A Chosen Must Live In Sanctity

From: December 28, 2010 – January 3, 2011 TOPIC: “A Chosen Must Live In Sanctity” John 17:19

Jesus spoke to His disciples and said to them in John 15: 19 "If you would be from this world, the world would love you; but because you are not of this world, before I elected you from this world, therefore the world abhors you." It is the same to say, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you because the worldly things are loved, they are accepted." But them, the chosen, it was the Lord who elected them. That is why He says: "Before I have chosen you out of the world." Ephesians 1:4, 5 lets us see that God’s purpose in choosing us is the love. Those who hear the gospel and believe are chosen; it says so in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 Men, because of their incredulity, do not want to believe in the Lord, they choose condemnation for their own life. We should know that we are chosen to be sanctified in Christ. It doesn’t mean that for being chosen we do not have to sanctify ourselves! We can see this clearly in the case of Judas, who betrayed and surrendered the Master. He was a companion, but that bag of money tempted him so much, and that became his problem. Every temptation is human, but our desire to please God and the treatment of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification does not allow us to fall. Judas falls because of his lack of sanctification. In John 6:70 Jesus says: "Have I not chosen you, the twelve, yet one of you is a devil?" Judas did not share the faith of Jesus, so he was the devil. Jesus made this clear to Peter, not to Judas. Jesus is holy in His personal character. Here, to sanctify Himself is to allow us to see that He separated Himself for the deed the Father left Him. In that scarifying death Jesus separated Himself. Jesus walked away from all His glory and arrived in that separation to His glorious death. His sanctification is the model and power of ours. Judas did not separate himself; he did not sanctify himself for what he had been chosen. God chose you and separated you for Him, but you should know that you have to separate yourself for Him. Jesus is the example; He separated Himself for the work that His Father had entrusted to Him. You cannot say that you dispose of your life, because that is what Judas did and he failed. You can’t say: "I will go this way or that way", when you see that Jesus sanctified Himself, that He separated Himself for the work of the Father. And you were elected. But, some walk as they please, then they become Judas. Such people, after being chosen, become traitors. I Corinthians 1:2 speaks of those who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That church was separated for God from the world. If you are separated for God, you are at a great distance from everything that is world. Some can advice you, say and have an opinion, but you are already separated for God. For such reason, you already separated yourself from this dirty and sinful world. Now your passion can be seen, how much you have truly done that separation. You separate yourself for a holy life day to day for your God. Some pretend for the sanctification to be a final and concrete work of the grace, an instant transformation in which a person obtains a total eradication of the sinful nature. But, it is not that easy. Any person can say that he or she invokes the name of the Lord and they will do it, but they will not be heard by God if they do not have sanctification in their life; that is sanctification from day to day with God. 2 Timothy 2:21 says: "If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." Verse 19 says: "…Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." One must live in holiness. Careful! We must not fool around with this, the fall will arrive. There has to be a separation from the wicked men, the false teachers, the glasses of dishonor. 2 Timothy 2: 17, 18 Two individuals, Hymenaeus and Philetus, were not of the faith and neither of the church; they were false teachers. There must be a separation so we will not become contaminated with the evil doctrines. We must be separated from the evil for God’s service, which is what Jesus told His disciples, to be prepared to do good deeds.

I Peter 1:2 In the election we can see that God chose through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. In the eternity God knew beforehand and chose the men. In time, the Holy Spirit operates to make this election real in people’s lives. By means of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit in your life, that places you in the holy position of being separated for God. Therefore, you do not belong to the flesh or to the devil. Well, that is what I expect. You will be participant of His glory, so it cannot be worldly. All this greatness is your separation by means of the Spirit. Let us thank God for His ineffable gift. Amen.