Text: ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· ὁ λόγος ὁ σὸς ἀλήθειά ἐστι. -John 17:17
Translation: Use the truth to make them holy; your word is the truth.
This is Jesus, praying to his Father. The interesting thing to note is that Jesus does not refer directly to his own words here, but to the word of his Father. He prays that his Father's word will sanctify Jesus' disciples. The amazing thing is that Jesus equates his own words with his Father's word all over John's gospel. “Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of an, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of myself, but I do just as my Father taught me, this is what I speak (John 8:28).” Jesus wants his disciples to be sanctified by their acquaintance with his own words! In the four gospels, aside from the whole Bible, we have the glorious gift of Jesus' own words. Jesus himself prayed that these words would make his people holy. My thought is that those who legitimately desire to experience God's holiness have a guarantee in the words of Jesus. Equally profound is that the writer of the gospel of John says that “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God...and the word became flesh...(John 1:1, 14a).” In other words Jesus himself is the word of the Father, if we would be holy then we should go to Jesus. He taught us God's way for our sakes, he was lifted up for our sakes, he was raised for our sakes, and he awaits patiently for our repentance, evermore himself The Way for our sakes.
