So it is with God. He SANCTIFIES His people. That is, He sets us apart for His purposes. I am not to get involved with any other actions or purposes but those that are designated by my Lord and Savior — because He said so!
In the OT, sanctification applied to people, but also the tools and equipment used in the temple. For instance, Numbers 16:38 says, “As for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.” Like my juice bucket is set aside for a certain purpose, those censers were designated for God’s purposes.
While God did the ‘setting apart’ He expected our obedience. In Leviticus 20:8, He declared, “Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” This included keeping His Sabbaths and honoring His holy name, all because He sanctifies His people for those purposes.
In the NT, God also sets apart those who believe in Christ, that is, He sanctifies us, makes us holy, consecrates us as His own and for His own purposes. The Scriptures even use the image of a vessel, like a bucket. Our task is to carry the message that Jesus Christ is Lord and we are His servants because He has filled us with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He then says in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
All that God gives is poured into this “earthen pot” that the power of God might be seen, and seen in whatever way He decides. I have no rights to decide how I will pour out what He has poured in:
Romans 9:21. “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
2 Timothy 2:20-21. “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
This includes how I am to image God’s plan in my marriage. The NT says my husband images Christ in how he treats me, and I image the church in the way I respond to Him. 1 Peter 3:7 says to husbands, “Live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” I am called the weaker vessel, likely meaning physically, yet we are both weak and need Christ to obey Him. Without the ‘understanding way’ of my hubby, I feel weaker in my ability to be an obedient vessel for the Lord. Nevertheless, this “bucket” belongs to God and not be filled with a selfish, “I will do it my way” attitude. I am set apart for God, not for myself, even when His ways run counter to my reasonings and even if hubby fails to do his part.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The Greek verb in the NT for sanctify can apply to ceremonial rituals and morality. The adjective is more about God and what He has declared holy. This is not in a priestly or ritual sense but the prophetic sense, as in ‘declaring the will of God’ — which can be verbal but also by living it out. That is, I am to speak God’s word and thoughts, but also behave as He tells me to behave. Sanctification is about putting in the bucket the things of God and pouring them out as He directs me to share Him with others. It is about being totally consecrated to the Lord, used for nothing sinful or selfish, used by Him for His purposes in whatever situations He decides to put me.
2 Corinthians 4:7–10 reminds me that I have His treasure in a jar of clay “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to me. I may be afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; because I am always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in this body” — my sanctified bucket.
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