"18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."
John 17:18-19
These verses tell us why the consecration and sanctification mentioned in 13-17 is so very necessary. The operative words in 18 are 'as' and 'so'. How was Jesus sent into the world? In the path of humiliation (cf Philippians 2:5-8). This also is how He sends His own into the world. It is for this that we receive His Word and know His sanctifying power, and are kept 'in the world but not of it'. Indeed, we are commissioned to be like Christ, and aligned with His sovereign purposes. One has only to look into the Acts of the Apostles to see how inevitably and unerringly this pattern of self-giving repeats itself in the experience of the early Church. One thinks also of some of the autobiographical passages in Paul's writings, such as 1 Corinthians 4:9ff, 'I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.... We are fools for Christ's sake... we are weak... we both hunger and thirst... being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat...'. It is the pattern of Christ all over again. The basis of our service in the world is the path that Jesus trod in the world. In 19 we are shown that everything in our sanctification, everything in our experience, rests upon the self-giving of the Son of God. It is because of His sanctification on the cross that the Word has power to sanctify us. His sacrifice is the great foundation of all that is effected in us. And by this same token, it is the sanctification of the disciple that becomes the foundation of all meaningful outreach in the world. Calvary is 'reflected' in us, and by this others are drawn to Christ.