“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
John 17:17
This text is part of the prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples. Among the things He prayed was this: that the Father would sanctify them by His truth. Then He said, “Your word is truth.”
Sanctify.
To sanctify means to set apart as holy. So Jesus was praying that the disciples would be set apart and made holy by the Word of God.
Jesus was showing us that the only thing with the ability to make holy what is unholy, and set it apart before God, is the Word. (Pause and repeat that to yourself.)
There is nothing else that can sanctify but the word. You can pray, but you will need the Word if you want to be set apart. You can fast, but prayer and fasting without the Word is incomplete. You can go to church. You can do good deeds. But if you separate the Word of God from prayer, fasting, church, and good works, those things cannot make you holy. Only the Word can.
And the Person saying this was the same Person who was about to go to the cross and shed His blood. The Living Word was telling us that it is the Word that sanctifies.
Only the Word can set us apart.
Waking up in the morning and reciting mantras cannot make you holy. Checking the list of good deeds cannot make you holy. Trying to look perfect before men cannot make you holy. Only the Word.
If not for the Word, we would all die in the misery of our sins. We would die in the brokenness, weakness, and frailty of failing man. But the Word comes in, separates us, washes us, breaks us out, pulls us through, and sets us apart.
Isn’t that a wonder?
Prayer:
Father, thank You for the sanctifying power of Your Word. Set me apart by Your truth. Wash me, correct me, shape me, and make me holy by Your Word. Deliver me from the desire to be like everyone else, and help me embrace the life You have called me into. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Bible Reading:
Ephesians 3:1–13 and Psalm 119:53–65
