We have seen that spiritual authority depends on spiritual attainment. No authority is appointed by men. It is not even appointed by God alone. Please remember that authority is based on attainment on the one hand and on humility and obedience before God on the other hand. Today we will say something more about the need for a deputy authority to set himself apart from others. Although our Lord was sent from God and had uninterrupted fellowship with God, He said, “For their sake I sanctify Myself” (John 17:19). A deputy authority must therefore sanctify himself for others’ sake.
What does it mean that the Lord sanctified Himself? It means that the Lord refrained from doing many things, which were legitimate for Him to do, for the sake of the disciples. He could have done and said many things. He could have adopted many attitudes. He could have worn many different kinds of clothing and eaten many different kinds of food. For the sake of the disciples, however, He refrained from them. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God; He does not know sin. While He was on the earth, He had much more liberty than we have, and He could have done many more things than we. There are many things which we cannot do because we are the wrong person. There are many words we cannot speak because we are unclean persons. But such a problem did not exist with the Lord. He is holy. We are impatient; therefore, we need to learn to wait. But the Lord was never impatient; therefore, He did not need to wait. There are many restrictions which did not have to apply to Him, because He had no sin. Without the unclean ones being around Him, the Lord Jesus as a man could have had so much more liberty. Even when He was angry, His anger was holy and without sin. Yet He said that He sanctified Himself for the disciples’ sake. He was willing to take many restrictions.
The Lord was not only holy before God; He was holy in Himself. As far as His own character is concerned, He is without sin. But while He moved among His disciples, He needed to sanctify Himself. For us to become holy we need to refrain from many things, but the Lord is holy in His very nature. This is why He can do so many more things than we can. It would be very wrong for anyone to say that he is good. But it is perfectly all right for the Lord to say that He is good. He can say many things that we cannot say, because there is no taint of sin in Him whatsoever. He has more freedom than we have. Yet He willingly subjected Himself to restrictions. The Lord is not only holy in Himself, He condescended to our holiness. Our holiness necessitates our setting ourselves apart from others and refraining from doing many things.
In addition to His own holiness, the Lord took our holiness upon Himself. This is why He sanctified Himself. The Lord willingly accepted restriction for our sake. Man speaks and judges by his own sinful standard. If the Lord had acted and spoken according to His own standard of holiness, man would have criticized Him according to his own sinful thoughts. This is why He willingly placed Himself under restrictions. We refrain from doing many things because of our sins, but the Lord refrained from doing many things and placed Himself under restrictions because of holiness. We do not do things because we should not do them. The Lord could have done them, yet He did not. He refrained from many things which He otherwise could have done for the sake of maintaining God’s authority. He wanted to set Himself apart from the world. This is what it meant for the Lord to sanctify Himself.
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