The Grands Letter (Ezek/GLJ)

Dear Grands,

Ezekiel 37:27-28, “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

28 “And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”

1 Peter 3:15-18, “…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…”

Sanctification is the act of being made holy. (Most of us could stand that, couldn’t we?) In the Old Testament passage of Ezekiel, the prophet is speaking to the Israelites and how the Israelites could become more like the LORD. Notice, too, that it is not simply the people trying to do better; it is their willingness for the LORD to make them better! It is the LORD alone “…who sanctifies Israel.”

The Scriptural passage above from the New Testament (1 Peter 3) has not greatly changed, except that His Word is more inclusive, speaking to us as Gentiles as well as Jews. Simon Peter focuses upon our New Testament hearts and speaks of hope, gentleness, and reverence, each of which is bound up in a good conscience.

Reader, be clear! Understand that trust in the redemptive power of God is what each of these passages teaches. It’s only that God the Father is referenced by Ezekiel in the Old Testament, while the Son, Jesus, is referenced in the New Testament. Our responsibility is the same: He is our LORD, we must reverence and follow Him.

Heartily yours in Christ Jesus,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

“We will never know that Christ is all we need

Until He becomes all that we have.”

–Corrie ten Boom