WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23
Acts 9:1-16
Philippians 2:13

"…it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

A SANCTIFIED WILL (3)

The first step for a believer to have a sanctified will is to be born again by the Triune God and God’s Word so that his new man may submit to the Lord. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph 4:24). Next, a sanctified will must be separated and dedicated to the Lord in submission and be filled with God’s will and Word. A believer’s will is holy when he submits to God’s holy will and can humbly and willingly say to the Lord like Saul (later Paul), "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Once we are born again, the Triune God will start His good work of sanctification in us (Phil 1:6). "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). Without God’s gracious work in you and me, we shall be undone forever!

The Lord Jesus prays to His Father, "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:19). The Lord Jesus is perfectly holy and sinless, but He is willing to sanctify Himself – to be separated from His own will, to be dedicated to His Father to become "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:8). Consequently, through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, we "also might be sanctified through the truth" and through His precious blood (Heb 13:12). The Lord Jesus has set the perfect example for us to follow (John 13:15). His humble submission to His Father’s will unto death –"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30), and "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:8). And the climax of Jesus’ full submission is His prayer to His Father in Gethsemane, "Thy will be done" (Matt 26:42). What about us? Without our full submission to the Lord, it is sin, and surely there is no true sanctification in the sight of God!

THOUGHT: No submission to God, no true sanctification!
PRAYER: Lord, may Thy love constrain me to submit to Thy will.