John wrote > If "sanctify" is more
than "to set apart," what are the additional nuances?
Bill: Hi John, The
distinction I am drawing is not at all adverse to the idea that sanctify means
to set apart. What I am saying is that sanctification, if
it is truly going to sanctify us, has to be internal to us and not external
only. In other words, it is not enough to be "sanctified" if that only
means you are going to remove yourself from exposure to sin and the
evil elements of the world; and this is because the sin
problem is internal to you and all of us, before it becomes externalized in
our behavioral acts.
If what Jesus meant when he said he
sanctifies himself was only that he was being an example that his
disciples might see and emulate, then we -- his disciples -- are still in our
sins and cannot help but fail to follow the example. But
if when he said this, he was speaking to an internal sanctification on
his part, then he meant that he was actually defeating the
proclivities that produce evil within humanity, in order that his
disciples might then be able to be sanctified as well. I am arguing
that that is exactly what he did mean and that he did this throughout his
life -- which was a true sanctification of the human nature; in other words,
there is genuine holiness in this.
jt: If you are depending on the
above in your own life Bill then you are still in your sin because this is not
how Jesus makes us free.
He said it is "if you continue in
My Word" Jn 8:3,32 because His Word cleanses. He said the disciples were
clean by the Word He had
spoken to them.
Once the tyrants were
defeated in Christ, and he was resurrected in new humanity, and he sent his Spirit to indwell us, well, that
is Christ in us, the hope of Glory! That is when we, his
disciples, truly can be sanctified by the Word of God. We are now internally equipped to follow his external
example, because in him -- and for us, and thus in us as well
-- the internal volitions were defeated and a new
humanity resides in place of the old. Hallelujah! Bill
jt: So your heart is completely
cleansed now and for you "the goal of the instruction is love from
a pure heart" is already an accomplished fact? because it wasn't
for the early Church and it hasn't been for me.
In a message dated
2/12/2005 11:39:40 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Thanks
for the answer, David. Why do you think Jesus did not say, "And for their
sakes I give them the example of myself, that they also may be sanctified by
truth"? He said that sort of thing at other times, but not here. Instead he
said, "And for their sakes I SANCTIFY Myself, that they also may be
sanctified by the truth." I agree with what you say pertaining to the word
of truth being the sanctifying agent (along with the Holy Spirit of course)
as far as we are concerned. But why in Jesus' case must it be any different?
It was in and through the sanctification of his own humanity via these
things that he defeated sin, death, and the devil, -- in other words, he is
much more than an example to us -- and this in order that we might now be in
a position of being able to be sanctified by the Truth through the work of
the Spirit in our lives. Do you understand the distinction I am drawing and
what I mean when I make it? Tell me what you think of
it. Bill
If "sanctify" is
more than "to set apart," what are the additional nuances?
JD