Father sanctifies, the Holy Spirit sanctifies and the Lord Jesus sanctifies His people. Those sanctified are set apart for the glory of God. They are made holy and blameless in His sight. Ultimately, they will be delivered pure and spotless into the presence of God. Sanctification, like justification, is a free gift and a sovereign blessing from our loving Father.

Set apart

According to scripture we may understand sanctification in two ways. Something, or someone, may be said to be sanctified when set apart, consecrated or appointed to a holy purpose. When the Lord God finished the works of creation, He blessed and hallowed the sabbath day. That is, He sanctified it, He set it apart for His honour and to point the church to His great work of salvation by grace; we rest in Christ from our own works. Elsewhere in the Old Testament we see this pattern repeated in the furniture and vessels of the tabernacle which were sanctified, or set apart, to be employed in the worship and service of God. 

Made holy

The other definition of sanctification is when someone who is sinful and defiled is made holy in Christ. No creature makes itself holy in the sight of God. Making holy that which is corrupt and polluted is a divine work of grace, mercy and peace. Sanctification of the elect was accomplished by the Son of God on the cross. He purchased redemption for His people by His blood, cleansed His people from their sins and made them righteous before God. This is ‘the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness’.

A present state

The Apostle Paul describes the church in Corinth in like terms when they believed the gospel and were brought into spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. He tells the new converts they are clean and pure, who had, until recently, been notorious for their corruption and idolatry. ‘And such were some of you’, says the Apostle, ‘but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God’.

The prize of success

In our verses today the Lord Jesus asks His Father to sanctify the disciples through the truth. As on previous occasions in this high priestly prayer, we note this is not a request for favour. The Lord is asking the Father to bestow those blessings that are His to distribute by right. Christ is claiming His prize as the victorious Mediator in the great settlement of grace. Having accomplished the work His Father had given Him to do, the Saviour asserts the rights and privileges of His success. 

Transforming grace

Certainly, the disciples were set apart to serve in the capacity of apostles and no doubt this is included in the Lord’s statement. At Pentecost their hearts and minds were filled with the Spirit of God and they were dedicated by Christ, who is the Word, to serve God and represent the Truth in their ministries to the ends of the earth. How else can we explain the changes that took place in the lives of these men? Similarly, all those born again by the Spirit are set apart and dedicated to the service and worship of God in Jesus Christ. 

God’s work alone

What is most important is to notice how the sanctification of a sinner is God’s work alone. No one will ever glory before God for their obedience to the law or good works. Those who lay the duty of sanctification on a believer, to be accomplish under the law, have missed the central lesson. It is Christ Himself ‘who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption’. 

Christian assurance

Brothers and sisters, sanctification is the free gift of God in Christ. It is received and enjoyed by faith and not by works. By faith we trust in the Lord our righteousness and receive His righteousness as members of Christ’s body. We believe that He who sanctified Himself and offered up His own body on the tree, sanctified to Himself a people fit for God’s presence. This is, ‘a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing … holy and without blemish’. Faith lays hold upon these assertions, stands upon the promises, believes in the success of Christ and rests in His perfections.

 

Amen.