11/19/2018
Do you believe in the Word of God, and hold it up as the one truth by which you can orient your life, and find your way into eternity with God? This is our key to sanctification and to all the promises for which we long. In the Word of God we find our way towards becoming one with Jesus Christ, and God Himself... do you approach your reading of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, with this understanding?
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
John 17:17, 20-21 ESV
Jesus sanctified His disciples through the Word of God, and then said that He also sanctified “those who will believe in me through their word.” You might be inclined to think that this does not include you, but it does. You and I are part of the chain of life that has been passed person to person and through reading and believing the Inspired Word of God since those disciples first received it. Sanctification is meant for us too... do you believe that as you read scripture, or is it something you do lightly, and to be obedient to what is expected of a “Christian?”
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.”
2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV
Seeking and thanking God and Jesus Christ as we read the Bible is a sanctifying act if we believe, allow the Holy Spirit to give us understanding, and receive those Words as truth. Listen to Andrew Murray as he expounds upon this...
“No diligence in Bible study will benefit us unless it makes us humbler and holier people. In all our study of the Word, this must be our goal. The reason there is often so much Bible reading with so little resultant Christlike character is that salvation “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13) is not always sought.” - Andrew Murray
I knew a man who could quote many of Shakespeare’s works. He studied them, acted in the plays, directed them, and found great satisfaction in teaching them, but there was no divinity in this. Once the play was over he took off the costume and walked back into the world as the person he was before donning the outfit... albeit his languages was interspersed with Shakespearean quotes. I have also known many men who quoted scripture. They went to divinity school where the studied the bible, memorized large portions of it, preached it, and found great satisfaction in teaching it, but there was no divinity in this. The kept on their collars, their suits, their robes, and other costumes, but the person inside argued with God’s truth, to the point of denying it to themselves, and could find no sanctification.
You see, it isn’t whether we are reading Macbeth, Moby Dick, or the Holy Bible, the words themselves mean nothing without the understanding of what they contain. Shakespeare and Melville utilize fiction to give us insight into human character and nature, and some of us read the Bible looking for the same. The Bible, which if read in the context of being the Holy Word of God is much more than that... it is not just human character and nature, although that is there too, it is an account of the greatest love story ever told... the love of God for an often broken man, and how He comes to redeem their relationship, and reclaim the love of His creation. It is a life altering tale that once read and believed as truth does more than entertain the mind and the senses, but alters the very character, and faith of the person who has read this account and realizes it to be an accounting of their own love affair with the divine character of God. When this is done a life is sanctified, and eternity is realized. So, do we read cleverly constructed fiction, or the Story of our lives?
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
James 1:22-24 ESV
When I close the book “Moby Dick”, or leave the playhouse from seeing “Macbeth”, I might feel moved or entertained as I walk back into my life, but when I close the Holy Bible, and walk into the world, I am a changed man, sanctified, living a new life, and no longer acting out a part, but living out divine truths, and righteously joined in a holy relationship.
“O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."”
John 17:25-26 ESV
So says Jesus Christ, and this is the Word of God.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Divine Word as given us in the Holy Bible, and I thank you for not only an accounting of our ages old interaction with one another, but for the exposition of your love for us that is revealed and made real to us in these pages. I thank you for sanctifying us, and making your Word become who we are... your children. Thank you Father for your Holy Spirit who reveals the truth of our relationship, and guides us to you through your Son Jesus Christ. I pray today Merciful Father for those who read your Word, and study it as if it were literature written by men, and fallible in every way as we are. I pray that you remove the scales from their eyes, and circumcise their hearts so that your truth might be revealed to them, and that in this way they find your love, and their place as your child. How great is your love for us Father, and how boundless your mercy and grace that brought Jesus Christ to Calvary, a suffering man, to die for us. How humbled do I feel that the God of all creation would give His only begotten Son into the hands of those who would scourge, beat, and crucify, Him to redeem me... a sinner. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God, who wrote from the moment of man’s fall the story of his redemption. Holy is Jesus Christ who asked that you sanctify me, and that I become one with Him. Praised be your name Father, and all glory be yours who loves me so completely. I give all glory and honor to you forevermore.
“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV
Rich Forbes