"SANCTIFIED IN THE TRUTH!"

John 17:15-19                   (ESV)

"15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17 "SANCTIFY THEM IN THE TRUTH"; YOUR WORD IS TRUTH.

18 As you sent ME into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

19 And for their sake I CONSECRATE MYSELF, that they also may be "SANCTIFIED in TRUTH."

John 17 carries many TRUTHS that many of us will never fully grasp until we get to Heaven.  For instance, in verse 15 JESUS prays to HIS FATHER to "keep them (us) from the evil one".  But I frequently surrender to "the evil one" and have to return to my LORD begging for mercy and forgiveness.  Why can't I just simply do what I need to do to Glorify HIM before all mankind?  One of these days...........?!?

When you look up the word "sanctify" in the dictionary, one definition is "to make Holy; set apart as sacred; CONSECRATE".  But in verse 19 JESUS prays that HE has CONSECRATED HIMSELF "that they (us) also may be SANCTIFIED in TRUTH."  As previously stated, apparently I don't have the ability to live a pure life before a HOLY GOD!  But JESUS prayed to HIS FATHER that we would be "SANCTIFIED in the TRUTH"!  

The way I see my life is a total failure in my attempt to live HOLY.  But when JESUS' perfection is made as a "propitiation" (1 John 2:2) for my sins, I am made "SANCTIFIED in the TRUTH"!  In John 14:6 JESUS says "I am the Way, and the TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the FATHER except through ME!"  With HIM being the TRUTH, JESUS first CONSECRATED HIMSELF so we could be "SANCTIFIED in the TRUTH", all for the Glory of GOD ALMIGHTY!!!  That is LOVE!!!