Part 95

(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. So _to sanctify means to separate or set apart for God; and Sanctification is the process of setting apart or the state of being set apart for God_. This is the primary meaning of the words.