Set Apart “Elect”

by Jose Barajas

One year, when I was working for the City of Long Beach at Houghton Park, we got the opportunity to go to Disneyland and take the kids from the daycare to enjoy the day. It was Mickey Mouse’s Sixteenth Birthday celebration and many cities were invited to celebrate and be part of a parade in a big pomp and circumstance celebration. We got to go around and enjoy the day on all the rides, but the best part came when they kicked the general public out and only those who were invited, got to stay and enjoy the park, rides, food and drinks for free, because we were “set apart” from everyone else.

Jesus in John Seventeen, which is His real prayer and not what many call the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew Six, in verse Seventeen says, 

““Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth.” ‭(NET‬‬) 

Now many translations use the word “Sanctify” but I like words SET APART. This is what, we as real Christians should be, is set apart. This is what the word “elect” is and means, but too many teach that it is, depending on denomination and or eschatology, “the church” or “Israel” but what it truly means is set apart, holy, consecrated or as Peter puts it in First Peter One, 

““As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””‬ (‭ESV‬‬)  

Now the other piece of what Jesus says is, “Your word is truth” so what Word was Jesus referring to? Well remember Jesus was talking about the Old Testament as that is all the Word that was around then. Many Contemporary Christian teachers teach that the New Covenant begins with the book of Matthew, but that is impossible, because Jesus says that we should be “Sanctified” set apart in the truth of scripture. If we think about it, the New Covenant began with God telling Adam and Eve, 

“who told you, you were naked?” In Genesis Three, 

because the the need for cruxifixction, became necessary and not inevitable. So what sets us apart? Jesus, again prays that we should know His word or scripture, and God’s Word is ‘emet. The Greek text uses the phrase ho logos ho sos (the word of you).  This if we study the original languages and context and who Jesus was speaking to and about, is equivalent to the Hebrew devar ha emet. In Psalm One Hundred and Nineteen: One Hundred and Sixty we see the same phrase as it says, 

““The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” ‭(ESV‬‬) 

Once you see that Jesus is using the Hebrew word ‘emet, all kinds of changes in our thinking must occur, because ‘emet  is not about correct thinking at all.  It is about a correct relationship seen in right action! ‘Emet should be seen as “completely reliable“ and not as “true facts.” What Jesus is praying and saying that truth is very personal, based on a relationship and very solid, that we should be basing our life’s decisions on it, because it is to put it simply, “the faithfulness character of God.” 

What we got to experience at Disneyland was nothing of our own doing and the only reason we were there was because of us being for the day “set apart” from others, because of our relationship to the park and not our actions. Now that is a little of a stretch maybe, but not really when you think about what Jesus did and what He was saying. 

So Jesus was fully Jewish and speaking to an audience of Jewish believers; because Christianity was not yet a thing, and his disciples came to a saving knowledge of Him, after HIs death and resurrection. The true meaning of Sanctification could easily be missed and what it truly means; it’s about the conduct of a person, and not only the facts that they believe. Sanctification or being set apart is fully putting our entire life into the Hands of the only One and the only reliable Person; Jesus, the Holy One of Israel. How I live my life and how I share the Word is based on His word, and should be the only measure of my actions, without deviation and putting my own spin on it, or justifying my ways or taking scripture to how it speaks to me or what I want it to say, but only what God is saying thru His word and Him having set me apart. When He comes to restore Eden, those who have truly been sanctified, and not how a denomination teaches, but only in His Word and thru His Word, walking daily in His statues and truth, then we can partake of perfection again. What we miss is that the Old Testament, is the prophecy of the New Testament and that Jesus is the fulfillment of that, and all the writers of the New Testament use all of the Old Testament in their writings. We can claim to read his Word and study under those who teach it, but we are also called to examine all things and to understand what is right in Him thru His word. There are many who “teach in His Name and in His Word, but too many change all the words to make them sound good and make one feel good, but is it according to the whole word? Are we be elect, set apart, in HIm, not in our own righteousness, but thru Him alone.” José Barajas