Thoughts on the Gospel of John (170) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
John 17:17–19

Thoughts on the Gospel of John (170)
The Son of God as man on earth prays to His Father. His requests predominantly concern the lives of His disciples, whom He would leave here in this world. They were to be preserved from evil. More than that, the heavenly Father was to sanctify them through the truth. The disciples were to be completely consecrated to God and in this manner live their lives. The word of the Father had not only set them apart from the world, which rejected the Son of God, but also from the old Jewish customs and traditions which pointed ahead to the Son.

Before the Son of God came to earth, God had already communicated truths to men, but not the truth. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (ch. 1:17). With Him and His revelation of the Father, it became clear who God is, who man is, who the devil is and what sin is: in short, how all things really are. This is how the truth can deliver us from the self-deception of this world. Today we possess the truth in the Bible, the completed Word of God.

The disciples were to live as set apart for God in order to be able to fulfil their new task – for just as the Son of God had been sent into the world and revealed the Father, so now the disciples would be sent into the world to make known their Lord and Master.

For their sanctification, something else was necessary: the Lord Himself had to “sanctify” Himself. That means that He had to enter into the glory of heaven, so that the disciples’ hearts would not be lost in this world but would be with their “treasure” in heaven – with Christ.

Today’s reading: Ezekiel 47:1-23 · Psalms 148:1-14