(1) The first meaning of Sanctification we will find in Lev. 8:10-12,
+"And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and
all that was therein, and sanctified them. And he sprinkled thereof
upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its
vessels, and the laver and its base, to sanctify them. And he poured
of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him to sanctify
him."+ Now it is perfectly clear in this passage that to _sanctify
means to separate or set apart for God, and that Sanctification is
the process of setting apart or state of being set apart for God_.
The word Sanctify is used in this sense over and over again. Another
illustration is Lev. 27:14, 17. +"And when a man shall sanctify his
house to be holy unto God, then the priest shall estimate it, whether
it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand
. . . and if a man shall sanctify unto Jehovah part of a field of his
possession, then the estimation shall be according to the sowing
thereof."+ Here again it is plain that to sanctify means to separate
or set apart for God, and that Sanctification is the process of setting
apart or state of being set apart for God. Still another illustration
of this same use of the word sanctify is found in Num. 8:17, +"For
all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and
beast: on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt
I sanctified them for myself."+ This, of course, does not mean that
God, at the time that He smote the firstborn in Egypt, eradicated the
carnal nature from the first-born of Israel. It does mean that _He
set apart all the first-born to be peculiarly His own_. Another very
suggestive illustration of the same usage of the word is found in the
case of Jeremiah as stated by himself in Jer. 1:4, 5, +"Now the word
of Jehovah came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly I
knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee: I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations."+ This
plainly means that before his birth God _set Jeremiah apart for
Himself_. There would still be much imperfection and infirmity in
him, but he was set apart for God. Another suggestive illustration
of the same use of the word Sanctify is found in Matt. 23:27, in the
words of our Lord Jesus Himself: +"Ye fools and blind; for which is
greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?"+
But perhaps the most striking illustration of all is in what our Lord
says about His own sanctification in John 17:19, +"And for their
sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in
truth."+ Here the plain meaning is that our Lord Jesus set Himself
apart for this work for God and He did it in order that believers might
be set apart for God "in truth," or "in the truth." This is the most
frequent use of the word sanctify. There are numerous illustrations of
it in the Bible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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