John 17:17-19 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, in order that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Verse 17 gives the source of God’s protection for disciples that Jesus prayed for in verses 13-16. The key to victorious Christian living is not in personal discipline but in the sanctifying power of God. Sanctify (haiason) means to make holy in keeping with God’s character and purpose. Jesus asks the Holy Father (verse 11) to extend his holiness to the disciples. Holiness is first a relational term and second an ethical term. Those who are relationship with the Holy God must also live by his will (Leviticus 11:44–45; 1 Peter 1:16). The “doing” comes out of the “being.” The one who has been set apart to God and filled with God’s Spirit of Holiness will live out this holiness in faithful obedience. Sanctification is God’s doing but requires the human response of commitment.
The way this sanctification happens is through the powerful word of truth. Jesus came as the Word from God to make God’s plan of salvation clear to those who had ears to listen. Many heard his word and did indeed believe. With faith came the sanctifying power of God. The Holy Spirit guides believers into this truth (16:13). The same Spirit who inspired God’s word is the same who will take this word and use it to transform people into God’s holy likeness. God’s word would protect them from evil and give them victory over sin.
Jesus indicates the purpose of believers’ sanctification in verse 18. God set apart Jesus for the special mission of revealing him and his plan for humanity. The disciples were the extension of this mission as Jesus sent them into the world. That mission continues throughout the ages to the present and into the future until he comes again. To be a follower of Jesus means to do as he did. The only way to do this with victory over the temptations of the world is through the sanctifying power of God’s word working within us through the Holy Spirit. We go with the same Spirit who came upon Jesus with power at his baptism.
Jesus was about to experience the greatest form of trial for any human: to face death as an innocent victim but to do it knowing that it would bring the salvation of others (15:13). To face this great trial, Jesus sanctified (hagiazō) himself. He would demonstrate his total dependence upon the Father through his total consecration to the Father’s plan of death upon the cross. Jesus was holy and without sin in an ethical sense, but this was because he relied completely on the Father. The moment of great trial was just moments away. Jesus laid himself on the altar of total consecration and availability to be used by the Father to bring about the salvation of the world. The sanctification of the disciples and all who followed them was dependent upon his own sanctification at that crucial moment.
The path to sanctification is to follow the example of Jesus in total commitment. He sets the pattern and provides the means for this sanctification to happen. Because they are sanctified by God’s word and through Jesus’ obedient sacrifice on the cross, they are empowered to stay in the world as light unaffected by the hatred and persecution of the darkness.
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