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Scripture Reading: John 17:19
We have seen that spiritual authority depends on spiritual attainment. No authority is appointed by men. It is not even appointed by God alone. Please remember that authority is based on attainment on the one hand and on humility and obedience before God on the other hand. Today we will say something more about the need for a deputy authority to set himself apart from others. Although our Lord was sent from God and had uninterrupted fellowship with God, He said, “For their sake I sanctify Myself” (John 17:19). A deputy authority must therefore sanctify himself for others’ sake.
What does it mean that the Lord sanctified Himself? It means that the Lord refrained from doing many things, which were legitimate for Him to do, for the sake of the disciples. He could have done and said many things. He could have adopted many attitudes. He could have worn many different kinds of clothing and eaten many different kinds of food. For the sake of the disciples, however, He refrained from them. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God; He does not know sin. While He was on the earth, He had much more liberty than we have, and He could have done many more things than we. There are many things which we cannot do because we are the wrong person. There are many words we cannot speak because we are unclean persons. But such a problem did not exist with the Lord. He is holy. We are impatient; therefore, we need to learn to wait. But the Lord was never impatient; therefore, He did not need to wait. There are many restrictions which did not have to apply to Him, because He had no sin. Without the unclean ones being around Him, the Lord Jesus as a man could have had so much more liberty. Even when He was angry, His anger was holy and without sin. Yet He said that He sanctified Himself for the disciples’ sake. He was willing to take many restrictions.
The Lord was not only holy before God; He was holy in Himself. As far as His own character is concerned, He is without sin. But while He moved among His disciples, He needed to sanctify Himself. For us to become holy we need to refrain from many things, but the Lord is holy in His very nature. This is why He can do so many more things than we can. It would be very wrong for anyone to say that he is good. But it is perfectly all right for the Lord to say that He is good. He can say many things that we cannot say, because there is no taint of sin in Him whatsoever. He has more freedom than we have. Yet He willingly subjected Himself to restrictions. The Lord is not only holy in Himself, He condescended to our holiness. Our holiness necessitates our setting ourselves apart from others and refraining from doing many things.
In addition to His own holiness, the Lord took our holiness upon Himself. This is why He sanctified Himself. The Lord willingly accepted restriction for our sake. Man speaks and judges by his own sinful standard. If the Lord had acted and spoken according to His own standard of holiness, man would have criticized Him according to his own sinful thoughts. This is why He willingly placed Himself under restrictions. We refrain from doing many things because of our sins, but the Lord refrained from doing many things and placed Himself under restrictions because of holiness. We do not do things because we should not do them. The Lord could have done them, yet He did not. He refrained from many things which He otherwise could have done for the sake of maintaining God’s authority. He wanted to set Himself apart from the world. This is what it meant for the Lord to sanctify Himself.
In order for us to learn to be an authority, we must also learn to set ourselves apart from the brothers and sisters. We need to refrain from many things which we otherwise could do or say. We should be separated in our speech and in our emotion. We may hold a certain attitude when we are by ourselves. But when we are with others, we have to set ourselves apart. We can only fellowship with the brothers and sisters to a certain extent. We cannot be flippant or frivolous. We need to give up our freedom and suffer loneliness. Loneliness is a mark of being an authority. All those who are frivolous among the brothers and sisters cannot be an authority. This is not pride. It merely means that for the sake of representing God’s authority, we have to have certain limitations in our fellowship with the brothers and sisters. We cannot be too loose or easy-going. Sparrows fly in company, but the eagles fly alone. If we can only fly low and not suffer the loneliness of flying high, we are not qualified to be an authority. In order to be an authority, we have to be restricted and must separate ourselves. We cannot do what others can freely do. We cannot say what others can hastily say. We have to submit to the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Spirit within us will teach us. This will make us lonely; it will strip us of excitement. We will no longer dare to joke around the brothers and sisters. This is the price that an authority has to pay. We must sanctify ourselves as the Lord Jesus did before we can be an authority.
As far as being a member in the Body is concerned, an authority has to be absolutely inconspicuous, being the same as the other brothers and sisters, in order to maintain the fellowship of the Body. However, in representing God, an authority has to be restricted by God and sanctified. He should be a pattern to the saints. But in acting as a member, he should coordinate and serve together with others, not setting himself apart as a special class.
Leviticus 10:1-7 records God’s judgment on Nadab and Abihu. They were judged because they did not come under the authority of their father Aaron. Aaron had four sons, who served as priests in the sanctuary; they were anointed the same day that he was anointed. They were not supposed to serve independently; rather, they were to help their father in his service to God. They could not do anything by themselves. But one day Nadab and Abihu offered up strange fire on their own, without the command of their father. This brought in God’s judgment, and they were burned to death. Moses said, “This is what Jehovah spoke, saying, I will be sanctified by those who come near to Me” (v. 3). God wanted to point out that those who draw near to Him cannot be loose. This punishment was more severe and strict than His discipline on the rest of His people.
Nadab and Abihu died on the same day. What should Aaron have done? Before God he was the high priest; in his house he was the head of his household. He played a double role. Can a man be so dedicated to God’s service that he can ignore his sons? According to Jewish tradition, when a man dies, his family has to dishevel their hair and tear their garments. But Moses only ordered the corpses to be carried out. Aaron and his sons were not allowed to dishevel their hair or tear their garments.
Sorrow and grief over death are human affections; they are normal. But here a servant of the Lord could not express his sorrow or else he would die. This is a very sober matter. The judgment that a servant of God can suffer is different from the judgment that an ordinary Israelite can suffer. A servant of God cannot do what an ordinary Israelite can do. It is understandable and legitimate for a father to mourn over his son or for a person to mourn over his own brother. But those who have God’s anointing oil upon them must sanctify themselves. This is not a matter of sin but a matter of sanctification. We cannot say that we can do many things just because they are legitimate and not sinful. It is not a matter of whether or not they are sinful, but whether we are sanctified. It may be right for others to do them, but a servant of God cannot because he must sanctify himself.
The opposite of sanctification is being common. To be sanctified means that we cannot do what everybody else can do. The Lord could not do what the disciples could do. An authority cannot do what his brothers can do. A high priest cannot even express his own emotion which he would otherwise be entitled to express. If he becomes loose in this matter, he will die. The Israelites died because of sin, while the priests died because of the failure of separation. Among the children of Israel, those who kill die, but Aaron would die if he were to weep for his sons. What a difference this is! An authority must pay the price.
Aaron could not even leave the tabernacle. He could only let others bury the dead. The Israelites did not have to live in the tabernacle at all, yet Aaron and his sons could not even leave the door of the tabernacle. They had to carefully guard that which God had entrusted to them. The holy ointment has sanctified us and separated us from all our activities. We have to honor the ointment that God has given us. All of us have to go to God to deal with Him and to ask Him to separate us from others. The world and other brothers and sisters may maintain their family affections, but a deputy authority is set apart to maintain God’s glory. He cannot seek for ease. He cannot hold on to his own feelings. He cannot rebel or be loose. He must instead exalt God for His glory.
A servant of God is one who has God’s holy ointment upon him. He must sacrifice his own emotion and abandon his legitimate sentiments. This is the only way to become a deputy authority. Anyone who maintains God’s authority must also reject his own feeling. One must be willing to pay any price, even to the extent of giving up his deepest affections, his filial sentiments, his friendships, and even his love. If he is entangled by these things, he cannot serve the Lord. God’s requirements are strict. If a man does not give up his own affections, he cannot serve the Lord. God’s servants are those with a distinction, while ordinary people are those without a distinction. God’s servants must sanctify themselves for the sake of His people.
Why did Nadab and Abihu offer up strange fire? According to Leviticus 10:9, God told Aaron, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting.” Many who are familiar with the Bible think that these two offered up strange fire after becoming drunk with wine. According to the record of verse 5, it is possible that they became naked in the sanctuary. This is why others came in and carried them in their tunics after they died. It is very easy for a drunken person to expose his body. The Israelites can take wine or strong drink, but a priest could not do the same. This is a matter of enjoyment. We cannot enjoy what others enjoy, and we cannot rejoice in what others rejoice in. (Wine signifies joy.) A servant of God has to be restricted. He has to separate the holy from the common, the clean from the unclean. It is right for us to maintain our fellowship in the Body with the brothers and sisters, but we cannot be loose, because we bear a special service. We cannot engage in anything that will induce us to cast off all restraints.
Leviticus 21 records God’s specific requirement of sanctification on His serving priest:
(1)They cannot defile themselves by death, except for their relatives who are near to them. They have to sanctify themselves (vv. 1-4). This is the general requirement.
(2)One has to be sanctified in his attire and in the body (vv. 5-6). He cannot make any baldness on his head, and he cannot shave off the corners of his beard. (Egyptians did this when they worshipped the sun god.) Neither can they make any cuttings in their flesh. (Africans do this.)
(3)One has to be sanctified in marriage (vv. 7-9).
(4)The high priest is bound by a higher requirement: He cannot touch a dead body, not even when it is his father or mother (vv. 10-15). Therefore, the higher a servant of God stands, the higher God’s requirements are. God pays attention to whether or not His servants are separated. The more a person is near to God, the higher God’s requirements are upon him. The degree of our nearness to God becomes the degree of God’s requirement on us. The more God entrusts Himself to a person, the more He requires of a person. God pays much attention to the sanctification of those who serve Him.
Authority is based on separation. Without separation there is no authority. If you crave the company of others, you cannot be an authority. If your communication with others is unrestricted, you cannot be a deputy authority. The higher an authority stands, the greater is the separation. God is the highest authority. Therefore, He exercises the greatest separation. We all have to learn to separate ourselves from others in unholy things. The Lord Jesus could have acted as He willed, but He sanctified Himself for the disciples’ sake. He separated Himself and stood on the side of holiness. We should willingly and gladly pursue after deeper separations — separation from unholiness. This does not mean that we should separate ourselves from God’s children through self-proclaimed holiness. The more we are sanctified and the more we are restricted by God and bound under His authority, the more we can be an authority. Obedience cannot be maintained in the church if those who are in authority do not behave properly. If the issue of authority is not settled, there will always be confusion in the church.
Those who are in authority do not usurp authority. An authority is a servant of God. He must pay any price to shun excitement. He must climb high, he must not be afraid of loneliness, and he must be a sanctified person. May we be willing to pay the price to recover God’s authority. This is the way the Lord is taking in the church today.
