Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
John 17:17
Since eternal ages, Jesus had known that He must bear the terrible weight of the sin of the whole world. Having kept the last passover with His disciples, Jesus knew that the great agony of His existence lay at the door. Before departing for His final conflict with sin and Satan, Jesus gathered His disciples together for prayer. Even though He was the One about to suffer and die, the focus of Christ’s prayer in John 17 was not Himself.
In those last moments before He entered the deciding battle, the disciples were the great burden of the Saviour’s heart. In His final address to them, the Saviour called the eleven, ‘my friends’. ‘I call you not servants’, said Jesus, ‘for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you’ (John 15:14,15).
Friends do not keep important secrets from each other. A good man will relay to his friends that which affects and concerns them. According to this rule of friendship, Jesus had not left His disciples in the dark concerning the imminent events that were about to shake their world. Moreover, the prayer that Jesus offered to God in behalf of His beloved friends was not for them alone, ‘but for them also which shall believe on me through their word’ (v. 20). The Saviour’s prayer was for all who truly believe the Gospel throughout all time.
In His prayer, Jesus reminded His Father, in the hearing of His friends, ‘I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them’ (v. 15). That the Father’s words, which Jesus had spoken, might be retained was the heart of Jesus’ prayer.
As are all of Christ’s followers, the disciples were as sheep in the midst of wolves. Despised by well nigh all men of high and low standing, the disciples had no earthly means of defence. As their Saviour was about to be killed, so 10 of the 11 remaining disciples were to be murdered in their turn. But it was not their temporal death that concerned the Saviour. Indeed, Jesus knew that such trials were needed in order to perfect their faith.
Because they still had many lessons to learn themselves, and blessings to impart to others, Jesus pleaded with His Father, ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil’ (v. 15). But by what means were the disciples to be kept from this world’s evil? The answer is the crux of Jesus’ prayer – ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth’ (v. 17).
It is not merely a mental ascent to truth that keeps us from this world’s evil. As they were to Judas Iscariot, the Father’s words can be made known to us, but to no avail. As the seed contains the life force and instructions needed to grow into a tree, the words of God contain the power and instruction to sanctify a life after the image of God. But if the seed is not planted in deep soil and watered, it will die. Likewise, the truths of God’s word must reach the heart, and be carefully watered by meditation, prayer, and action. God’s word sanctifies, or makes us holy, because it is the expression of God’s holy mind. The implementation of the gospel truths in the life has a transformative power. By His word, God changes our deformed characters into His righteous character.
Given that truth is what sanctifies us, how dangerous is it to imbibe what is not truth? The false teacher is far more dangerous to the Christian than is the most tyrannical civil authority. Because there is no sanctification in error, false teachings have no power to keep those that believe them from this world’s evil. The sophistries of the deceiver are calculated by Satan to cause character degradation. Thus, these thieves and robbers unfit men for heaven through their soul-destroying dogmas.
But the evil of this world can have no power over those who are sanctified by God through the keeping of His word. As the disciples went unflinchingly to the cross, the sword, and even a boiling pot of oil, those sanctified by the truth will not shrink from any cross that they are called to bear, that they might obey God’s word.
Christopher Sparks