“Set Apartness"
John 17:1-26
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” [John 17:15-18]
In the world yet no longer of the world; that is the reality for the disciple of Christ. In the world yet set apart from the world; that is the challenge for the disciple of Christ.
The former comes from the “born again” experience. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [John 3:3] “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” [John 3:5] These are emphatic statements that make being born again essential.
You must be born again to see and enter the Kingdom of God, and in John 3:16 Jesus explained how to become born again. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It is the “believing in” Jesus as your personal Lord that gets you born again. It is a spiritual birth.
But once you are born-again there is the maturation process, and that comes by being set apart, set apart “from the evil one” and set apart to God. Set apartness is a supernatural work that advances as we abide in the Vine, which is abiding in Christ. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” [John 15:4]
“Born again” declares us righteous. It is not our righteousness, but Christ’s. We are declared righteous by believing in Jesus, and what He accomplished on the Cross, the forgiveness of sin. We can now come into the very presence of God, behind the veil; into the Holy of Holies because we are declared righteous. This is the born-again experience; it is the new birth of the Spirit of God from within.
But if you think that God is finished with you, you are mistaken. After declaring you righteous He now wants to make you righteous. And that comes by way of transforming your life from within. It is with this desire that Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
Our Lord’s final prayer in this Upper Room Discourse was for His disciples to remain set apart from the god of this world. And so, what about you? Are you like the world or set apart from it? It is a good question for us to ponder.
Set apartness is the mark of a disciple of Christ.
