Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17 CSB – Jesus’ prayer for disciples

Between life & Eternal Life

As Jesus intercedes for disciples our Master has just prayed:

“I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.“

Jesus, the Eternal One, has completed His work in the world as the Son of Man, only Son of God the Father. He is about to experience the very death of mortals condemned by sin!

So as a Perfect High Priest the Lord intercedes for sinners in prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem, a Holy of Holies before our Father God, the Most High Creator of the world and Author of all life.

John 17:

13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

The Lord speaks clearly to the Father and before the Apostles that He has this one more thing to say ‘in the world’ before His Disciples.

The world hates God! Jesus gave them God’s true word and now the world hates them.

Why?

They are no longer condemned by their sin, as the world is condemned to death along the the evil one. So the departing Messiah prays for God to keep them from the temporary but real power of evil.

• 17 Sanctify them in the truth;
  • Your word is truth.
• 18 As You sent Me into the world,
  • I also have sent them into the world.
• 19 For their sakes I sanctify Myself,
  • that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus prays for them and us and clearly states why.

What He will do next?

The Lord will sanctify Himself so that His disciples will become like Him as they are sent also into the world.

Sanctification

“Sanctify them…”

“I sanctify myself…”

What do these formal and holy words mean to a casual worshiper of these last days?

Perhaps the time has arrived for us to receive this truth as was near for a soon-to-be crucified Savior and His Disciples.

ἁγιάζω – hä-ge-ä’-zo – sanctify

Jesus prays: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

John 17:17 KJV

• to make ἅγιον, render or declare sacred or holy, consecrate. Hence, it denotes:

1. to render or acknowledge to be venerable, to hallow: Since the stamp of sacredness passes over from the holiness of God to whatever has any connection with God, ἁγιάζειν denotes
2. to separate from things profane and dedicate to God, to consecrate

source: Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 37: ἁγιάζω - blueletterbible.org

Sanctify them, as in “hallowed by Thy name.” ‘Father make these Holy by Your own holy Name,’ He could well have prayed.

The Apostle John has already testified in his gospel [John 6:69],

“We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy G40 One G40 of God.”

Be holy, for I am holy, says the LORD.

וְהִ֨תְקַדִּשְׁתֶּ֔ם וִהְיִיתֶ֖ם קְדֹשִׁ֑ים כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Leviticus 20:7 & many other scriptures

Jesus IS the only High Priest with the Authority to sanctify any flesh of sinful man who He sends out into the world. The Lord can make you or any He chooses to be ‘a holy vessel of the LORD.’

“I have sanctified them..

Jesus continues to pray for those the Father has given Him:

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

John 17:19 KJV

You cannot see the face of God, O man of flesh tainted by sin!

Gaze far into the distant heavens beyond the vast sea for a light of truth, the paradise of Eden, the glory of the living Temple of the LORD. You will not enter it any more than you may enter the Holy of Holies constructed by man and destroyed by disobedience.

Jesus our High Priest prays to sanctify you through the truth.

To be continued...