John 17:17 Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth. I. ITS NATURE 1. The original meaning of the word is to set apart to God; and this is its ordinary meaning in the Old Testament. We mean by it to make holy, its frequent meaning in the New. So, then, sanctification may describe either the purpose or the process of the Christian life. 2. It is easy to see how the first meaning passes naturally and necessarily into the other. Perfect consecration would be absolute holiness. (1) There is no native holiness in man or angel apart from conformity to God and obedience to His will. God alone is holy in and of Himself; the source of our sanctity, like the spring of our life, is in Him. (2) On the other hand, consecration is the sinner's way to holiness. God claims our devotion, and our transgressions do not relax our obligation to be His. Nor must a sense of our unworthiness hinder our response. His purpose is by acceptance of the unworthy to make them worthy. Thus under the Old Testament things having no moral character become holy when given up to Him. The purpose of a man's life determines the character of that life. The temple sanctifieth the gold, and the altar the gift. God's service hallows the man who gives himself up to it. 3. It was to impress on His disciples the connection between consecration and sanctification that Christ spoke of sanctifying Himself. (1) In an important sense our sanctification can only be contrasted with His. At no part of His life was He holier than at another. He grew in wisdom, &c., but not in holiness. The child Jesus was as pure in spirit as the man; and His devotion as perfect in the Temple as on Calvary. (2) But in an equally important sense Christ's sanctification is the example and motive of ours. We may not be able to do as He did the Father's work, but in the measure in which we are devoted to God we may have His joy fulfilled in us. We may not be able to consecrate ourselves to God with an intelligence as clear and a purpose as single as was His; but we can be His with a loyalty and love like that with which the disciples followed Christ. And in the measure in which we do this will the energy and sanctity of Christ's life be reproduced in us. II. ITS MEANS. The truth of God. 1. The perfect devotion of Christ to the truth is our warrant for expecting sanctification by it. It was His inspiration and joy, His safeguard against temptation, and His support in the agony of the Cross. What results may we not expect from that which called out such a passion and loyalty in the Saviour? If we could feel the truth as He felt it our lives would be like His. The sanctifying power of the truth explains His satisfaction that He has brought His disciples into some acquaintance with it. 2. It is far too narrow an interpretation to say that by "truth" He meant to contrast inward spiritual sanctification with the formal ceremonial sanctifications of the Jewish law. Ceremonialism is not the only unreality of which Christians are in danger. We need to be guarded against identifying sanctity with an exalted state of feeling, or supposing that its energy lies in our own resolves. There was no lack of elevated devotion and firm resolve in those who here were "ready to go with Him to prison and death," and we know the result. But the truth which Christ had imparted to them abode, the seed of a higher life, and the power of their recovery. Not self-contemplation nor self-culture is the way to holiness, but the contemplation of the living word of the gospel. 3. Holiness is conformity to the will of God, and that will is sure to become supreme over the character of Him who accepts it. Think of the educating power of truth. The man who studies historic truth becomes a historian, his mind being moulded into the historic type. The student of science becomes quick to apprehend natural causes and to trace the operation of natural law; so he who surrenders himself to the gospel will become a Christian man, his life being stamped with a Christian character, and owning the inspiration of God. It is not we who hold the truth, but the truth that holds us. 4. Consider, too, the confirmation of faith which every true believer is continually receiving in the practical experience of life. The scientist verifies his theories by experiment; if his theory is right, the experiment turns out as he expected. So with the states. man. We, too, who make the great venture of faith, find that Christ's promises are fulfilled. He tells us that by believing in Him we shall have remission; we believe and are saved. He says, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," &c. We believe, and the maxims of the world loose their hold upon us, its satisfactions lose their charm, and its fear dies away. The experience of the whole Church has endeared and confirmed the doctrine of Christian sanctification. III. ITS SPHERE — the world (ver. 18). 1. As antagonistic (vers. 11-14). 2. As the object of a mission. We are not here by sad mischance or inevitable accident. "As Thou hast sent Me," &c. The lessons of Christ's consecration have to be repeated in ours. The Church is His body, the direct channel through which the saving power of the gospel is to flow in upon the world. This mission helps to explain the largeness of Christ's promises and of the Church's privileges. We can never apprehend the meaning of the Christian calling when we contemplate simply the perfection of individual believers; we must ponder also the Divine influence we are to diffuse as "salt," "light," "cities on a hill." 3. As thus helpful in developing Christian character. (1) Antagonism is needed to build up a manly piety. Truths easily acquiesce in lose all the power of truth. We do not feel the energy of our faith save as we have to defend it. Where would be the room for the exercise of meekness, patience, self-sacrifice in a society when all was favourable to us? (2) Large acquaintance with the activities of life provide us with the means of spiritual advancement. Christian experience is but human experience interpreted and controlled by Christian faith. We must look the world in the face, as Christ did, aware of the struggle before us, but with an open heart of sympathy ready to catch the spirit and learn the lessons of the times. It is only as we do His work in the world that we shall be kept from the evil. Christian usefulness goes hand in hand with spiritual advancement. Growth in sanctification, like all growth, is not alone the development of force from within, but the appropriation of element from with-out. To this end "all things are ours." (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. |
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