SANCTIFIED BY THE TRUTH.
We have just seen that the Spirit operates in the work of
sanctification in connection with belief of the truth on our part. And
with this agree the words of our Lord in His intercessory prayer.
"Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." The word here is
not the eternal Logos, but God's revealed truth as given in Holy writ.
And it is a statement of the highest importance, made by Him who is the
truth, that the medium or means of our sanctification is in the truth
of God as made known to us in the gospel of His Son. Here, again, the
Apostle Peter gives expression to the same sentiment when he says:
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that
by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust." If we are favored to
escape the corruption that is in the world, we are sanctified wholly,
and this is effected, Peter says, not by works of righteousness, not by
resolutions or penances, not by striving to do holiness, before we seek
to be holy, but by faith in the promises of God. These promises are
very numerous, and varied in character on the pages of the Bible. By
seizing upon them as written specially for us, we make them our own,
and they become in and by Jesus Christ yea and amen, that is to say, we
realize them in our own experience to be the truth, and thus when we
read "This is the will of God even your sanctification," or, "The very
God of peace sanctify you wholly," or, "I will circumcise your heart,"
or "I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my
statutes," immediately the truth is impressed upon our hearts as a
glorious reality, and we are enabled to reckon ourselves dead, indeed,
unto sin, and alive unto God, and to realize that the Saviour's prayer
is answered and we are in His own blessed words, sanctified "by the
truth." If any reader will take a concordance and look for the word
truth, and search out the passages containing it, he will be convinced
that, however men may look at it, we have to do with the Lord God of
truth, and that His estimate of truth is so high that He will by no
means countenance any person or anything that liveth or maketh a lie.
And if we would honor Him, we must honor His truth, the truth that is
to make us free from the bondage of inbred sin, the truth which we are
commanded to buy, whatever may be the price, and sell it not, the truth
which the Lord desires in the inward parts as well as upon the lips,
the truth of God, the truth of holiness, the truth by which we are
sanctified, the truth of the word.
And then we shall find in our own experience that "A God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right is He," that He will send out His
light and His truth that they may bring us to His holy hill and to His
tabernacle, that He has given us a banner, even the banner of holiness
to the Lord, to be displayed because of the truth, and we must never
let it trail in the dust, that His truth shall be our shield and
buckler, and that while the law was given by Moses, grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ.
Glory be to His precious name forever, who is the truth.