17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Now that we have shown that the apostles consider the unity of the faith, i.e. the doctrines of the apostles, as essential to the Christian church in her teaching, preaching, and edifying of the saints, we look to our Lord Christ Himself for, not only the final word of confirmation on this matter, but, indeed the original word of authority. In our verse above our Lord, in His high priestly prayer to God the Father, petitions our God to sanctify us as Christians. This word ‘sanctify’ means, of course, to set us aside for Gods very own sake. And, what is important for us is the means by which this is to be done. We are to be sanctified via truth, which in turn comes from the word of God. Why? ”That (we) all may be one”.
When our Lord says “thy word is truth”, what He is referring to is the doctrine of the gospel; this is what our Lord had already taught the disciples, this is that which they have been instructed to preach to others; for, this “is the power of God unto salvation”,(Rom 1:16) viz. this is how God is going to redeem His elect from this present evil world. And, it is also by His word that those He will redeem will also be sanctified, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 5:26 “That he might sanctify and cleanse (the church) with the washing of water by the word,”. Now we must keep in our minds exactly what this word ‘sanctify’ means, it means ‘to be set aside for a specific purpose’, thus, we can conclude that the sanctification, or the setting apart of God’s people is to be done by and through the particular doctrines of which they have been given by God through Christ. This, of course, fundamentally rests on the person and work of the Lord Christ and all of what that entails, namely the gospel itself. Which, of necessity, is that which God Himself has done in and through Christ.
‘Truth’, on the other hand, means ‘illumination’ viz. the light of heavenly wisdom by which God manifests Himself to us, this is also the way in which He is conforming us to His Son, our Lord. This illumination that God gives to the saints of His church comes directly from His word, His doctrine, His gospel, all of which are taught and declared by His chosen apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. So, we can now conclude that when our Lord says “Thy word is truth”, He is saying that God’s very own gospel, as published by His chosen saints, is the very means of sanctification. And also, we see where this sanctification flows from, our Lord Himself, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”(vs 19). Our Lord here says that the reason that He has separated Himself from the world and for God the Father is so that His apostles and all saints that ever will be, will in like manner be separated from the world and set aside for the purposes of God the Father. This is of the most profoundest of statements. In this statement the Lord declares that we as Christians are to be removed from this evil world by the heavenly wisdom that comes from God via His doctrines, which are founded on the gospel. This is why our Lord became hated of the world and loved by God the Father, that we too would be hated by the world and be loved by God the Father.
At this point we should say something about verse 18, especially concerning this word ‘world’. ’World’, in this chapter, almost exclusively means ‘the reprobate or evil world’; in verse 5 and verse 24, it obviously means ‘all of creation’; but, in the verses in between these two, from verse 9 to verse 21, we believe it safe to say that ‘world’ always means ‘the unbelieving world’; and not just the unbelieving world, but the unbelieving world that will never believe! Why is this important, you may ask? Well, in verse 21 there are many who would like to believe that our Lord’s words “that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” is referring to the elect of whom will be believers and saints; but, we find this inconsistent with the context of the chapter. Rather, we see that the phrase “may believe” is better translated ‘may know’, i.e. that the unbelieving world may have knowledge of Christ, not for their salvation, but, for their blindness and hardening that all should acknowledge that the Son of God has been manifested and that there are none with an argument against the fact that Christ is God, and that there is no redemption nor reconciliation to God the Father but by Him; this is what the natural man hates above all things. ”I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”, says our Lord in verse 14, and then in verse 15 He continues, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Also, our Lord says in verse 9, ” I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.” So, we conclude that the ‘world’ in these three verses and in verse 21 are clearly the reprobate unbelieving world that hate our Lord and also hate the apostles and hate us as Christians, why? Because, our Lord has given us the word of God, the gospel and all it’s doctrines; this is why the world hates God, hates Christ, and hates Christians alike, because, the Holy Spirit by the doctrines of illuminated truth that is found in the Scripture “convict(s) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”(John 16:8) And, the Holy Spirit does this through God’s saints, of whom are illuminated by this heavenly wisdom and knowledge of God, by which our faith is made certain; and the world hates that!
Verse 20 is possibly one of the sweetest verses in all of scripture to the ears of a saint, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;”. The fact that our Lord prays for us who were not even born, but, who would be born and are not yet born is one of the most comforting facts in all of Scripture, viz. the fact that God’s plan of redemption extends from the fall of Adam until the last day, when the Lord Jesus shall once again descend into the realm of man and draw it to the end that has been foretold, when He shall receive the last of His saints into the glorious eternal kingdom of God.
And so, we come to the last verse of our study, the verse that shores up the entirety of our purpose, which is to show that our Lord Himself has given instruction, not just to the apostles, but, to all of the Christian church from beginning to our Lord’s coming, that there is but one teaching, one doctrine, one gospel, and one authority; namely, the apostles doctrine. ”That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:”(vs. 21) We have just shown that the word, the truth, and the sanctification by the word and truth are indeed the doctrines of faith and the gospel teaching. There is no other way to read our Lord’s words in this chapter except that He is praying to God the Father that His apostles and His church down the passages of time will be one in their doctrine and their teaching. For, this is the means by which God illuminates, instructs, and sanctifies His church; by His word, His truth, the sanctification of our Lord from the world to Himself, and the work of the Holy Spirit. All of this is to separate His church, Christians that is, from this present evil world that hates both God and us alike. We are to be one under the headship of Christ; just as our Lord and God the Father agree in all, we as saints must agree with Christ in order that we should agree with God, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the apostles, as they were instructed by the Holy Spirit to write the Scripture that we now have. That we should be one and have unity of the faith that was once delivered to these very same apostles by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
So, we can see that the importance of apostolic doctrine in the church is paramount; and, of command, from our Lord Himself, and from His apostles. Therefore, we must “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”(Jude vs 3), and, never succumb to the watered down man pleasing doctrines and gospel by which some in the visible church today are doing with these great doctrines and the gospel of our God. This verse where our Lord says “That they all may be one” has been perverted by the ecumenical movement amongst others, to mean that all of Christendom aught to set aside all their differences of doctrine and practice and just get along, as it were. But, this is contrary to Scripture and complete foolishness.
Dear reader, from what we observe in the visible church today, the compromise, even among the so called evangelical and reformed churches, has hit such a steep downgrade slope that we find it hard to even recognize the church today as being scriptural at all. Never in history has the church been perfect in any way or form, this we must acknowledge as a fact; but, there have been historical periods where the church has had much more power than what it has today, times of revival and reformation when the unbelieving civilization of the world at large was influenced in a positive way by the church that was within. We can honestly say that as we survey our own time, and listen to the words of great saints from the past 180 years as they observed this very downward slide, that the power of the church is waning. The visible church today is more of a community centre that focusses on the desires of the eyes, flesh and pride of man, as opposed to a place that worships God in fear and trembling.
Nevertheless, we believe that the greatest necessity for the church today is the unity of the faith. We do have the promise in Ephesians chapter 4 vs. 13 that the church will indeed come to that unity, as to how and when that will happen, we cannot be certain. However, we know from Scripture that the Lord always preserves a believing remnant for Himself. So, if for the most part the Christian church visible is in terrible doctrinal error and without power, we say that all we can do is to continue to publish the truth of what God has blessed us with, His word and His truth, which are His doctrines and His gospel.
Scripture Alone 