THE LORD JESUS AS SEALED, SANCTIFIED AND SENT

D. Duthie

John 6: 27; 10: 35–38; 6: 37–40

I hardly know what I can say about the scriptures read, dear brethren, but they have been on my mind for some time. They refer to the Lord Jesus, first of all as being “sealed”, then as “sanctified”, and finally as the ‘sent One’. (That thought is conveyed in an extensive way throughout John’s gospel). These things all took place at one and the same time, at His baptism. It is set out for us in detail and the Spirit of God has broken it down for our understanding.

I seek help to refer first of all to the sealing. The sealing of Christ actually took place when the Spirit of God descended on Him. The believer too is referred to as being sealed; that is you and me as having the Holy Spirit are persons who are sealed. But believers are sealed because of the work of redemption. God is so pleased with the perfection of the work of Jesus that He is prepared to commit Himself to the believer in the gift of the Spirit. The sealing is for God. The Lord Jesus is also spoken of as being sealed, John 6: 27, but the sealing of Christ was because of what He was inherently. Luke writes, “And Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old” (Luke 3: 23), and throughout those thirty years the Father was taking account approvingly of every moment. Never a step had to be retraced, never a word to be recalled. It was then the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove.

The Spirit came of His own volition because of the pleasure that was found in that blessed Man. Illustrations and similes always come so far short, but I have likened it in my mind to the hallmark on silver, the proof of what is there in reality and substance. The Spirit is also referred to as being sent (He is at the disposal of other divine Persons), but He came primarily of Himself because of what He found in Jesus. Our brother has been speaking about seeing Jesus and looking on Jesus. What a wonderful Person on whom to fix our eyes! Let us trace through the gospels the blessed features in which the Father found His pleasure, what the Father found His pleasure in is what we are to find our pleasure in too. It is food for the soul and will build us up in a constitutional way. He says in this section, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto life eternal, which the Son of man shall give to you; for him has the Father sealed, even God”.

When we come to chapter 10 the Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as being sanctified. It seems to me that what the Lord Jesus is saying is that He Himself was the Father’s point of contact with all humanity. Scriptures must be understood in context and in this section He is speaking in the area of the temple.

Solomon says it was to be a house of prayer for all the nations. God was to have contact with all humanity through His house so the Lord Jesus says here, “do ye say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am Son of God?” I believe, dear brethren, that the Lord Jesus took the place that the temple was meant to fill, but of which it had come so far short. The Jews were in a very privileged position but they were totally remiss. There was One in their very presence who was God’s contact with all humanity. He was sanctified, singled out in absolute holiness, you might say, an oasis in a vast wilderness.

Again, in John 6 the Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as the sent One. There are many references throughout the gospel to Him as the One sent of the Father, sent of the Father to accomplish His will. I was impressed on Lord’s day with the scripture, “yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him” (1 Corinthians 8: 6); but then it goes on to say something more, it says, “and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”. This involves what is mediatorial, it involves the incarnation, it involves that the Lord Jesus was sent, moving in full concert with what was in the Father’s heart, to accomplish His will. The scripture read says, “All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will not at all cast out. For I am come down from heaven, not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me. And this is the will of him that has sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day”. There is the “it” and later on there is reference to the “him”. The “it” refers to the work of God in its entirety; the “him” involves the person of the believer, “I will raise him up in the last day”.

We can take great comfort in this, that in the day in which we live, in which there is so much departure, everything for God is secure. What a wonderful person Jesus is! Let us be occupied with Him and know the things concerning Him increasingly, that there may be a richer note of response from every one of our hearts.

Substance of a word in meeting for ministry, Aberdeen, Scotland
7 June 1994