Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

by J.C. Ryle

What cause we have to cry with the publican, every night in our lives, when we think of our sins of omission as well as commission, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

the nearer we get to heaven, the more we are clothed with humility. In every age of the Church you will find it true, if you will study biographies, that the most eminent saints – men like Bradford, Rutherford, and M’Cheyne – have always been the humblest men.

We need not be afraid to look at sin, and study its nature, origin, power, extent, and vileness, if we only look at the same time at the Almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. Though sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded. Yes: in the everlasting covenant of redemption, to which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are parties – in the Mediator of that covenant, Jesus Christ the righteous, perfect God and perfect Man in one Person – in the work that He did by dying for our sins and rising again for our justification – in the offices that He fills as our Priest, Substitute, Physician, Shepherd, and Advocate – in the precious blood He shed which can cleanse from all sin – in the everlasting righteousness that He brought in – in the perpetual intercession that He carries on as our Representative at God’s right hand – in His power to save to the uttermost the chief of sinners, His willingness to receive and pardon the vilest, His readiness to bear with the weakest – in the grace of the Holy Spirit which He plants in the hearts of all His people, renewing, sanctifying and causing old things to pass away and all things to become new – in all this – and oh, what a brief sketch it is! – in all this, I say, there is a full, perfect, and complete medicine for the hideous disease of sin.

He that would see it treated fully and exhaustively must turn to such masters of experimental theology as Owen, and Burgess, and Manton, and Charnock, and the other giants of the Puritan school.

(a) I say, then, in the first place, that a Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age.

Let us bring the law to the front and press it on men’s attention. Let us expound and beat out the Ten Commandments, and show the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of their requirements. This is the way of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot do better than follow His plan. We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need.

In the next place, a right view of sin is the best antidote to that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity,

Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, and processions, and beautiful vestments, and confessionals, and man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and arise from the dead,” and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings, and a waste of time.

Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour. He feels stricken with a deadly disease, and nothing will satisfy him but the great Physician. He hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life.

a Scriptural view of sin will prove an admirable antidote to the low views of personal holiness which are so painfully prevalent in these last days of the Church.

I am afraid that Christ-like charity, kindness, good-temper, unselfishness, meekness, gentleness, good-nature, self-denial, zeal to do good, and separation from the world, are far less appreciated than they ought to be, and than they used to be in the days of our fathers.

It may be that the vast increase of wealth in the last twenty-five years has insensibly introduced a plague of worldliness, and self-indulgence, and love of ease into social life. What were once called luxuries are now comforts and necessaries, and self-denial and “enduring hardness” are consequently little known.

There has been of late years a lower standard of personal holiness among believers than there used to be in the days of our fathers. The whole result is that THE SPIRIT IS GRIEVED! and the matter calls for much humiliation and searching of heart.

Once let us see that sin is far viler, and far nearer to us, and sticks more closely to us than we supposed, and we shall be led, I trust and believe, to get nearer to Christ.

Once drawn nearer to Christ, we shall drink more deeply out of His fulness, and learn more thoroughly to “live the life of faith” in Him, as Paul did. Once taught to live the life of faith in Jesus, and abiding in Him, we shall bear more fruit, shall find ourselves more strong for duty, more patient in trial, more watchful over our poor weak hearts, and more like our Master in all our little daily ways.

“with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realise more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.

There are three things which, according to the Bible, are absolutely necessary to the salvation of every man and woman in Christendom. These three are justification, regeneration, and sanctification. All three meet in every child of God: he is both born again, and justified, and sanctified.

the true nature of sanctification.

the visible marks of sanctification.

wherein justification and sanctification agree and are like one another, and wherein t...

In the first place, we have to consider the nature of sanctification. What does the Bible mean when it speaks of a “sanctified” man.

Sanctification is that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost, when He calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly in life.

The instrument by which the Spirit effects this work is generally the Word of God, though He sometimes uses afflictions and providential visitations “without the Word.” (1 Peter 3:1). The subject of this work of Chris...

He who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived and died and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins fo...

He is, thus, not only their “righteousness,” but their “sanctification.”

“For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified.” – “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it.” – “Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” – “Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.” – “Christ hath reconciled (you) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.” (John 17:19; Ephesians 5:25; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 1:22).

Sanctification, then, is the invariable result of that vital union with Christ which true faith gives to a Christian.

“He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 15:5).

The branch which bears no fruit is no living branch of the vine. The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. The faith which has not a sanctifying infl...

Being much forgiven, he loves much.

(James 2:17-20; Titus 1:1; Galatians 5:6; 1 John 1:7; 3:3).

Sanctification, again, is the outcome and inseparable consequence of regeneration.

On the contrary, John expressly says, that “He that is born of God doth not commit sin – doeth righteousness – loveth the brethren – keepeth himself – and overcometh the world.” (1 John 2:29; 3:9-14; 5:4-18).

In a word, where there is no sanctification there is no regeneration, and where there is no holy life there is no new birth.

Sanctification, again, is the only certain evidence of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is essential to salvation. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Romans 8:9).

The Spirit never lies dormant and idle within the soul: He always makes His presence known by the fruit He causes to be borne in heart, character, and life. “The fruit of the Spirit,” says Paul, “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” and such like. (Galatians 5:22).

Where these things are to be found, there is the Spirit: where these things are wanting...

Sanctification, again, is the only sure mark of God’s election.

that elect men and women may be known and distinguished by holy lives.

Hence, when Paul saw the working “faith” and labouring “love” and patient “hope” of the Thessalonian believers, he says, “I know your election of God.” (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 4).

He that boasts of being one of God’s elect, while he is wilfully and habitually living in sin, is only deceiving himself, and talking wicked blasphemy.

Sanctification, again, is a thing that will always be seen.

“Every tree is known by his own fruit.” (Luke 6:44). A truly sanctified person may be so clothed with humility, that he can see in himself nothing but infirmity and defects. Like Moses, when he came down from the Mount, he may not be conscious that his face shines. Like the righteous, in the mighty parable of the sheep and the goats, he may not see that he has done anything worthy of his Master’s notice and commendation: “When saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee?” (Matthew 25:57). But whether he sees it himself or not, others will always see in him a tone, and taste, and character, and habit of life unlike that of other men.

Sanctification, again, is a thing for which every believer is responsible.

I maintain that believers are eminently and peculiarly responsible, and under a special obligation to live holy lives.

Whose fault is it if they are not holy, but their own? On whom can they throw the blame if they are not sanctified, but themselves?

Sanctification, again, is a thing which admits of growth and degrees.

This is the evident meaning of our Lord’s last prayer for His disciples, when He used the words, “Sanctify them;” and of Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians, “The very God of peace sanctify you.”

that they see more, and know more, and feel more, and do more, and repent more, and believe more, as they get on in spiritual life, and in proportion to the closeness of their walk with God. In short, they grow in grace,” as Peter exhorts believers to do; and “abound more and more,” according to the words of Paul. (2 Peter 3:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:1).