What did Jesus mean when He said, "Your word is truth" in John 17:17?

What the Lord did request was, "Sanctify them through thy truth," for the truth separates by building up that spiritual immunity which preserves from spiritual disease. The root idea of sanctification is setting apart. The Son has given the Father's word, which introduces us to all His love, His thoughts, His purposes, His glory. All this is truth; that is, reality of the Divinest sort. The world lives so largely in a region of unreality and make-believe, striving to establish its systems which have no solid basis and which eventually must pass away. If we know Divine realities we must of necessity be set apart from the world's unrealities. This will expose us to the world's hatred, but it will build up strong spiritual resistance to its snares. It will immunize us against its germs. This is the kind of separation that endures, because effected by the Father's word and truth.

The seventh "I have," is found in verse 18. As the holy and perfect One, Jesus had been sent into the world by the Father, that He might represent Him and make Him known. Now He sends His disciples into the world in similar manner. They were to represent Him and make Him known. What qualified them for this was the sanctification of which the previous verse had spoken. Had it been His plan to place them in monastic isolation, no such mission would have been possible, and it would not have been possible had they not been sanctified by the truth. But with the spiritual immunity which the truth confers it was possible.

It is impossible to overrate the importance of the Saviour's words for His disciples; it is easy for men to misapprehend them, as those do who lower and narrow the word to separation for ministerial service. But He had at heart a more personal and intimate want, that the disciples should themselves be imbued with, formed and fashioned by, the truth. The law now sufficed not; not even in the most comprehensive sense, as embracing the Prophets and the Psalms. For Christ was come, the Only-begotten Who declared God otherwise unseen of anyone. He revealed the Father, Who would make a fresh and full yet permanent revelation, as we have it not only in Him but in the Scriptures as a whole. The sanctification or setting apart was therefore as new as complete. It was to the Father that the Son spread His request for men who were none of them heathen, but of the holy seed.319 Yet for such does He say, "Sanctify them by the truth." The truth was revealed as it never was before. "Thy word," the Father's word, "is truth." Truths had been made known, never the truth till Jesus Who is it. For He first, He only as an objective display, showed out every one, God, man, Satan even, and every thing; heaven, earth, hell, and all things in them, as they really are; for His Person (the Word made flesh) alone was competent to do it. His advent and redemption gave the suited occasion and needed object for the full revelation, as being Son of man and withal true God and eternal life. By the truth, then, the Father's word, were the disciples to be sanctified. The Father revealed, not only in the Son personally, but in His word detailedly, changed all for the soul. None but the Son, and the Son a man on earth, glorifying the Father perfectly in His life, glorifying God as such in His death, could furnish the adequate motive for the Father's love, object for His ways, centre of His counsels, and manifestation of His glory. Hence all is out and in perfection: testimony higher, deeper, fuller is looked for in vain; as those know who, acknowledging the Son, have the Father also, and are not of the world. Hence Jos. Mede regarded ἐν τῃ ἀλ. as meaning εἰς τὴν ἀλ., and Bishop Pearce followed, as did Tittmann and Kuinöl, in the same wake. So Dr. Bloomfield (Rec. Syn., iii. 634). "From this verse He speaks of the evangelical office to be committed to their charge, and expresses His wish that they should be 'wholly dedicated and given up to it.'" He consequently would take ἐν τῃ ἀλ. as for ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀλ. How little these commentators believe that every word of Scripture is from God!

Then comes their mission, which is drawn from the same unworldly source and is characterised by it. "As thou didst send Me into the world, I also sent them into the world." Moses disappears even as a pattern; so do the prophets. Even John the Baptist (and among those born of women was no prophet greater) was but man in mission from God; but he that is least in the kingdom is greater than John. He that cometh from above — from heaven — is above all. Such was Jesus; and as the Father sent forth Him, so He too sent those who then surrounded Him, their mission as new as the Word which formed and furnished their souls. It flowed from One apart from the world and above it, Who had been sent into it on an errand of infinite love to the Father's glory, and was in spirit no more here but in heaven, whither He was actually going soon. It was thus the Son sent the disciples associated with Himself in heaven and charged with the Father's testimony to the world. Not of the world as He was not, they could be and were sent into it. Had they been of the world, they could not be sent into it; but, as taken out of it by grace in Christ, they were not of it, and could be sent.

The Spirit's witness to these things is the word, and — produced by means of men — takes the shape of the truth formally set forth by revelation. Christ is the truth, as we have seen, the centre of all the ways of God; but what we are now speaking of is the divine communication of this truth; and in this way it can be said that the word is the truth. But, although communicated by means of men, so that it takes a form adapted to man, its source is divine; and He who has communicated it is divine: He of whom it is said, "he shall not speak of himself" (that is to say, from Himself — apart from the Father and the Son). Consequently the revelation of the truth has all the depth, the universality of relationship, the inseparable connection with God (without which it would not be truth, for all that is separate from God is falsehood), which truth itself possesses — necessarily possesses — because it is the expression of the relationships which all things have to God in Christ; that is to say, of God's own thoughts, of which all these relationships are but the expression. It is true that this revelation also judges all that is not in accordance with these relationships, and judges according to the value of the relationship that is broken with regard to God Himself, and the place which this relationship has in His mind. When this word is received through the quickening work of the Holy Ghost in the heart, it is efficacious; there is faith, the soul is in real living practical relationship with God according to that which is expressed in the revelation it has received. The truth — which speaks of the love of God, of holiness, of cleansing from all sin, of eternal life, of the relationship of children — being received into the heart, places us in real present living relationship with God, according to the force of all these truths, as God conceives them and as He has revealed them to the soul. Thus they are vital and efficacious by the Holy Ghost; and the consciousness of this revelation of the truth, and of the truth of that which is revealed, and of really hearing the voice of God in His word, is faith.

Further, if believers are to represent Christ in the world, it is not enough to be kept from its evil. Thus we come to the Lord's fourth desire, "sanctify them through thy truth." Sanctification implies that we are, not only set apart from evil, but, set apart in heart and life for Christ. We learn from the Lord's words that this devoted life of practical sanctification to Christ is brought about in a twofold way. First, by the truth, for the Lord's words are "sanctify them through thy truth," and He adds, "Thy word is truth." On the one hand, the word detects and judges all that in our words and ways and walk, as well as the secrets of our hearts, which may mar a life of devotedness to Christ. On the other hand, the Father's word reveals to us the Father in all His love and grace and holiness as set forth in Christ.

Thus it is that believers are equipped for their mission. As the Father had sent the Son into the world to be a witness to the Father, so Christ sends believers into the world as a witness to Himself.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." This is a saying much to be remembered. It teaches us that we are not to make ourselves the judges of what sanctification or holiness is; Gods' word is to determine this, because holiness is that character or mind which is formed by God's word or truth.

How are we to get the character and spirit proper to us as such? It is not that we can always be in the third heaven, but that if living the life of Christ, in the power of the Spirit, we shall be manifesting it before the world, as it was with Christ Himself. He could say even as to His path down here, "The Son of man which is in heaven." Was there ever anything in Christ inconsistent with the third heaven? Therefore my life being there, and my heart and affections, I shall walk according to that place. Where is the pathway for such a life through this world? "I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them," etc. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." That is not quite all. Christ is the truth: the word of God is truth about everything. Do I want to know what my heart is? The Word tells me. Do I want to know what God is? The Word tells me. What Christ as a Saviour is? What Satan and his wiles are? The Word will tell me. And therefore I have the Word to make all plain, when I want to go through the world, which is a labyrinth for any one else; for a labyrinth it naturally must be to all, and to the infidel specially. God is love, and yet there I see such misery of every kind around me; the child of three days old agonizing perhaps, through the fault of its parents; nothing but suffering and sorrow everywhere. Nobody, I say, can understand this: it is unaccountable, except as the Word of God, which is truth, explains it all. Take Christ Himself: He can appeal to them and say, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" Yet how does it end? He is obliged to confess before men that God has forsaken Him. Their hard hearts take advantage of this, and say, If God delight in Him, let Him deliver Him All is inexplicable; and those who would make this world, as it is, a proof of the righteous government of God, are just doing what the friends of Job did. They were saying that this world could be explained as to the present expression of God's moral government. But no: there is Job, and he is in the depths of suffering. He was very naughty, but he spoke more rightly than they. He says, I have seen the righteous man suffering, He wants to find God; he says, Oh, if I could see him! but I cannot find Him. All this, I again say, is in itself inexplicable. But the moment I search into the word of God, I have got the key to it all. Take the infidel upon his own ground, and he has not a word to say he is the least capable of any of explaining the facts that are going on every day; for they are inexplicable, except as sin has come in. "Sanctify them through thy truth." It is the word of God applied to judge every thought and feeling that is in me. He does not say, "Sanctify them by the law," but by the word. Persons take the law as a rule, but you want power; you want an object that seizes your affections. What object does the law give you? Where is the thing - the One - you are to love? Where is He? Who is He? The law cannot and does not tell me, save of a judge: I have no object before my soul to give me blessed and holy affections; but the Father's word does give me this.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." (John 17:17.) The Lord was addressing God the Father when He thus prayed for His own. All the scriptures are truth, but the specific truth that makes the child of God unworldly is that revelation of the Father's name to his heart which sanctifies or separates him to the love of the Father. It is not simply that the child of God has the place Christ occupies — that he is not of the world as Christ is not of it — he has in the infinite kindness of God, the love that Christ dwelt in, for his portion. So long as that love is filling his heart, there is not room in him for the world.

As the Father sent Him into the world so, He says, have I also sent them into the world. This is one of the few explicit requests that we have from the Son to the Father regarding the men who had been given Him. "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." What can the word "sanctify" mean? I am not speaking about its use elsewhere. It obviously has a very special meaning in this place because in verse 19 we read, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." In what conceivable sense could the Lord Jesus Christ say that He sanctified Himself? The basic idea of sanctification is "to set apart." The only way in which we could possibly understand it is that the Lord Jesus Christ set Himself apart from the world by His bodily presence in heaven. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself"-I am taking a position so that I can be the object upon which their whole heart is set. "I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." The more that we learn of our oneness with Him in that place, the more we learn of the fact that we are in one bundle of life with the Father and the Son, the more we in heart, mind and spirit will be set apart also from that evil world in which we live.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth." That is a very special thing-the Father's truth. "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth." So these two statements: "Sanctify them through Thy truth" (verse 17), and "that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (verse 19) are the means whereby the hearts of the disciples may be taken away out of this world and founded on better and brighter things above and this will lead to a real sanctification.

As the Father sent Him into the world so, He says, have I also sent them into the world. This is one of the few explicit requests that we have from the Son to the Father regarding the men who had been given Him. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” What can the word “sanctify” mean? I am not speaking about its use elsewhere. It obviously has a very special meaning in this place because in verse 19 we read, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” In what conceivable sense could the Lord Jesus Christ say that He sanctified Himself? The basic idea of sanctification is “to set apart.” The only way in which we could possibly understand it is that the Lord Jesus Christ set Himself apart from the world by His bodily presence in heaven. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself” — I am taking a position so that I can be the object upon which their whole heart is set. “I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” The more that we learn of our oneness with Him in that place, the more we learn of the fact that we are in one bundle of life with the Father and the Son, the more we in heart, mind and spirit will be set apart also from that evil world in which we live.

“Sanctify them through Thy truth.” That is a very special thing — the Father's truth. “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth.” So these two statements: “Sanctify them through Thy truth” (verse 17), and “that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (verse 19) are the means whereby the hearts of the disciples may be taken away out of this world and founded on better and brighter things above and this will lead to a real sanctification.

When the Lord expresses the request ‘Sanctify them by the truth’ He adds a weighty comment: ‘thy word is truth’. The key is in the little word ‘thy’. The Lord is addressing Himself to the Father (see vs. 1, 5, 11, 21, 24, 25). Therefore, ‘thy word’ is the Father’s word. It is of course the Bible, but seen in the light of the full revelation of the Father and, therefore, in the light of the coming of the Son (Heb. 1:1) in the fulness of time (Gal. 4:4) when the shadow made way for the body, the substance (Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1).