Sanctify Them in Your Name

Sanctify Them in Your Name

“For I have given to them the words which You have given Me . . . .” V. 8. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” V. 17.

Jesus is the author and finisher of faith. Heb. 12:2. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. If Jesus, who according to the flesh was born of the seed of David, was to finish the work God had given Him, He had to live by faith, by the Word the Father had given Him. They were not words He heard with His natural ears, but with the ears of His heart. By these words He lived through everything by which a man could be tried, yet without sinning. He was tempted, and He suffered, but in everything He found His way to do what is right through the words He had received from His Father. In the darkness of this world He walked upon a totally new way that led to life, so that death could not hold Him. This gives us an understanding of how valuable the words were which He received from His Father, and to what faith and faithfulness to these words lead. He says, “For I have given to them [these] words . . . .” He gave them to His disciples and to us who have come to faith. If we could rightly understand to appreciate, these words, believe, and be faithful to these words, then they would lead us, too, through all darkness to the resurrection from the dead—to be caught up to be with Christ. 1 Thess. 4:17.

“Sanctify them by Your truth.” You are being sanctified if you do the Word. The Word is contrary to human feelings and human understanding. If you follow the Word, you will be separate from relatives and friends. Most people fail the test when faced with this kind of separation. When your relatives, your spouse, and religious people surround you and preach to you, then your faith in Jesus’ words fails. No one would understand you if you were to abide in His Word; you would become lonely and so you give in and slide back into the masses. You do not attain to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer. You are not sanctified by the truth.

Abraham acted differently. He held on to the word he received. This caused a separation in his life. Religious Lot hung on the longest. Lot loved God, but he had this one thing in common with the ungodly: he also loved the plains that were well watered. Therefore he had to live together with the ungodly, and he suffered as a result. But when Abraham was free from Lot, he received promises and a clear vision. Gen. 13:14.

Abraham was sanctified by the truth, and circumcision became a covenant between him and God. Gen. 17:9. Abraham was so faithful and the covenant he entered into with God was so powerful that it gave rise to a new nation. This nation became separated to such an extent that even to this day they have not blended in with other nations. Deut. 7:6.

If you are to be sanctified by the truth, you will fairly quickly leave an ungodly world behind; yet the religious Lots follow along for quite a while, and most people encourage them to follow them for as long as they live. They have so many good ideas about how to save them, but you will never be properly set free as long as Lot is with you, and you will never experience a proper circumcision of the heart. That is why there is no power in your life or in your words. Hos. 7:8-9.

May we realize the great significance of Jesus’ prayer. He did not pray that we should be taken out of the world, but that we might be sanctified by the truth which is His Word. Only by having our hearts circumcised and being faithful to the Word can we have the strength to be in the world without being of the world. Irrespective of how dark it will become in the world, we will, if we remain faithful, find His steps and run after Him because of the words Jesus gives us. Then we will not go astray in the days of our flesh; we will come to where He is.