Hebrews Chapter Two, Sanctified By The Word

 

Hebrews 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, [12] saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.” [13] And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”

 

Here we see the fulfillment of what John records of Jesus’ prayer when our Lord says, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth…that they all may be one (who believe in Him), as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us,” John 17:19, 21.

To sanctify means to set apart. The tools and tables of the tabernacle were all sanctified, from the priest’s robes to the food on the altar. Each item in the service of Jewish worship had a specific purpose, and one alone. Using such an item for something other than its intended function as God determined it profaned the item and rendered any act performed with it null and void. Furthermore, it brought judgment upon the person that misused the item God sanctified.

 

Christ’s ministry as the God-man is for no common or profane purpose. Jesus, in His prayer, sanctified Himself first, so they (us, all Christians for all time) may likewise be sanctified by the truth, God’s word. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth,” John 17:17. God’s word is intended to have one action upon the believer’s soul; it is meant to sanctify or set us apart by His truth to service in His name. We are the Ecclesia, the called out ones, the invisible, universal church of believers that comprises the body of Christ. We are each living stones being put in place by the Holy Spirit into a temple for God’s residence. The saints, like our Lord, are all of one, or all from the same Father. In verse 10 we learned that Jesus would bring many sons to glory. Sons and daughters of the Father are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, Mark 3:35.

 

All believers are sanctified by the truth, the word of God, to the end that Christians may be one, or like-minded in regards to everything pertaining to the true faith. In human terms all saints are individuals with unique personalities and quirks that make us who we are. But in Christ, in doctrine, in defense of the faith, in love of God, in the hope of Christ’s reign and our future in Heaven, we are one. The defense of the gospel and Biblical inerrancy we are one. In defense of the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Mediator between God and man, Christians are one. These things and more, we unite in one mind and one spirit, defending the faith with fervor and passion, resolute when it comes to the truth the Bible proclaims and unyielding when offenders and apostates rear their heads.

 

Who, then, IS Jesus ashamed of? “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels,” Luke 9:26. The preceding verse in Luke is a clear indictment of what drives professing Christians to abandon the word of God as our sole source of truth: worldly acceptance. It has happened countless times to an equal amount of professing Christians. But through fear or lust or hardship they befriend the world and abandon their faith, in part or in whole. Evolutionists abandon their faith because Darwin demonstrated that the Bible is in error regarding human origins. Advocates of psychology abandoned the faith because Freud, Jung, Maslow, etc. revealed how deficient Scripture was in dealing with human suffering. The hedonist or lover of money abandoned their faith because Christ commands us to deny self, and one can’t lavish pleasure on a “self” that must be denied and mortified.

 

To the saint that heeds their Lord’s prayer and drinks from the pure water of the word, undiluted by human wisdom and Satanic influence, we are sanctified. As Jesus set Himself apart, so He works in us to do likewise. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure,” Philippians 2:13. We are sanctified by God’s word, and also by the power of God Himself as His Holy Spirit, living and abiding in us, remakes us in Christ’s image. Is not sanctification our job? No. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ,” Philippians 1:6. “For we are His worksmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.

 

Aren’t we commanded to be sanctified? No. We are commanded to believe. We are told that by Christ’s action and through the instrumentality of God’s revealed truth we WILL be sanctified. Our willingness, our obedience (our manifesting faith), does play a role, but only in the sense of hindering the Holy Spirit or permitting Him to work without grief, Ephesians 4:30. "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfect by the flesh?" Galatians 3:3. The work is God’s; He has already told us this. Obedience to His word should be the natural outflow of the rebirth we each experience when we hear the gospel and believe it. The Holy Spirit imparts new life in us, and this new life finds the things of God’s kingdom important and useful. The new life in us is divine life, given through our Savior; the eternal life is His, and since His life is in us and He loves and serves the Father, we too as sons of the adoption will love and serve the God that set us free.

 

What follows is a battery of OT passages, specifically Psalm 22:22 and Isaiah 8:17, 18. Count the extensive citations the writer takes pains to include. Whoever the writer was he commanded a deep understanding of Scripture, and provided in Hebrews the first Biblical commentary within the pages of New Testament. Psalm 22:22 is a Messianic passage that depicts the crucifixion. David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, accurately relates specific details of the moments and actions of the Christ and those who surrounded Him in the hours He spent lifted up from the earth.

 

Beginning with Jesus’ calling to the Father (Psalm 22:1), the Psalmist notes those who scorned Him (verse 8) and the Lord’s confident trust in the Father since His inception, verse 10. David relates the details of how crucifixion affects the limbs of its victims (verse 14), and the intense thirst suffered while suspended on the cross, verse 15. Christ’s mockers compassed Him, eagerly watching His suffering, and David describes the piercing nails and how the Romans would drive them through Jesus’ hands and feet, verse 16. In verse 17 the Psalmist tells us that the Savior’s bones are accounted for: not one will be broken. His killers and scoffers stare gloatingly at Him, while at His feet His clothing is gambled for, verse 18.