¹⁹ “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”

For you and me as believers, Jesus sanctified Himself. He was the Man on a mission to make us saints, both in position and in practice. He set Himself apart so that we might be set apart and so that we might set ourselves apart. He denied Himself the normal “self-preservation” of human nature, so that we would be delivered from spiraling down the vortex of self-centeredness. Sanctification for Christians is a two-layered concept, doubled over. What I mean is that sanctification is a positional concept and also a progressive concept. But there is also the divine side of sanctification and the human side.

First, at salvation God sets us apart (the core meaning of the word sanctification) as members of His family, His children. We are redeemed, regenerated and renewed. In a world that is dead in their sins, given over to the rebellion against God, serving the purposes of Satan. We believers have been made alive, having confessed our rebellion, and believed in Him who obeyed the Father to the point of death on the cross, and now we serve the purposes of God. We have been sanctified. “… but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11, see also Heb 4:10). Yet sanctification is a progressive thing as well. “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely…” (1 Thess 5:23). We were initially set apart for God’s use; we continue to be set apart for greater use.

Our sanctification is a team effort involving God and us. Clearly, He is the one who sets us apart, for He is creator and Lord. He defines the purposes, and He elects His own. So it follows that He sets apart those whom He chooses—and He does that through our faith (Acts 26:18). But, we also have our role, for, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25 NIV). So we must sanctify ourselves, that is, set ourselves apart for that which the Lord sets us apart. “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim 2:21). The apostle Paul expressed it this way, “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:12). He has laid hold of us to set us apart to God’s purposes.

The cooperation with God’s work in our lives is the only true way to carry on God’s mission for us in the world. Just as with the disciples in the Upper Room, we have been chosen by God for the mission of Christ.

Lord, I set myself apart to do Your will today, in the tasks laid out before me.