#DailyDevotion Jesus is our sanctification
January 15th
Read Ezek 37:15–28
Eze 37:22-28 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. (23) They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. (24) “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. (25) They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. (26) I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (27) My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (28) Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
On the last day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns, he will gather all his people from all the nations of the world and make them one. No doubt many of these will be from the house of Israel and from the house of Judah. But the nations that have been joined to Christ through baptism will also be part of Israel, for only those who have the faith of Abraham, which is faith in Christ Jesus are God’s Israel. Jesus shall indeed be our king and we shall live with and under him in joy forever.
We see here that it is the Lord who sanctifies his Israel. Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the One who saves us from our backslidings. He is the one who cleanses us from our sins. He is the one who gathers us together to be his people and declares to us he is our God. It is an important correction to most our thinking and it certainly is a correction the world’s thinking. The world and our flesh set about to sanctify ourselves, but we are unable to do this. Jesus, through the gospel (the forgiveness of sins) and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) sanctifies us through and through.
Jesus promises to present us before the Father blameless and guiltless. It is not our doing. It is all the Holy Spirit’s doing in Christ. What a great and wonderful promise this is and oh how freeing it is to live under the gospel of Jesus Christ. As St. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 6 we are no longer under law but under grace. So Jesus is our covenant of peace with God. We know he will do all that is necessary to present us to the Father pure and holy. We will most certainly do it.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending Jesus to be our peace before you and for sending the Holy Spirit through word and sacraments to sanctify us and gather us unto yourself as a holy people under your Son Jesus Christ. Ever keep us in this faith through same word and sacraments unto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name. Amen.