This is part of a series on patriarchy, headship, authority, and submission. See this index.

In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples. In doing so, he prays about sanctification in a rather curious way.

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” — John 17:17-19 (NIV)

…and in another translation…

Make them holy by the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And for their sakes I make myself holy, so that they themselves also can be made holy by the truth. — John 17:17-19 (REV)

This is fascinating! There are three things to notice. The first is that God the Father sanctifies us through the Word of God. The second is that Jesus sanctified himself. The third is that the self-sanctification of Jesus is what allows the Father to sanctify us through the Word of God. As I pointed out in this comment,

To sanctify is “to make holy, consecrate, sanctify.” It is closely related to the sacrifice—which means “to make sacred”—the purpose of which is sanctification, holiness, righteousness, or being sacred. The two words are very nearly synonyms.

You can see that the translators use these words—sanctify and make holy—interchangeably, but notice how Jesus made himself holy. How did Jesus make himself holy?

The answer to this question is contained in the very meaning of what it means to make something holy: sacrifice. Sacrifice means “to make something holy.” In Ancient Hebrew, one of the words used for sacrifice was korban, which meant to come closer to God. The intention of sacrifice was to bring the one who offered the sacrifice closer to God: to be more holy, sanctified, righteous.

Jesus made himself holy—sanctified, righteous—by sacrificing himself on the cross. In the text this isn’t stated using the literal Greek word for sacrifice, but this was unnecessary because…

Sanctification requires sacrifice

Jesus said this prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he was preparing to sacrifice on the cross himself so that we could also be made holy by the truth. Jesus become the sacrifice for us to sanctify us by God’s word. Thus we too can be sanctified, not from our own sacrifice, but from Christ’s sacrifice.

In Christianity, baptism symbolizes our union with Christ in his death—immersion into the water—and with his resurrection—coming out of the water. So when Paul speaks in Ephesians 5:25-27…

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he could make her holy, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he could present the church to himself as a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and without blemish.

Paul is saying exactly what Jesus said in John 17: Christ showed his great love by sacrificing himself so that the church could be sanctified. Through baptism—the washing of the water with the word—we are symbolically buried with Christ and receive his sacrifice as our own, allowing God the Father to sanctify us through his truth. We arise from baptism holy and blameless, without blemish, spiritually resurrected to new life.

In my series on sanctification in marriage, I noted that the only way to have a sanctified—or holy—marriage is through sacrificial love, for sanctification requires sacrifice and Paul demanded that husbands love their wives, using Jesus’ sacrifice as the example.  So when someone says…

“[Ephesians 5:26] is about Christ honoring His disciples with His presence, refreshing their spirits, encouraging and lifting them up with His speech, inspiring the love and loyalty of His followers, and admonishing and teaching them how to live righteously. There’s nothing here about sacrifice nor Christ’s work on the cross.”

…this is completely and fundamentally wrong. There is hardly a greater way to miss the point. One cannot talk about sanctification without having sacrifice in mind. The two are inextricably linked.

Christ “giving himself up” is literally his death on the cross and the “washing of the water with the word”—baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection—is how we are sanctified by the Word of the Father through Christ’s blood sacrifice. Paul is merely repeating the truth of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Paul is also repeating himself:

“Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.” — Ephesians 5:2

Why should we interpret Ephesians 5:25 as Christ offering himself as a sacrifice—a sanctification in in the Old Testament sense? Because Paul uses this exact same language earlier in the same chapter.

When John Chrysostom, in the late 4th century, read Ephesians 5:25-27, he understood it as directly addressed to the husband. Although we’ve lost the Greek sense that he had, we can demonstrate this in English quite easily:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for you, so that he could make you holy, having cleansed you by the washing of water with the word, so that he could present you to himself as a glorious bride, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that you would be holy and without blemish.

When read like this, you get absolutely no sense that Christ was…

“Honoring His disciples with His presence, refreshing their spirits, encouraging and lifting them up with His speech, inspiring the love and loyalty of His followers, and admonishing and teaching them how to live righteously.”

…but, rather, Christ wants you to love your wife in the sacrificial way that Christ loves you. Christ gave it all through his sacrifice, his sanctification, his holiness. This was his love for you. Paul tells husbands to love, not to sanctify, which is the work of Christ. That is why John Chrysostom read about Jesus cleansing us in baptism and commented that husbands should not try to make his bride unblemished, but rather should focus on that within:

“Let us wipe off the spot that is within, let us smooth the wrinkles that are within, let us do away the blemishes that are on the soul.”