First of all, and generally speaking, the truth is the WORD which God gave to the Son "For I have given them the words which Thou gavest Me." The truth therefore includes all the teaching of the gospels which the Lord Jesus Christ taught His followers.
It is not just this one section of the truth however: it is all the truth including the Old Testament - God uses it all in order to bring about our sanctification. So we must attend to the entire Word of God, and not only to those books which might be "our favourites".
And then of course, we must never forget the Holy Spirit in this matter of our sanctification through the truth. When He was sent and came in all His fullness, the Holy Spirit was given the task of leading God's children into all the truth. As such, the Third Person in the Holy Trinity is appropriately called, the Spirit of truth. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit enlightened the apostles, who in turn wrote the New Testament epistles.
So in summary, the truth which God uses in order to bring about our sanctification is an all-inclusive truth: the Old Testament, the gospels, the epistles, all the doctrine, all the exhortations and appeals...
Sanctification therefore is not principally an experience: it is God using the truth, or God using His Word - and the Holy Spirit bringing it to us, opening our understanding of it, and then enabling us to apprehend it. We are then to take this truth and apply it to ourselves or to our lives day by day.
Don't wait for some experience therefore - or for some spiritual shortcut. Instead, devote yourself to knowing God's truth and then apply it to your life. Or to break it down just a little more: realize the truth about God, grasp the truth about yourself, and then grow in appreciation of the truth of what Christ has done for you and your standing in Him.
It seems to me that Christians perhaps spend too much time looking or seeking for power - rather than for light and knowledge and understanding - first and foremost about God Himself.
FINAL WORD
We shall start there tomorrow: the truth about God and how it promotes our sanctification. Let us ask the Holy Spirit in these upcoming days to lead us into the truth by unfolding before us the depth of the riches of our position in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't wait for an experience therefore. Don't wait for that latest book written by a Christian author that "will turn it all around for you". Don't wait for that conference which will hold that special nugget which you have been missing.
Get to know the truth about your God and Saviour instead. Read the Word. Meditate upon it - not just subjectively - but learn there about Him and as you do, the truth will work on your hearts and your sanctification or Christ-likeness will move forward.
More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.
More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
More about Jesus in his Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful saying mine.
Louis
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