Sanctification: December 2006
Table of Contents
Christian Position and Sanctification
We see what it is to be a Christian by looking at Colossians 1:12: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” The moment you have faith in God’s Son, you are fit to be with Him. The work of Christ alone makes us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. A saint is one who has been set apart to God by the work of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit. But, you will say, there must be sanctification. What does being sanctified mean? Separated to God. There is nothing so simple as sanctification as it is given us in Scripture. If you call practical holiness sanctification, it follows justification. But there is a sanctification which comes before it: “Such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
God takes good care that the soul who believes His word never shall be lost. “God hath chosen . . . you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). The two things, sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, are inseparable; where one is, the other must be.
Our fitness for glory is the work that Christ has done for us and which fits us for the presence of God. Hence it is written in Hebrews 2:11, “Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” But there are the two sides of sanctification. There is the positional side, but there is also the progressive or the practical side. When a soul has received the Lord Jesus Christ, there ought to be progress practically, but first of all I get my position, and I must regulate my behavior by the relationship in which I stand. For instance, I don’t behave to you as your child would. Why? Simply because I am not your child. I must know that I am a child of God before I can walk as a child of God.
Notice these five points as to Christian position, as given to us in this chapter. First, we are made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” — for the light in which God dwells. Second, we are delivered from the power of darkness. Third, we are in the kingdom of the Son of His love. Fourth, we are redeemed through His blood. Fifth, we have the forgiveness of sins. Sixth, then, we have peace with God, and seventh, we are reconciled. “You, that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight” (vss. 2122). That is how it all comes — through the death of Jesus clearing away my sins, and, I may say, myself too, and He is going to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. W. T. P. Wolston, adapted
Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” ( John 14:6).
Peerless Worth
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
“Chief among ten thousand” own Him,
Joyful choose the better part.
Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,
Lovely things of time and sense;
Gilded, thus does sin disarm thee,
Honeyed, lest thou turn thee thence.
What has stripped the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not the sense of right or duty,
But the sight of peerless worth.
Not the crushing of those idols,
With its bitter void and smart,
But the beaming of His beauty,
The unveiling of His heart.
’Tis the look that melted Peter,
’Tis the face that Stephen saw,
’Tis the heart that wept with Mary,
Can alone from idols draw —
Draw, and win, and fill completely,
Till the cup o’erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols,
Who have companied with Him?
Author unknown
The Character of Sanctification
I have it on my heart to say a few words on John 17 in reference to the character of sanctification.
At this moment, as we all know, the Lord was rejected. All through the Gospel, from chapter 1, He is unknown to the world and rejected by the Jews. But from chapter 13 He speaks as going out of the world and ascending on high.
In this chapter, however, what is brought out is that He came forth from the Father, not from God only, and this involves “eternal life.” That is where eternal life comes in. Its character is that it is the knowledge of the Father, for the Father sent His only-begotten Son that we might live through Him. It is in the knowledge of the Father, and Jesus sent by Him, that there is eternal life. And then the character in which we know Him is that of “holy Father,” and this is sanctification. When it is a question of the world, it is “righteous Father.” It is not that grace does not go out to poor sinners in the world to deliver them out of it, but that saints are not of it and have done with it.
Some think that Christ came into the world to connect Himself with humanity — that He united Himself to man in the incarnation — which is utter falsehood. He was a true man, but the thought of the union of God with man — with humanity as it was — is wholly unscriptural; there is no union before redemption. The doctrine of Scripture is that we are united to Christ after redemption is accomplished—united to a glorified Christ.
The Father and the World
As to the world, we have here a most important point practically, because “the friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4). Wherever I let the spirit and associations of the world in, I am associating myself with that which has rejected Christ. The world is a judged system. “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). The Father has a world of His own, which He has given to us, to which He has taken Christ to be the center — the new creation. The world, as it is, rejected Christ when He came into it, and now all that is over. The whole thing we belong to is a new creation. That is what a Christian is, and we have to keep hold of it in our walk and in our testimony. It is true we have the treasure in earthen vessels, but we belong entirely to the new creation. The treasure is not in its natural associations as to its surroundings here.
We read also, “By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once” (Heb. 10:10). In Hebrews it is always sanctification by the blood — on the cross. There was a complete breach between God and the world, and the believer set apart to God. Here there is a double ground of sanctification, God’s will and Christ’s offering. And third, which is the practical part of it, we get the Holy Spirit as Him who actually works it, the immediate agent of the work in us: “Elect . . . through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). There is the communication of a new life in Christ. But it is a totally new thing —Christ our life, so as even Adam, innocent, did not have it. And this is really the principle of holiness. That which is born of God is a holy thing; we are “born again . . . by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23), for the Word of God does abide forever.
Christ is that eternal life which was with the Father and becomes spiritually our life; it is nothing that is in man or of man. That gives it its true character. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” (1 John 1:12). All that which was simple failure at the beginning came out as enmity against God’s own Son when Christ was in the world. He displayed divine goodness and power, all that divine grace could be, but this manifested God, and this man would not have at any cost. The world has been tested in this way, and the result is that, fallen man having been turned out of paradise, God has been turned out of the world into which He had come in grace. And so the world will not now bear a man that is like Christ. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7), but “He gave himself . . . deliver us from this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). I get the One, the Man that the world rejected and that God delighted in, and God says, I must carry out My purposes of grace, and to Christ He says, Come and sit at My right hand till I carry them out. So that is where He is gone, and the world sees Him no more.
Christ in Glory
In Israel, God was among them as a delivered people, but the veil was there unrent. It is not so now. When Christ died, the veil was rent, and now we have “boldness to enter into the holiest.” The veil is rent from top to bottom, and the only place I have to walk in is in the light as God is in the light. If I cannot walk in the light, I cannot walk with God at all.
We then come to what this sanctification is positively. God has personally accepted man in Christ; the Son of God is in the glory. Our actual condition is never spoken of except as being in connection with the second Man in glory; our only connection with God is in Christ; we are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This is not a question of our responsibility; it all depends upon the finished work of the second Man; it rests upon what is done. Christ has obeyed even unto death and is glorified. As the result of His work, we have been begotten again with the word of truth, we have been made the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and thus we have a new nature. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
Now this new nature must have an object, and God has given it one that is not in this world at all. There is not a single thing in this world that will not unsanctify us if we go after it. Sanctification is all connected with Christ in glory. The whole thing is new: The nature, the character and the object by which we are sanctified through the Holy Spirit is outside the world entirely. The object before us is a glorified Christ; He is our life: We are “created in Christ Jesus.” The believer has duties here and is not taken out of the world, but his life is wholly connected with Christ at the right hand of God, and everything that diminishes our perception of Him there diminishes our practical sanctification here.
Our testimony is that the Man whom the world rejected is at God’s right hand. The gospel begins, not with Christ come into the world, but with Christ turned out of it. The world rejected Him, and God took Him up into heaven. “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God and your God” (John 20:17). This was never said before redemption.
And just mark how the Apostle identifies us with Christ: “The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” He completely associates us with a rejected Christ down here. “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be” —we have the treasure in poor earthly vessels now, “but we know” — we are so identified with Christ —“that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is” — up there in glory. We shall never see Him as He was down here in humiliation, but in glory we shall see Him as He is.
Christian Sanctification
And now what is the effect of this? “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). I can never be as He was, for He never had any sin in His nature, but I am going to be perfectly like Him. And why purify myself? Because I am not pure, and therefore I must purify myself. He does not say pure as He is pure. But He is the standard by which I purify myself —Christ, as He is there above. I am to be like Him, and the life I have of Him can never be satisfied till then. I have ever to purify myself.
You may find other passages on the subject, but there is no other way of looking at sanctification in Scripture. There is no setting apart to God except in the second Man. Where am I to look at God’s holiness in a man? I answer, In Christ in glory. He was the Holy One and walked according to the Spirit of holiness down here, and I am to walk as He walked, but that by which the Holy Spirit works this in us is by looking at the glorified Christ up there, by having an object and a motive up there which takes my heart out of all that is here, as His was who walked through the world, as I have to do. I am going to be with Him and like Him. A man who, in heart, is not only with God and for God, but even now an imitator of God as a dear child —that is Christian sanctification.
What a blessed calling is ours! All is connected with a glorified Christ — a Christ that the world has rejected. He has given us a holy nature, born of God, and for an object, He has given you the glorified Christ, the Son of God.
How then am I to be set apart in the world? If I have nothing wholly outside it, my leaving particular evils comes to giving up one thing and taking to another, but getting something that is outside of it delivers me wholly from its power. The Lord Jesus says, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). This is just what Christ the blessed Son of God was; He was the truth itself, and the truth perfectly suited to man’s heart and conscience. This is what the Word of God does, looked at as a means. The Father’s word brings the truth into my heart and searches it and detects everything that is there; it comes as a light and shows everything there that is not of the new creation. And it does so by revealing what is up there. The disciples were believers, and now He is looking for them to be sanctified, and that is done by showing them what is heavenly, associating them with what is in Him above by the Father’s word.
“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:19). He is set apart as the Man of God’s counsels and heart, as Man in glory. Nay, He says, “I set myself apart,” and the Holy Spirit brings the knowledge of it down, and, by the communication of Christ in glory, makes me more like Him every day. He says, You must not have a motive that is not drawn from Me in heaven. All sanctification is referred to being like Him there, kept by the Holy Father to walk as He walked down here before His Father.
While it is, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me,” it is, “Righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee.” It is very solemn. He appeals to the Father as against the world. It is lying in wickedness. Meanwhile, Christ is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” “Imputed” cannot be applied to all these words. If to any, it is not the subject of this text. People talk of “imputed sanctification.” How about imputed redemption? What does that mean? I hope we shall get more than imputed redemption on going into glory! It is the kind and measure and standard of these things, and that is Christ, and He made them of God to us. It is a question of partaking in God’s holiness. Being born again, I am associated with Christ. I am going to be in the same glory that He is in, and I am going on until I get there, purifying myself as He is pure. Then I shall see Him as He is and be like Him. The world that we are naturally of has rejected the Son of God, and the associations of the believer are with a glorified Christ, waiting till He comes to take him home.
J. N. Darby, adapted
Sanctification
We are sanctified — set apart by God Himself, for Himself and according to His holiness.
When God rested on the seventh day, He sanctified (set apart) that day as a day of rest for Himself. He sanctified (set apart) an earthly people for Himself. He set apart a place among them where He, in holiness, could be with them. Whenever the priest was to come before Him, he was to sanctify himself to come near according to the holiness of God.
We have been sanctified for God through the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus. Now we are to live practically according to God’s holiness. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
The world in which we live is a wicked, polluted, unholy place. The object of our hearts has set Himself in a holy place apart from all sin. We are instructed, “Set your affection [mind] on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2). When our minds are occupied with the Sanctified One, then our hearts and lives are separated from this evil world. When, as a result of such occupation, we separate ourselves from all that is not according to God’s holiness, we become sanctified vessels, clean and fit for the Master’s use.
“Pray ye: Our Father . . . let Thy name be sanctified” (Matt. 6:9 JND).
Sanctification and Holiness
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
The word rendered “holiness” in this verse is used some ten times in the epistles and is often given as “sanctification.” It indicates, as another has said, the “practical effect produced: not the quality, but the character in activity,” or “sanctification . . . the sum and measure of it, the thing as an effect, as a whole, characteristically, not the quality.” The same word is used in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us . . . sanctification.” We are exhorted to “follow . . . holiness [sanctification]; without which no man shall see the Lord.”
What, therefore, in the unspeakable grace of our God, Christ is made unto us, we, being in Him, are to follow after. The holiness in Hebrews will then signify correspondence with, or conformity to, Christ as glorified. It may further aid if another scripture is compared: “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). From this we gather that Christ has set Himself apart, in His new condition as glorified, as the pattern and object for His people, and that they will be brought into conformity to Him through the application to their souls of the truth of what He is as the glorified Man, the leader of a new race, the Second Man out of heaven.
It may be asked, Will not all saints be like Christ when they see Him (1 John 3:2)? Why then should we be exhorted to follow or “pursue” after holiness? Because God would have us in communion with His own mind and our hearts set upon His own end and object. He presents Christ glorified to us as His eternal thought for man, and He would have us pursue diligently after its realization. The practical effect of this truth is seen in Philippians 3, where the Apostle says, “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Holiness, according to God’s thought, is seen in Christ glorified, and we are to follow after it as thus expressed. We are urged forward in its diligent attainment by the reminder that without it no one will ever see the Lord. Only when we see Him will God’s eternal purposes for His people — that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love — be accomplished and realized.
Christian Friend, 1897
Sanctification’s Model
You never get sanctification apart from the glory in which Christ is. God has set one single Man apart, so that I may know what sanctification is in this world. He has given me a model Man according to the Father’s heart.
J. N. Darby from Food for the Flock, Vol. 8:177
Ecology and World Resources
“They that use this world, as not abusing it.”
Today two unsolicited items arrived in our mailbox. One was a plea for a donation to help conserve the Swift fox, an animal native to the Canadian prairies, and now an endangered species. The other was a free magazine that offered, among other things, advice on how to eat better, how to avoid illness, and even how to “sense the nurturing energy of Mother Earth.” Both publications ultimately relate to ecology, natural resources and our attitude to them. Lately there have been various reactions to the subject, ranging all the way from dire predictions of imminent “gloom and doom” to complete denial that any problem exists. However, given the developments of the past few years, many people are very concerned about the matter. As the population of the world continues to rise and a number of important resources approach their limits, it is hard to avoid the thought that a major crisis could easily occur. A knowledgeable author expressed it this way in a recent book:
“The current world population of 6.5 billion has no hope whatsoever of sustaining itself at current levels, and the fundamental conditions of life on earth are about to force the issue. The only questions are: What form will the inevitable attrition take, and how, and in which places, and when?”
The Fear of Many
Although few wish to talk about it, the above quotation probably represents the fears of a significant number of people. Believers may well question what their role should be in all this, and how they should react to the diminishing of the world’s resources, perhaps coupled with lifestyles, at least in Western countries, that continue to use these resources on a large scale. Once again, the Word of God gives us light for every step of our Christian pathway and gives us wisdom in this matter too.
First of all, we must remember that God, who created the universe, did it for a purpose. He has chosen this world (and ultimately the entire universe) as a display of His power and glory, for “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork” (Psa. 19:1). More than this, He has chosen this earth as the theatre to facilitate the carrying out of His purposes concerning His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. As such, God knew exactly what He was doing when He created this world, when He allowed it to fall into temporary chaos, and when He established man upon it for a prescribed period of time. The resources He gave to man are finite, but God knew how long the world would need to last with man upon it, and nothing will frustrate His purposes. We can rest in this.
Throughout man’s history, his attitude towards the earth and its resources has ranged to extremes. On the one hand, he has often misused and squandered what God has committed to his stewardship, especially in times of plenty. We have wasted food, plant and animal life, and, more recently, fossil fuels. This has accelerated in the last one hundred years to include misuse of the soil, the wholesale destruction of rainforests, and the widespread pollution of air and water. All of this promises increasing difficulties if we are left here for a few years.
On the other hand, some have taken the attitude espoused in one of the publications I received in the mail, an attitude that worships the earth, that views all animal and plant life as being sacred, and even hesitates to use the world’s resources. Such individuals and groups often believe in “energy lines,” “mind-body exercise,” and “connecting one’s soul with one’s body” by being in harmony with “Mother Earth.” A minority suggest a return to a simpler lifestyle, perhaps farming with horse-drawn machinery and rejecting electricity and other modern conveniences.
A Proper Balance
As always, the Word of God gives us proper balance in all these things. First of all, God has given man the stewardship of this world, and as such, God intended him to use its resources. However, waste is never countenanced in Scripture, and even the Lord Jesus, the One who created all things, had the fragments of bread picked up that were left over after He had fed thousands of people. Likewise, there was no waste of the manna when Israel was in the wilderness, for God saw to it that “he that gathered much had nothing over” (Ex. 16:18). In 1 Corinthians 7:31 we read that we are to “use this world, as not abusing it.” Everywhere in Scripture man is to be a careful steward of what God has given, using it as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.
The resources of this world are finite, and it does seem that, with the tremendous increase in the world’s population, there will not be enough to go around. It is quite possible that this very shortage, especially of fossil fuels, will be a factor that causes some of the upheaval and strife during the tribulation period. Should the believer be concerned about this? More than this, should we be driving cars that consume those resources and pollute the air at the same time? Should Christian farmers engage in the widespread use of pesticides and commercial fertilizers, knowing their ultimate effects on the soil? Or should we revert to a simpler way of life, to conserve as much as possible?
I believe that Scripture would call us to live in the world in which our lot is cast, serving our own generation by the will of God, and leaving the rest with Him. The use of cars and airplanes has enabled the spread of the gospel as never before. The use of modern communication systems such as the telephone, fax machine and the Internet has enabled believers to reach parts of the world as never before. The ease of printing and distributing literature has enabled the Bible and other publications to get into hands that otherwise would not have had it. For all this we thank the Lord and count on His blessing. He knows how long the gasoline will last and how long this world can go on, and thus Christians can indeed “use the world, as not disposing of it as their own” (1 Cor. 7:31 JND).
The Environmentalist Believer
In this sense every believer should be an “environmentalist,” in that he values the resources of this world because God created them, and also he values them for what they can do for the Lord. He will not hesitate to use those resources, but only in a way that will honor the Lord and further His interests. He will recognize that sin is in this world, and as such, he cannot expect perfection until the Lord makes things right. Until the curse of sin is removed, he cannot expect to see the effects of sin removed. Disease and death are part of the first creation, and we must live under it.
However, he will not be an environmentalist in the sense of worshipping the earth or feeling guilty when he uses its resources. Those who focus on “saving the planet” may have good motives, as far as wanting to preserve what is available to us, but many have no thought of God or His claims. Rather, their thoughts are of themselves, of their ultimate comfort, of preserving a heritage for their children, and of being able to enjoy “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:25). In many cases, they are into such things as yoga, new age thinking, and ultimately occult practices. For many of them, the earth itself is a god, and thus they speak of reconnecting the mind to the body, and the body to the earth. Needless to say, such thinking ends up with man’s making himself a god, and self becomes the beginning and end of all his thoughts. May we stay well clear of such blasphemous and disordered thinking.
The Millennial Environment
There is a day coming when God will bring blessing to this world, when the Lord Jesus returns to judge this world and then reign during the millennium. The millennium will be a wonderful time, for the world will revert to an agrarian economy, and the curse on the earth pronounced in Genesis 3:17 and Genesis 4:12 will be lifted. In that day “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (Micah 4:4), and the ground will produce such abundance that “the plowman shall overtake the reaper” (Amos 9:13). God will vindicate His Son in the world that has rejected Him, and judgment will be instantly executed against wrongdoers. However, even in the millennium there will not be perfection, nor the display of the fullness of blessing that God intends. God has told us in His Word, concerning the heavens and the earth, that “they shall perish, but Thou [the Lord Jesus] shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed” (Psa. 102:26). The world as we know it today will not go on forever, even the millennial world. Clearly the earth, including the atmosphere around it and the universe itself, will get old as a piece of clothing, and God will dispose of them when they are no longer needed. We read in 2 Peter 3:12 that there is a day coming when “the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” This will take place at the end of the millennium, for when this universe has served its purpose, God will burn it up. Then He will create “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13) and usher in the eternal state.
As believers today, our hopes are heavenly, and we are not looking for earthly blessings, either in the millennium or the eternal state. Rather, our hopes are centered in Christ and in our heavenly blessings. We will not inhabit this earth during the eternal state, but we will enjoy the Father’s house.
In summary, let us remember God’s promise to Noah when he came out of the ark. At that time God promised that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). A British poet (Byron) remarked, “Man marks the earth with ruin,” but God is in control, and nothing can stop the fulfillment of His purposes. For the present we are in this world — a world which is spoiled by sin and is wearing out. But God is still working here and has left us here as living witnesses for Him. He has given us resources to use and wisdom to use them for His glory and His interests, until we are called home.
W. J. Prost
The Termination of Man’s Stewardship
Luke 16:1-13
The rapid consumption of goods in our materialistic society is causing alarm as we deplete the natural resources of this world. This causes us as Christians to wonder how we should use the material goods we have at our disposal. The instructions of our Lord in Luke 16:1-13 give us to understand His viewpoint concerning how we can please Him in the use of money and material things.
The steward was told in verses 12 to give an account of his stewardship, for he could no longer be steward. The issue at hand was not only the steward mentioned, but the whole human race. The Lord was calling in question man’s use of what God had given him. All through the Old Testament the failure of man is recorded. Then when the Son of God came, He called into question man’s stewardship. Could he give an account of all that had been entrusted to him? Could he remedy the failure? The action of the steward proved the answer. He knew he could not reconcile the account and pay it back, so he acted accordingly. He sought to make friends with those who could be kind to him after he was removed from his position.
The Lord Jesus tells us that the steward was commended for his actions. He does not commend him for honesty — he judged him to be unjust — but he commends him for his prudence, his foresight to act wisely in view of what was coming when his stewardship was taken from him. The steward was wise to sacrifice present temporary advantage for the sake of the future permanent benefit.
The Lord of all the earth in the same manner has determined that the human race has failed in its stewardship of this world. The world has been ruined by man and God is going to have to burn it up. But, before He destroys this world, He has given us a time to use the things in it a little longer. The Lord has plainly told us of the termination of our stewardship. It is vain to try to change the verdict or go about seeking to improve the earth. But before He destroys the earth, God in His mercy gives each of us who are still living on it a time to use material things. Our time of stewardship will terminate when we leave this world, whether by death or at the Lord’s coming.
The Wise Use of Material Things
How careful we should be with the material things that God has entrusted to us! The issue is no longer a question of preserving this world (the first creation) as an environment for blessing. There is a better world for which to prepare, in the everlasting habitations (the new creation). The things of this world are coming to an end. They have been ruined by man and cannot be recovered. The Lord Jesus is the only one who can remedy the situation.
The all important issue is not to find a remedy for this world, but to determine where we will go when we leave this world, and whether we will have any treasure in heaven! As good stewards of the material things of this world, we should not be wasteful. There is One who is ready to receive us in the new world. Let us seek to use the material things at our disposal for Him. Let us make friends with Him. He has promised to give something that will abide —that which is our own (vs. 12).
As to the part that cannot be returned to our Lord, there is One who can pay it. Yes, our Lord is able to put this world back into order, and He will do so in the end (1 Cor. 15:24). We can depend on Him for that, and we should acknowledge it and thank Him for it.
How wonderful to realize that the Lord of the first creation is also Lord of the new creation. He is able to put everything we have spoiled of the first creation back in order. He wants to give us new life to participate in the new creation. He is more interested in the destiny of our never-dying soul than merely exacting from us all that we owe. In fact, He came to pay the debt so it could be done on a righteous basis. It honors Him to accept this offer and own Him as Lord. The way is open to the Father’s eternal abode.
D. C. Buchanan
Sanctification: What Is It?
Sanctification signifies, literally, a setting apart to God — like a vessel for the use of God in His temple. (See 2 Timothy 2:21.)
The ground of it is the blood of Christ (Heb. 10:29).
The measure of it is the person of Christ (1 Cor. 1:30).
The power of it is the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:12).
The application of it is by the Word of God (John 17:17-19).
Positional and Practical
Sanctification is both positional and practical.
As to position, all believers are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once (Heb. 10:10).
To all believers, Christ is made unto them sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30).
All believers have sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2).
All believers are sanctified through the truth (John 17:19).
All believers are sanctified through faith (Acts 26:18).
As to practice, the Apostle desires that the God of peace may sanctify believers wholly (oloteleis), that is, entirely to the end (1 Thess. 5:23).
The will of God was their sanctification, which is divided into four parts:
1. Abstaining from fornication and uncleanness.
2. Positive practical holiness, which is the same word as sanctification in the original language.
3. Love to one another.
4. Orderly walk and working with their own hands (1 Thess. 4:3-12).
The Lord also prays for the believers as to practical sanctification. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
The Sanctification Epistle
The Epistle to the Hebrews is the great epistle on sanctification.
The object of the Apostle in writing the epistle was to separate or sanctify the Hebrew Christians from everything to Christ. They were still clinging to Judaism, the Jewish religion, which had just crucified the Lord.
Hebrews chapters 1, 2 and 3:12 shows them to be sanctified brethren in association with the Son of God. Hebrews 810 shows them to be sanctified worshippers in association with Christ the glorified High Priest, the center of worship.
In Hebrews 12, they are disciplined to become partakers of the Father’s holiness, because they were settling down in the world and clinging to the earthly religion.
In Hebrews 13:13 they are exhorted, “Let us go forth . . . unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.”
If a man purge himself from these (that is, vessels of dishonor), he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master’s use (2 Tim. 2:21).
The first Adam and his descendants have set themselves apart to evil and the rejection of Christ. Christ, the last Adam, set Himself apart from all evil to God, and by His death and resurrection He is now fully separated to God. Do you belong to Adam or to Christ?
A. P. Cecil
“I Sanctify Myself”
The thought of sanctification is twice expressed by the Lord Jesus concerning Himself. He spoke of Himself as one “whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world” (John 10:36). He was set apart by the Father for the accomplishment of the purposes of His will. In His prayer for His disciples in John 17 the Lord also says, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” He set Himself apart in heaven from rights that belonged to Him as man that His own might be sanctified by the truth. He was sanctified on earth for the Father; He has sanctified Himself in heaven for the saints.
Concise Bible Dictionary