| Thus our Lord prayed for His own on the night before the cross, and thus He prays for us in heaven now. His prayer that night, when He said that “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine,” was a picture of His present ministry, where He is in “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” And “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” There in the glory He prays for our sanctification. As far as our position before God is concerned, “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The believer in Christ has been set apart (for that is the meaning of sanctification) to be the Lord’s forever. But He desires that our lives be continually set apart unto Him and lived for His honor and glory. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification,” and this moment-by-moment sanctification is “through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” It is the Word of God, as we learn it and obey it, that produces sanctification of life. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” May our heart attitude be that of the psalmist: “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” |
