Final Prayers

Final Prayers
John 17:17-19

17 Sanctify [hagiazo] them [autos] through [en] thy [sou] truth [aletheia] : thy [sos] word [logos] is [esti] truth [aletheia] .
18 As [kathos] thou hast sent [apostello] me [eme] into [eis] the world [kosmos] , even so [kago] have [apostello] I also [kago] sent [apostello] them [autos] into [eis] the world [kosmos] .
19 And [kai] for [huper] their [autos] sakes [huper] I [ego] sanctify [hagiazo] myself [emautou] , that [hina] they [autos] also [kai] might [o] be sanctified [hagiazo] through [en] the truth [aletheia] . KJV-Interlinear

17 'Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. 18 'As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 'And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. NASB

Sanctification is the request. So what is it? To be sanctified means to be set apart from something. To be separated from a thing and to be made into something else, to be made holy.

We already know that holiness is the sum of righteousness and justice. Righteousness is a state of purity, of no defect, of no blemish, which simply means no sin and no human good. Justice is the penalty for something that is a transgression against that which is right. If we make a mistake, if we break the law, then we must pay the price to make our wrong, right again. Justice then, is a cleansing of the defect.

So to be sanctified then we must be first cleansed of our filth (justice) and then we must enter into a state of purity, or a righteous state. That is accomplished by fellowship.

Justice takes care of the sins in our life. Jesus Christ went to the Cross and made himself sanctified so that we might have the opportunity to become sanctified. He set Himself apart from God by becoming sin for us. He took upon himself the penalty of sin, and paid it, thus cleaning it all up for everyone forever.

So much for sin. The Justice of God took care of all sin. There is still the problem of human good. Human good was not sent to the cross, and therefore was not punished. Human good is man by mans efforts seeking to accomplish something good in Gods eyes, such that God will accept mans efforts as a basis for getting man back before God. We know that God rejected human good at the cross. Man has no part in the work of Christ on the Cross. So mankind cannot do anything from the energy of his own effort to earn or deserve salvation.

But since we have both sin and human good in our life, and since sin is the only thing which was judged, then God commands us to confess our sins (not our human good - it is ignored), so that we can get back into fellowship. Fellowship is the state of our cleanliness, the washing away of our filth, so that being clean we are allowed to stand before God. He will receive us in prayer, in our worship (Bible study), in everything we do in life (while in fellowship).

This is set apart or to be made holy.

Sanctification comes from only one source - truth. Truth is defined as Gods Word. There is no other source, no other person who can recognize sanctification, other than God and through His Word. No priest, no pastor, no government, no ancient philosophy, no contemporary philosophy, no ancestor worship stuff, no animal worship stuff, no nature worship stuff, no siting in the corner and humming stuff, no system of exercises which makes you one with the universe or nature or anything else. Nothing can sanctify you. Nothing can set you apart from this world, which also means to disassociate you from this world.

In order to have a relationship with God, we must become separated from the world. We must be disassociated with the philosophies of the world. We do this by first believing in Christ (once in our life) for our salvation, and second by confession of sin (as often as it necessary - constantly examining our lives for sin and then confessing them), to God the Father. He is the only recipient of prayer.

These two things are the only requisites for sanctification. They come from truth, which is Bible doctrine. We can only learn this by applying ourselves to a daily Bible study. We cannot learn through osmosis. We cannot learn via some other system of academics.

There is only one God (the Father) and only one Son (also God). There is only one plan for salvation (authored by the Father). There is only one who carried out that plan (the Son, Jesus Christ). Thus Jesus' words 'As Thou didst send Me into the world.' Both followed the same game plan. No other religion on earth is valid. No other means of access to God is valid.

Christ's work is the only work which God recognizes as a basis for salvation, as a basis for spiritual growth, as a basis for a relationship with God.

Were it not for Christ and His work on the Cross, we would have no hope, no future, nothing. The world and its beliefs have nothing to offer us with respect to solving sin and death in our lives.

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