John 15 

3. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”

Words are such powerful tools.  When we speak we can speak life or death because we are not yet perfect.  When Jesus speaks He speaks purity and power personified!  He tells us here that His word cleanses us.  Later in John 17:17 Jesus prays, “sanctify them through your Truth, your word is Truth.”  Sanctification is an ongoing process of pruning.  Sanctification is not so much an effort on our part (that would be dead religion). It is a remaining close to Jesus and his truth so that we are continually changed and conformed into His image.  That ongoing process is sanctification.  If our response to his pruning is current and up to date then we are clean and even perfect in his eyes.  Yet, while we need to see ourselves perfect because of what Jesus did and not our works, we must remain wholly dependent upon ongoing sanctification.  This is a delicate place.  Boldly and confidently walking in His righteousness while remaining humbly aware of ongoing adjustment by the Holy Spirit.  There is a snare that entangles some who come to believe they have arrived and have no more need of adjustment.  That may be the most dangerous place of all.  But what joy there is in total confidence in His keeping power and righteous and a healthy respect for our constant need and dependency upon his moment-by-moment alignment.