SANCTIFICATION

Terry W Lock

Hebrews 10: 12-14; 2:11-12

Ephesians 5: 25-26 

John 17: 19

         The last verse of the hymn we began with starts,

         Thy word, Thyself reflecting,

                  Doth sanctify by truth,          (Hymn 78). 

I enjoy the thought of sanctification.  Sometimes we think of sanctification in relation to the removal of sins, or we think of sanctification in relation to the setting aside of evil, but sanctification is greater than just the removal of things contrary to God.  Sanctification is God moving of Himself to separate for Himself what is precious to Himself.  Sanctification is entirely God’s movement, and it is a wonderful thing to contemplate.  Our brother has been speaking about the desires of Christ.  It says, does it not, in Isaiah, “He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied”, chap 53: 11?  There was a desire in the Lord to secure for the heart of God a people able to respond to God, which could only be brought about by the travail of His soul.  That was the purpose of the Lord’s movements, that He was going to sanctify for God what was precious to the heart of God, and this always characterised Christ’s movements

         Speaking very carefully, one of the greatest satisfactions, one of the most pleasing things, the Lord had when He was here, was when He was able to say to his brethren, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17.  It was the culmination of a work that had been completed by intense suffering, but He had at that point in time sanctified a company in response to the desires of the Father as stated in John 4: 23.  That is a remarkable thing. 

         So in Hebrews 10 it speaks of the things that had gone before, but then the writer says in relation to Christ, “But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet”.  He offered one sacrifice for sins to move them out of the way, to remove them from the sight of God, to make it so there could be this relationship existing between God and men; and so that it could be there in perpetuity.  Nothing can intrude upon that relationship, beloved brethren.  Nothing can intrude upon your, and my, relationship with divine Persons, because Christ has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified by that one offering.  How precious the offering, for God, beloved brethren, but, how intense the sufferings taken account of in the offering.  It meant that there would come a time in the Lord’s life, when it would be said of Him, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14.  What that meant for the Father, to see Christ as the offering!  What it meant for the Spirit to be the power by which He would offer Himself to God: think of the feelings of the Spirit in relation to that, and the feelings that were there in Christ.  We have been reminded, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?”, John 12: 27.  What intensity of feelings were there in this offering so that sanctification should come to pass.  What a glorious contemplation.  So the writer says, “by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified”.  It is because of the completeness of all that was done, though the intensity being supreme, past the point of anything we will ever understand, anything that we could ever comprehend, by that one offering God has sanctified for Himself a company.  What a glorious thing Christ has accomplished. 

         But then you come to Hebrews 2, and there it is, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”; “For both he that sanctifies”: that is Christ; it could not be anyone else.  There was nobody able to take on the work of sanctification for God, except Christ, and that is because of the perfection that was there in the Man.  What He was as an offering for God was perfect in every sense.  When you go through the offerings at the beginning of Leviticus, the one thing that marks them all is that they are perfect.  And the one thing that marked Christ when He offered Himself spotless to God is that He was perfect: perfect for God inwardly and outwardly, in everything that He was.  He could say to the persons that were contesting against him in John’s gospel,  that He was “Altogether that which I also say unto you” (chap 8: 25),and this showed the perfectness of the offering in what it was for God.  It was the Man in all that He was for God.

         So here “both he that sanctifies and those sanctified”: that is us, beloved brethren.  Do you see yourself, do you know yourself, to be sanctified with Christ?  It is a remarkable thing when you think about it.  It is God having set you alongside Christ for Himself, for praise for God.  What a service has been done by Christ for God: but what a place, what a position.  The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one.  That is the holy character of God in the saints in all its perfection.  Do you think, ‘Well, that is past me’?  And naturally, yes, it is past you, but, beloved brethren, you should get a hold of it that God has made you that by the offering of the Christ.  What a standing, beloved brethren.  It should make our hearts well forth in praise to God, that He has moved in such a manner to make you one with Christ.

         So we move on then to Ephesians.  It is very interesting how it puts it here because it says, “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it”.  Again, you say, “even as Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”; you might say that He delivered Himself up for that which was not formed yet or able to be sanctified, but according to the purpose of God Christ found here the nucleus of the assembly, this great vessel of which we have been reminded tonight.  He found the nucleus of it here in those that were His, that He had had part with in the testimony; He found the nucleus of that great vessel that would be for Himself and in which He would sing the praises of God, in which there would be this answer to the desires of His own heart.  He found that, and delivered Himself up for it, the purpose being that He might sanctify it.  He would separate it to Himself.  He would separate it according to holy purpose; that is the meaning of sanctification.  It is not purification; it is sanctification.  It is God separating for Himself that which is for His own heart; that is the level of what it is.  That is what Christ did here that He might sanctify it.  What a glorious movement of love that Christ would sanctify the assembly because of the preciousness of what it was to Himself in His own heart; He would move and deliver Himself up that He might sanctify that vessel.  He would separate it for holy purpose, and what is that?  The singing of the praise of God.  There is in the assembly what answers to the heart of Christ as Man, what the assembly is in all its affections for Christ.  What she is as His bride is one side of the matter, but what it is as the glorious vessel in which He will sing the praises of God is another part of the same matter.  What an answer to the desires of Christ, and He has sanctified it; He separated it for holy purpose.

         When we come to John 17 the Lord says, “I sanctify myself for them”  What a service we have in the Man: not only has He sanctified us, not only is He the great Sanctifier, but He sanctifies Himself.  This involves all of Christ’s priestly service; it involves all His intercessory service; it involves all His service in the sanctuary.  “I sanctify myself for them” is in view of everything going through according to the glory of God while we are in time.  We have a Man, beloved brethren, who has sanctified Himself to bring us to God with praise.  “I sanctify myself for them” is His own service in affection, for those that He loves, in what they will be for His God: that is the purpose of Christ sanctifying Himself.  What a glorious man He is!  He is the only one that could do this for God and He is the only one that could do it in relation to a creature vessel because of the position He has taken as Man.  He is the One that could do it in relation to saints; it took someone as great as Christ in His own personal glory to do this. 

         Well, that is quite a thing when we think about it.  All the desires of God, all the desires of Christ, all the things that have been brought to pass have been so because Christ has operated to move and sanctify for God what is precious to the heart of God. 

         May it touch our hearts, beloved brethren.  May there be a welling forth of praise and worship to God who has given so much, expended so much, that there should be a sanctified company for Himself.  May it be so for His Name’s sake.

Word in a Ministry Meeting, Edinburgh

4 December 2018