The Sanctification of Our High Priest
Christ was Sanctified and Sent by the Father
God the Father consecrated his Son and sent him into the world (Jn 10:36). "Consecrated" in this verse is the same word often translated as "sanctified" in the Bible. Here it has the connotation of the Father setting Jesus apart for holy service. Christ himself, as the Holy Son of God, was hand-picked, set apart, for a holy mission to accomplish the will of his Father. We are not left to guess what the mission or the result of that mission is. Since the gospels develop the story of the incarnation of Christ, his righteous life, substitutionary death, and triumphal resurrection, we know what the holy service of Christ was and why the Father sent him.
The Father consecrated his Son and sent him into the world so that any who believe in Jesus "should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16)." The Father's motive for sending his Son was love. May these famous words echo in our ears: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." John reminds us of the love of God which freely moved him to send Christ when he writes: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (1 Jn 4:9). Once again, the result of the mission is clear: All believers gain life through Christ. God sent his Son so that we might live. "Might" does not mean "perhaps." God accomplishes all that he purposes to do.
Furthermore, in order to have life, our sins, which deserve death, must be dealt with. In the next verse, John declares, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 4:10)." "Propitiation" signifies that God's righteous and holy wrath was completely satisfied and extinguished because of Christ's death in our place (see Rom 3:25). Because of the accomplishment of Christ on the cross, God abides with his people, and they know this because of the Spirit he has given them (1 Jn 4:13). Therefore, every Christian can "testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (1 Jn 4:14)." The purpose of the Father is clear. He sanctified and sent his Son so that we might live, so that we might be saved from our sins, so that he can abide in us, and so that we might testify to all that Christ is the only Savior.
Christ Sanctified Himself
Not only was Christ sanctified by his Father for a mission and purpose, Christ consecrated (or sanctified) himself to accomplish the Father's will (Jn 6:38). Jesus understood the holy mission that he was assigned; he knew he was both sanctified and the Sanctifier. Christ longed to accomplish the goal the Father had in "bringing many sons to glory" (Heb 2:10-11). The Lord Jesus, while praying his so called "high-priestly prayer" to his Father in John 17, said "I consecrate myself (Jn 17:19)." For what purpose? He says "for their sake...that they also may be sanctified in truth." The context is clear that Jesus is praying for all of his disciples, current and future (Jn 17:20).
Christ set himself apart for the holy task his Father sent him to do in order that all of his people may "also" be sanctified! That little word "also" contains galaxies of glory. As a result of Christ's mission, about to be accomplished on the cross, the people of God would come to share in the divine nature and mission. Jesus' prayer makes this clear. In the verse before, he states the sublime and supreme blessing of sharing his mission: "As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into world (Jn 17:18)." Jesus prays "that they may be one even as we are one" (v. 23) and that the "world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (v. 23, see v. 26)." Even as? Also? There is too much for anyone to explore in those small words! Christ came to sanctify us like he is sanctified!
Christ Died To Sanctify Us
The cross, only hours away when Jesus prayed those words, would be the supreme display of the love of God. The cross is the exhibition of God's grace that we call every sinner to see. Oh, if only they could see the reality of the cross of Christ by faith! Look! Look! Look to the cross! And, of course, Christ's substitutionary and wrath-satisfying death on the cross must remind every saint how much God loves them. God set apart his Son for that very purpose: to put his love on display. But that was not enough. The cross in and of itself was not the goal. The cross was the means to accomplish the Father's goal of "bringing many sons to glory" (Heb 2:10).
The blood spilled on Calvary's cross, flowing from Emanuel's veins, would be the source of every saint's sanctification and cleansing (1 Jn 1:7, 9; Heb 9:14). Christ suffered on the cross for a sure and certain purpose; he suffered in order to sanctify his people. "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. (Heb 13:12)." Christ reconciled us who were once evil "in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present [us] holy and blameless and above reproach before him" (Col 1:21-22). Jesus came on his mission in his first advent "in order to take away sins (1 Jn 3:5)." "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her (Eph 5:25)."
The results are in: In the gospel, "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). Dear Christian, you must see that Christ has already brought you into a standing and position of holiness. "[W]e have been sanctified" by the blood of Christ. This is as much an accomplished fact as it is an enduring reality in Hebrews 10! Every Christian is called a "saint," a holy one. Every Christian has been set apart and sent (even as Christ was sent!) into the world with the holy calling of testifying about Christ. Every Christian has already been separated from the world and joined to Christ. Now God has made his dwelling with man as his holy temple (1 Cor 6:16-7:1)!
The position of holiness that each believer enjoys is meant to translate into how we behave in every day life. In light of what God has done for us, what should we do? The author of Hebrews tells us: "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." (12:14). And he goes on to explain why. "For you have [already] come to Mt Zion" which represents the blessings of the New Covenant including forgiveness of sins "and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:22,24)."
Pursue holiness because you have already come to him who is holy and been set apart by his blood.
