“For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:19).
Simply put, to sanctify something is to set it apart exclusively for God’s purposes. Before I became a Christian, I didn’t know God had given me a choice: “You can try to make it to heaven by your own efforts to sanctify yourself or by trusting in Jesus’s sanctification. What’s your call, Dan?”
Hmmmm. Let’s see. Comparing my behavior to Jesus’s…
So, when I placed my faith in Jesus, in place of my familiar life of “trying,” (and failing) He gave me a new life of “trusting.” Trusting in His sanctification. Now, as Jesus said, I am “truly sanctified.”
God’s work in my life now is to inspire, encourage, and help me align my desires, behavior, and attitudes with the sanctification I have been given in Christ. It’s like a king patiently teaching his children how to think and behave nobly, in a way befitting of their royal status. He does not do so to make them royalty; He does so because they are royalty. I am set apart for God’s purposes, and day by day He is teaching me what that looks like for me.
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