John 17:17 and 19

John 17:17,19  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Remark, in John 17:17, 1917Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)
19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19), two distinct characters and means or sources of sanctification, the difference of which is full of interest and instruction. Christ is the Word and the Truth (i.e., He expresses God and tells the truth of everything) as coming from God and revealing Him. The disciples were not of the world as He was not; quâ disciples, they had the communication of what Christ revealed of God, all the Father said to Him, and their moral nature too. He prays as to the form of this, that they may be sanctified through the truth: the Father's word was truth. This makes the sanctifying power, the revelation from the Father in the Person of Christ. But in verse 19 it is not what Christ is as revelation of the Father, but what He is as model set before the Father in glory in heaven, and this as man. Then the truth revealed this too, and thus sanctified them. So that the first part is the revelation of God through Christ, the Word and Truth; the second is the true communication of what He is as man before God, according to His thoughts and counsels in glory. This gives a very remarkable fullness and reality of character to our sanctification through grace. We are really set apart to God in conformity to these two aspects of Christ; we are formed after them in our nature and walk.