John 17:17
Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.
Our
scripture text makes a powerful but profound statement regarding the
sanctifying truth of God's Word. It make plain God's standards and truth by
which all men will be judged and how we are to live according to God, His
holiness and be in fellowship with Him. There
is no truth except the truth of God.
The
question now becomes, What is truth?
Truth is defined as genuine, something that can be trusted. This is what God's
Word is. He is the one source of truth. God is the same yesterday, today and
forever more. He cannot lie. John 14:6 calls Jesus "the truth" as He
is God in the second person; therefore, whatever He says is truth. That being
said, the Word is both the living and written Word of God.
The
term sanctify means to make holy through separation from the evilness of this
world, or be separated or set apart from this world and its morals and values.
Sanctification is made possible through the atoning work of Jesus Christ our
Lord and Savior.
Sanctification
is necessary because believers are a called out nation of royal priest, a
peculiar people who see things from God's point of view. If Jesus sanctified
Himself to do the will of God the Father, then why shouldn't you and I (v. 17)?
Jesus
the living Word our sanctifier.
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1 comment:
Almost two thousand years ago, Truth was put on trial and judged by people who were devoted to lies. In fact, Truth faced six trials in less than one full day, three of which were religious, and three that were legal. In the end, few people involved in those events could answer the question, “What is truth?”
After being arrested, the Truth was first led to a man named Annas, a corrupt former high priest of the Jews. Annas broke numerous Jewish laws during the trial, including holding the trial in his house, trying to induce self-accusations against the defendant, and striking the defendant, who had been convicted of nothing at the time. After Annas, the Truth was led to the reigning high priest, Caiaphas, who happened to be Annas’s son-in-law. Before Caiaphas and the Jewish Sanhedrin, many false witnesses came forward to speak against the Truth, yet nothing could be proved and no evidence of wrongdoing could be found. Caiaphas broke no fewer than seven laws while trying to convict the Truth: (1) the trial was held in secret; (2) it was carried out at night; (3) it involved bribery; (4) the defendant had no one present to make a defense for Him; (5) the requirement of 2-3 witnesses could not be met; (6) they used self-incriminating testimony against the defendant; (7) they carried out the death penalty against the defendant the same day. All these actions were prohibited by Jewish law. Regardless, Caiaphas declared the Truth guilty because the Truth claimed to be God in the flesh, something Caiaphas called blasphemy.
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