"You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with
signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched
arm, and with great terror. You gave them this land that
You had sworn to give to their fathers, a land flowing
with milk and honey."
(Jeremiah 32:21-22)
Image courtesy/Messiah In The Passover
The Hebrew word, Kaddesh means, "sanctification" to be "set apart" or
"to make holy". During the Passover Seder, the meal begins with saying
the Kaddesh, a blessing over the first cup of wine (kos rishon) known as
"The Cup of Sanctification".
As the Lord entered the land of Egypt, the Hebrew slaves were protected
by the blood of an unblemished lamb smeared on the two side posts and
lintel (the top) of the door of their homes. Death "passed over" them.
"The blood shall be for a token or sign to you that when I see the blood I will
pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you when I smite the land of Egypt."
(Exodus 12:13)
After this, when God brought them out of slavery in Egypt, He set
Israel apart, thus sanctifying them as His chosen people and nation.
For Christians, Passover is a foreshadow of the forthcoming Messiah,
whose precious shed blood, applied to the door of every believer's heart,
saves them from bondage to sin and the sting of death. We are sanctified,
set apart and made holy, in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
"Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God implants in man that new
living principle by which he becomes a "new creation" in Christ Jesus. This work,
which begins with new birth, is carried on in two ways-mortification, whereby the
lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under, and vivication, by which the life that
God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
This is carried on every day in what is called perseverance, by which the Christian is
preserved and continued in a gracious state and is made to abound in good works unto
the praise and glory of God; and it culminates or comes to perfection in glory, when
the soul, being thoroughly purged, is caught up to dwell with holy beings
at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of sanctification, yet there
is a visible agency employed that must not be forgotten.
"Sanctify them," said Jesus, "in the truth; Your Word is truth."
(John 17:17)
Sanctify Them
Chris Brazelton
Image courtesy/Pixels
The passages of Scripture that prove that the instrument of our sanctification is
the Word of God are numerous. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the precepts
and doctrines of truth and applies them with power. These are heard in the ear, and
being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do God's good pleasure.
The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall
not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we
progress in sound understanding.
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."
(Psalm 119:105)
Do not say of any error, "It is a mere matter of opinion."
No man indulges an error of judgment without sooner or later tolerating
an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by doing so you shall
be sanctified by the Spirit of God."
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power, making it active, operative,
energizing, and effective; it is sharper than any two-edged sword; penetrating to the
dividing line of the breath of life, (soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and
marrow (of the deepest part of our nature), exposing and shifting and analyzing
and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."
(Hebrews 4:12)
