Now that we know what sanctification is and that one must be sanctified in order to inherit eternal life, the final step is to learn how to enter into sainthood.  Jesus Christ tells us how in John 17:6-20.  Let us go there and pick up the Lord’s prayer to the Father after He and the disciples had eaten their final meal together.  At this point He has only hours to live.  His prayer involves the disciples’ conversion followed by their sanctification following His death (vs 17).  His prayer should be well known by all who would make Him their Lord in this life so that He can be their Savior upon His return to earth.

Note (vs 6) that the first thing Jesus mentions is His Father’s NAME.  God’s power is in His name.  Note that the next thing He mentions is God’s WORD (vs 6).  Without His power one cannot “keep” (obey) His Word.  In verse 7 He notes that the disciples know that everything He had was given to Him by the Father.  In verse 8 He focuses on the most important thing God gave to Him–His Word–which Jesus then gave to the disciples.  Note that though the disciples believed that God had sent Him, that was not enough to guarantee their salvation.  Knowing that their belief in Him was not enough, (vs 9) He (Christ) prayed for them, BUT HE DID NOT PRAY FOR THE WORLD.  Read God is a Segregationist and “Jesus Loves You Just the Way you Are.” Key words–Segregationist and Just respectively.  Those series prove that God neither views all people the same nor loves all people the same.

In verse 11 Jesus notes that He will no longer be in the world, but that the disciples would be.  He asks the Father to keep them through His name (power) which they would receive a few days later on the Day of Pentecost.  His power would come upon them in the form of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus asks the Father to make the disciples ONE, IN THE SAME WAY THAT HE AND THE FATHER WERE ONE, MEANING IN MIND, SPIRIT, ETC.  He explains the ONE concept as His being IN the Father and the Father being IN Him (vs 21).  Note that Jesus has focused on God’s WORD in verses 6,8 and 14.

In verse 14 through 16 Jesus emphasized the fact that His disciples were NOT OF THE WORLD just as He was not of the world, meaning that they were to conduct themselves (“walk”) exactly as He had conducted Himself–in true holiness.  In verse 17 we find the Word “sanctify” mentioned for the first time.  Here Jesus tells us how to be sanctified–BY OBEYING GOD’S WORD, WHICH HE CALLS “TRUTH.”  In verse 19 Jesus sanctified Himself through that same Word by “walking” (manifesting–thinking, speaking and acting) according to that same Word.  Jesus was God’s Word in human flesh.  His disciples are also His Word in human flesh.  As a man He had to be sanctified just as did the original disciples.  His modern disciples must be sanctified in the exact same way–THROUGH OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD (vs 17).  In verse 20 He pointed out that those who would come after them (the disciples), who believed in Him (Jesus), must also be sanctified in order to receive eternal life.  As we have seen, there is only one way to inherit eternal life–through sanctification by (obedience to) God’s Word.  Jesus said that He prayed for those who would be converted through the ministry of the apostles.  He prayed that they would believe and obey His Word unto sanctification, which is SPIRITUAL SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD BOTH INWARDLY (NEW WINE) AND OUTWARDLY (NEW BOTTLE).   Jesus told the disciples that when the world saw Him they saw the Father.  When the world sees God’s sanctified saint, the world sees God.  And just as the world did not recognize Jesus as God’s son, the world does not recognize His disciples as God’s sons.  The world persecuted God’s sanctified Son anciently and persecutes His sanctified sons today.  And for the same reason–OBEDIENCE TO HIS WORD.  If one is accepted by the world, especially the church world, one is not a child of God. L.J.