![]() Yet if you are not holy – if your speech is not seasoned with grace and your actions are not Christlike – what encouragement to believe on Christ will those around receive? Many spurn the gospel because they see little authentic godliness in the professing church. After all, holiness will embrace humility and the hypocrite will soon be exposed! Of course, I am not suggesting a show of holiness. Is this not motive enough for a holy life?įifthly, holiness is a powerful witness in the world. ‘If ye love me’, said Jesus, ‘keep my commandments… he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me’ (John 14:15, 21, 23). Holiness also demonstrates our love to Christ. Says Ryle, ‘The only safe evidence that we are one with Christ, and Christ in us, is holy life’. Notice that the believer has a responsibility to practise holy living. ‘Faith without works is dead’ but true faith will show itself by fruitful works (James 2:17-26). Works cannot save, but (says James) they do give evidence of spiritual life within. What is ‘fruit’ if it is not good and holy works for the Lord in the experiential and practical aspects of our lives? It is unquestionably the Spirit’s purpose to work holiness in the believer, enabling him to die to sin and live to God (Ephesians 5:9).įourthly, holiness bears fruit – the evidence of genuine faith and love. It is by the Spirit that the believer overcomes temptation and sin and becomes ‘a new creation in Christ Jesus’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Thus the Spirit who quickens us also sanctifies us (1 Thessalonians 2:13 1 Peter 1:2). It is by the Spirit that we have new birth and the same Spirit who comes to dwell in the believer. The Spirit of God is called the Holy Spirit and the ‘Spirit of holiness’ (Romans 1:4). ![]() Thirdly, holiness is consistent with the Spirit’s ministry. He doesn’t merely take away the guilt of a believer’s sin, he breaks its power’. Ryle put it: ‘Christ is a complete Saviour. It stands to reason – believers are not saved from the guilt of sin only to be left to experience its dominion!Īs J. ‘Christ … loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Ephesians 5:25-27).Īgain, Paul reminds Titus that Christ ‘gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous for good works’ (2:14). Secondly, holiness is consistent with Christ’s work. Surely no one will argue that God’s purpose was to make us holy positionally but leave us unholy practically? Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4: ‘he hath chosen us in before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him’. So, we are to be holy because this is the will of God for his people. Christ reflects this in his Sermon on the Mount: ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as you Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48). Likewise, Paul writes, ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification … for God has not called us to uncleanness but to holiness’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7). This is clear in 1 Peter 1:15-16 where Peter quotes various verses from Leviticus. Without question, then, personal sanctity or holiness is important, and that in several ways.įirstly, holiness is agreeable with the purpose of God. And yet Hebrews 12:14 says quite clearly that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. We are justified by grace and not by works of righteousness (Titus 3:5). We rely on the work of Christ alone for acceptance. So our practical holiness – as distinct from the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by grace – must be real, even though it is never perfect in this life. 1 John 3:9 and 1 John 1:9-10 show that the believer has indwelling sin and yet battles against it. Yet, it ought to be our consistent aim not to sin. The brightest of saints see themselves as ‘unprofitable servants’ whose own ‘righteousnesses’ are like filthy rags in comparison to the burning holiness of God himself. We are not to think of holiness in a legalistic way, as if good works or a holy life can save us or atone for sin. Biblical personal holiness involves two things: (a) putting sin to death in one’s life and (b) becoming increasingly conformed to the character of Christ, who was ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners’ (Hebrews 7:26). Let me remind you of the ground we covered in the two previous articles on holiness (ET October and November 2008). ![]() In other words, they are to be holy people. Christians are called ‘saints’ in the New Testament because they are expected to be ‘sanctified ones’, men and women set apart to God.
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