So we’ve memorized John 8:31b-32 and Romans 12:1-2.
I hope everyone knows that sanctification is pretty important as a follower of Jesus Christ. So why do we read and memorize Scripture?
Because John 17:17 says “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
Do you want to be sanctified? Read the Scriptures and memorize the Scriptures. Next week I will dive a little deeper into the connection of being controlled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5) and how the Word of God dwells in you (Col 3), but for this week we’ll look at the context and continue to see the significance of God’s Word being truth and how it is used to sanctify us.
The context is Jesus High Priestly Prayer in John 17. He has made many maxims in His prayer to the Father but as we work our way through I think we’ll see His request for the Father to sanctify us in His Truth (His Word) is more than substantial. I thought I would list out the truths expressed in His High Priestly Prayer so we can see the substance (His requests as well as His maxims) in list form:
1. Jesus has been given authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him (vs 2)
2. Eternal life = knowing Him the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (vs 3)
3. Jesus Christ accomplished the work the Father gave Him to do (vs 4)
4. Jesus Christ was with the Father before the world existed (vs 5)
5. Jesus has manifest His Father’s name to all that the Father gave Him out of the world (vs 6)
6. We know that everything that Jesus has, has come from the Father (vs 7)
7. Jesus has given us (all that the Father gave Him) the words that the Father had given Him and we have received thm and have come to know in truth that Jesus came from the Father and we have believed that the Father sent Jesus (vs 8)
8. Jesus is praying not for the world but for those whom the Father has given Him, for we are His (vs 9)
9. He is no longer in the world but we are (the ones the Father has given Him) and He is requesting that He keep them in His name and that we may be one as They are one (vs 11)
10. Jesus had lost none except the son of destruction so that the Scripture might be fulfilled (v s 12)
11. Jesus has given us His Word and the world has hated us because we are not of this world (vs 14)
12. Jesus has requested that the Father not take us out of the world but that He protect us from the evil one (vs 15)
13. Again we are not of the world (see 11) just as He was not of the world (vs 16)
So His request that the Father sanctify us is satisfied how? He’s going to sanctify us in truth…His word is truth.
How will He protect us against the enemy? James say’s in James 4:7 Therefore submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee.
14. He’s not asking only for those near Him then but for those who will believe in Jesus through the word of those that are near Him now. This will lead to those who He has been given all being one. (vs 20-21)
So how important is it that we are sanctified? Important enough that Jesus requested it of the Father right before He’s died that we may live. I think we may have to spend another week looking at the significance of being sanctified in the truth.
Remember to be sanctified in the truth we have to know the truth (John 8:31b and 8:32-which you already memorized. So why do we memorize and meditate on Scripture…so we’re being sanctified!!!