When we think of sanctification we often think simply of becoming less sinful. Progressive sanctification (being set apart to Christ and becoming more like Him) does mean that sin should retreat in our lives. Yet the point of sanctification is not only to be less sinful. It is to be less sinful so that we can be more useful. God separates us from the world so that He can send us back into the world more effectively for the gospel. It is not merely a matter of changing behaviour. It is a matter of being set apart for God so that God can use us.
If someone ceases to do what is wrong and yet never begins to do what is right, that is not a great victory. Ephesians 4 repeatedly presents the principle of putting off and putting on: we put off that which is evil in order to put on that which is good and right. Sanctification is not a negative thing. It is not simply “stop this” and “don’t do that.” We give those things up in order to be useful to God in that which He is calling us to do and to be.
We live in a world that constantly talks about truth yet does not know what truth is. Truth does not change. Either something is true or it is not. Truth is never established by majority vote. Parliaments, congresses, presidents, prime ministers and judges cannot define truth. God defines truth. Jesus makes it plain: “Sanctify them through thy truth.” Then He defines what truth is: “Thy word is truth.” Jesus does not ask His disciples to discover truth. He gives them the truth. The truth is the Word of God. As we submit ourselves to the Word of God, it transforms us and sets us apart for that which God has given us to do.
Truth is not created by man. Even if the entire planet voted that something is false, if God said it is true, it is true. The word “sanctify” means to set apart, to make holy, or to consecrate for a particular purpose. There is a separation from sin involved in sanctification, but there is also a dedication involved. We separate ourselves from that which is evil, and we dedicate ourselves to that which God has asked us to be and to do. We separate ourselves from sin unto the Lord.
God sets us apart so that He can send us out. The Christian life is not only knowing more about the Bible; it is being changed by the Bible. We are changed so that God can use us for His purposes in this world.
Submit Your Life to the Truth
Notice first in verse 17 that we must submit our lives to the truth: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Jesus begins with the instrument God will use in sanctification—the truth. God’s Word is truth. Jesus does not say that God’s Word contains truth. It is truth, whether people believe it or not, whether they reject it or accept it.
The Bible does not stand beneath us waiting for us to judge it. It stands above us in order to judge us. That is increasingly foreign to the spirit of our age. Affirming that something is so because God made it so is considered highly offensive by many today. Yet Jesus says truth is defined by the Word of God.
When Scripture disagrees with us, who gets corrected? If something in Scripture does not line up with the way we have been living, is it we who are corrected? Some people, when they see what God’s truth says, would rather change God’s Word than let their lives be changed. Thy word is truth. When the Scripture collides with an issue, that issue needs to be corrected—not the infallible and eternal Word of God.
Sometimes God’s Word will confront our thinking. It may confront personal attitudes of resentment or bitterness. It may confront disordered priorities. It may show that something we have been normalizing is actually sinful. When our lives collide with the truth of God’s Word, something must change, and it needs to be our lives. Sanctification occurs as we allow God’s truth to correct us and change us.
There is a reason we insist on discipleship. People need to know God’s truth. Faithway Baptist Church is not the truth. We preach the truth, but we are not the truth. God’s Word is the truth, and we want people to know God’s Word for themselves. Sound doctrine comes from the Word, and everyone should be growing in their understanding of the truth. As we grow in that understanding, it will change us.
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That renewal comes as we discover God’s truth. Many lives have been changed by it. John Newton went from slave trader to preacher as his mind and life were renewed by the truth of God’s Word.
The question is not merely, “Are you reading your Bible?” The question is, “Is your Bible changing you?” We need to read the Bible, meditate on Scripture, and hide His Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. Yet it is possible to read the Bible every day and still resist what it says. Parents must govern their homes by what God’s Word says. It does not matter where other families draw the line. What does God’s Word have to say? “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9). Sanctification happens when the truth moves from the page into our lives—when the truth printed there becomes practised here.
Set Yourself Apart for God’s Purpose
Secondly, set yourself apart for God’s purpose. Look at verse 19: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”
At first this sounds strange. Did Jesus have any sins that needed to disappear from His life? No. He was sinless. He did not need to change His behaviour and become a different person. He was perfect—the spotless and perfect Lamb of God. So what does He mean when He says, “I sanctify myself”?
He uses the term in the sense of consecration. Sanctification is not only ceasing to do that which is bad. It is letting sin retreat so that we can be more useful to God. When Jesus says, “I sanctify myself,” He is consecrating Himself, setting Himself apart for what the Father wanted Him to do—which, in a short time, was the cross of Calvary. He is setting Himself apart to accomplish the Father’s will.
Sanctification is not merely separation from something. It is consecration to Someone. As parents, be careful that you are not only teaching your children to stay away from sin. Should they stay away from sin? Yes. But make sure they are also getting close to Jesus. If all we say is “don’t do that” and “this is evil,” those things are true and need to be said. Yet if we never show them how wonderful Jesus is, that is not really sanctification.
Modification and sanctification are not the same. Modification can be simply stopping certain behaviours. Biblical sanctification must involve the Lord. We are separating ourselves unto Him. There have been moments and movements in which teaching was almost entirely about what not to do, with very little talk about the Lord Jesus and very little talk about separating ourselves unto Him. Hating sin without loving Jesus is incomplete. We ought to hate sin, but hating sin alone without loving Jesus is a very incomplete picture and can be deeply frustrating.
Sometimes we think of holiness only in negative terms: don’t do this, don’t go there, don’t participate in that. Biblical holiness certainly includes separation from sin. But if that is all holiness means to us, we have missed at least half of sanctification. Biblical holiness is not only saying no to sin. It is also saying yes to God—saying yes to God’s purposes. We say no to sin so that we can say yes to God’s best.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1). We give ourselves to Him, not merely to stay away from sin. Sanctification asks more than “What am I avoiding?” It asks, “What am I setting my life apart to accomplish? What am I embracing? What am I going toward? Why am I living my life?”
Turn to 2 Timothy 2:21: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” Notice those words: “meet for the master’s use.” That is what we want our lives to be—available to the Master. Why do we purge ourselves from these things? To be a vessel unto honour, not merely to sit on the shelf looking cleaner, but to be meet for the master’s use.
Sometimes we spend a great deal of time asking God what He wants us to stop doing. How interested are we in finding what He wants us to start doing? We put off and we put on. The question is not only, “Lord, what do You want out of my life?” but “Lord, what do You want me to do with my life?” An empty house is not a pleasant place. We must fill it with that which pleases the Lord and use it for what the Lord wants it to be used for.
We want sin to retreat. We also want to ask: What abilities has God given that could strengthen the local church? Is there someone I could disciple? Is there a ministry where I could serve? Is there a neighbour I could reach with the gospel? Is there a missionary I could encourage? Jesus says, “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” He consecrates Himself for the benefit of these disciples and of those they will reach. The question is not only separating from sin, but setting ourselves apart for God’s purpose.
Step into the World on Mission
Thirdly, we need to step into the world on mission. Verse 18: “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
Jesus tells us where sanctification leads. It leads into the world. That is significant, because sometimes we misunderstand separation. We think the goal of holiness is simply to get as far away from unbelievers as possible. That is not what Jesus prayed. In verse 15 He specifically said He does not pray that the Father should take them out of the world. They are not of the world. Then He says, “Sanctify them through thy truth,” and then, “I have also sent them into the world.”
The sequence is clear. We do not leave the world. We live here until Jesus calls us home. But we do not belong to the world. Because of that we are sanctified by the truth so that we can be sent into the world for the purposes of God.
The Christian life must reject two extremes. On one side is compromise—becoming so much like the world that there is no meaningful difference between us and those who do not know Christ. On the other side is isolation—being so far from sinners that we have no meaningful contact with people who do not know Christ. Jesus does not teach compromise, and He does not teach isolation. He teaches consecrated engagement. We are different from the world so that God can send us back to the world with something different to offer.
He said in Matthew 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world.” Light does not accomplish much if it is kept away from darkness. A flashlight turned on at noon does little. Turned on at midnight, it makes a difference. Samuel Zwemer, known as the apostle to Islam, spent much of his life carrying the gospel to the Muslim world, particularly in Arabia, at a time when the work was very difficult and results were slow. He engaged those cultures with the gospel. He understood that he would be very different from the people there, but the reason was to give them something better—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We must be separate without being distant. Philippians 2:15 says, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.” God has not called us to escape darkness, but to shine in it. We have been set apart in order to be sent out and to step into the world on mission.
Conclusion
Jesus says, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” The truth is the Word of God. Why? Verse 19 tells us: “For their sakes I sanctify myself… that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” And “as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
Let us take sin seriously. Let us have the courage, even in a decadent culture, to draw the lines where God draws them—not where it is popular to draw them. Thy word is truth. In our personal lives, as we come into contact with God’s Word, the question is not merely whether we are reading it, but whether we are being transformed by it. Is my life becoming qualitatively different because of Your truth?
It is not enough simply to be sanctified from sin. We are set apart so that we will be useful and fit—meet for the master’s use. As parents, and as those who teach the next generation, let us encourage them to stay away from sin. That is half the picture. We must also encourage them to get close to Jesus Christ. Stopping sin will not satisfy the soul. Jesus satisfies the soul. He does not say, “Stop sinning, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He says, “Come unto me.” Stopping sin is a means to be consecrated to Jesus. We cannot have one without the other in any lasting way. People who merely stop certain behaviours without coming to Christ and consecrating themselves to Him eventually wonder why they should not go back. That creates bitterness.
