Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

by J.C. Ryle

How was it that Saul the Pharisee could ever make up his mind to become a Christian? The cost and sacrifices of the change were fearfully great. He gave up all his brilliant prospects among his own people. He brought on himself instead of man’s favour, man’s hatred, man’s enmity, and man’s persecution, even unto death. What was it that enabled him to face it all? It was faith. He believed that Jesus, who met him on the way to Damascus, could give him a hundred-fold more than he gave up, and in the world to come everlasting life.

In conclusion, let every reader of this paper think seriously, whether his religion costs him anything at present. Very likely it costs you nothing. Very probably it neither costs you trouble, nor time, nor thought, nor care, nor pains, nor reading, nor praying, nor self-denial, nor conflict, nor working, nor labour of any kind. Now mark what I say. Such a religion as this will never save your soul. It will never give you peace while you live, nor hope while you die. It will not support you in the day of affliction, nor cheer you in the hour of death.

Awake before it is too late. Awake and repent. Awake and be converted. Awake and believe. Awake and pray. Rest not till you can give a satisfactory answer to my question, “What does it cost?”

If any reader of this paper really feels that he has counted the cost, and taken up the cross, I bid him persevere and press on. I dare say you often feel your heart faint, and are sorely tempted to give up in despair.

The time is very short. A few more years of watching and praying, a few more tossings on the sea of this world, a few more deaths and changes, a few more winters and summers, and all will be over. We shall have fought our last battle, and shall need to fight no more.

We shall marvel that in “counting the cost” we could ever doubt on which side the balance of profit lay. Let us take courage. We are not far from home. IT MAY COST MUCH TO BE A TRUE CHRISTIAN AND A CONSISTENT BELIEVER; BUT IT PAYS.

Do we grow in grace? Do we get on in our religion? Do we make progress?

The man who has nothing more than a kind of Sunday religion – whose Christianity is like his Sunday clothes, put on once a week, and then laid aside – such a man cannot, of course, be expected to care about “growth in grace.” He knows nothing about such matters. “They are foolishness to him.” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

A Saturday night, a Communion Sunday, the return of a birthday, the end of a year – all these are seasons that ought to set us thinking, and make us look within. Time is fast flying. Life is fast ebbing away. The hour is daily drawing nearer when the reality of our Christianity will be tested, and it will be seen whether we have built on “the rock” or on “the sand.”

If anyone dreams that by “growth in grace” I mean growth in justification he is utterly wide of the mark, and utterly mistaken about the whole point I am considering.

When I speak of “growth in grace” I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigour, and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress, and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like, may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble, and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life.

When I speak of a man “growing in grace,” I mean simply this – that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked.

If words in the Bible mean anything, there is such a thing as “growth,” and believers ought to be exhorted to “grow.” – What says Paul? “Your faith groweth exceedingly.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). “We beseech you that ye increase more and more.” (1 Thessalonians 4:10). “Increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10).

“Having hope, when your faith is increased.” (2 Corinthians 10:15). “The Lord make you to increase in love.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). “That ye may grow up into Him in all things.” (Ephesians 4:15). “I pray that your love may abound more and more.” (Philippians 1:9). “We beseech you, as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).

What says Peter? “Desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:2). “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter ...

Let us know then that “growth in grace” is the best evidence of spiritual health and prosperity. In a child, or a flower, or a tree, we are all aware that when there is no growth there is something wrong. Healthy life in an animal or vegetable will always show itself by progress and increase.

Let us know, furthermore, that “growth in grace” is one way to be happy in our religion. God has wisely linked together our comfort and our increase in holiness. He has graciously made it our interest to press on and aim high in our Christianity.

Let us know, furthermore, that “growth in grace” is one secret of usefulness to others. Our influence on others for good depends greatly on what they see in us. The children of the world measure Christianity quite as much by their eyes as by their ears. The Christian who is always at a standstill, to all appearances the same man, with the same little faults, and weaknesses, and besetting sins, and petty infirmities, is seldom the Christian who does much good.

Let us know, furthermore, that “growth in grace” pleases God. It may seem a wonderful thing, no doubt, that anything done by such creatures as we are can give pleasure to the Most High God.

Now what does our Lord Himself say? “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” – “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” (John 15:1, 8). The Lord takes pleasure in all His people – but specially in those that grow.

Let us know, above all, that “growth in grace” is not only a thing possible, but a thing for which believers are accountable.

Neglect of growth robs him of privileges, grieves the Spirit, and makes the chariot wheels of his soul move heavily. Whose fault is it, I should like to know, if a believer does not grow in grace? The fault, I am sure, cannot be laid on God. He delights to “give more grace;” He “hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.” (James 4:6; Psalm 25:27). The fault, no doubt, is our own. We ourselves are to blame, and none else, if we do not grow.

One mark of “growth in grace” is increased humility. The man whose soul is “growing,” feels his own sinfulness and unworthiness more every year.

The nearer he draws to God, and the more he sees of God’s holiness and perfection, the more thoroughly is he sensible of his own countless imperfections. The further he journeys in the way to heaven, the more he understands what Paul means when he says, “I am not already perfect,” – “I am not meet to be called an Apostle,” – “I am less than the least of all saints,” – “I am chief of sinners.” (Philippians 3:12; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15).

Another mark of “growth in grace” is increased faith and love towards our Lord Jesus Christ. The man whose soul is “growing,” finds more in Christ to rest upon every year, and rejoices more that he has such a Saviour.

Another mark of “growth in grace” is increased holiness of life and conversation. The man whose soul is “growing” gets more dominion over sin, the world, and the devil every year.

On earth he thirsts and longs to have a will more entirely in unison with God’s will. In heaven the chief thing that he looks for, next to the presence of Christ, is complete separation from all sin.

Another mark of “growth in grace” is increased spirituality of taste and mind. The man whose soul is “growing” takes more interest in spiritual things every year.

He does not condemn them as downright sinful, nor say that those who have anything to do with them are going to hell. He only feels that they have a constantly diminishing hold on his own affections, and gradually seem smaller and more trifling in his eyes.

Another mark of “growth in grace” is increase of charity. The man whose soul is “growing” is more full of love every year – of love to all men, but especially of love towards the brethren. His love will show itself actively in a growing disposition to do kindnesses, to take trouble for others, to be good-natured to everybody, to be generous, sympathising, thoughtful, tender-hearted, and considerate.

One more mark of “growth in grace” is increased zeal and diligence in trying to do good to souls. The man who is really “growing” will take a greater interest in the salvation of sinners every year.

He will not care less for the progress of Christ’s cause on earth as he grows older, though he will learn to expect less. He will just work on, whatever the result may be – giving, praying, preaching, speaking, visiting, according to his position – and count his work its own reward.

The third and last thing I propose to consider is this: – The means that must be used by those who desire to grow in grace. The words of James must never be forgotten: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” (James 1:17). This is no doubt as true of growth in grace as it is of everything else. It is the “gift of God.”

One thing essential to growth in grace is diligence in the use of private means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man must use by himself alone, and no one can use for him. I include under this head private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, and private meditation and self-examination. The man who does not take pains about these three things must never expect to grow. Here are the roots of true Christianity. Wrong here, a man is wrong all the way through!

Private religion must receive our first attention, if we wish our souls to grow.

Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is carefulness in the use of public means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man has within his reach as a member of Christ’s visible Church. Under this head I include the ordinances of regular Sunday worship, the uniting with God’s people in common prayer and praise, the preaching of the Word, and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

Another thing essential to growth in grace is watchfulness over our conduct in the little matters of everyday life. Our tempers, our tongues, the discharge of our several relations of life, our employment of time – each and all must be vigilantly attended to if we wish our souls to prosper.

Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is caution about the company we keep and the friendships we form. Nothing perhaps affects a man’s character more than the company he keeps.

There is one more thing which is absolutely essential to growth in grace – and that is regular and habitual communion with the Lord Jesus. In saying this, let no one suppose for a minute that I am referring to the Lord’s Supper. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean that daily habit of intercourse between the believer and his Saviour, which can only be carried on by faith, prayer, and meditation.

It is possible to have “union” with Christ, and yet to have little if any “communion” with Him.

We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and to deal with Him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realise what it is to turn to Him first in every need, to talk to Him about every difficulty, to consult Him about every step, to spread before Him all our sorrows, to get Him to share in all our joys, to do all as in His sight, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to Him.

Years are slipping away and time is flying. Graveyards are filling up and families are thinning. Death and judgment are getting nearer to us all. And yet you live like one asleep about your soul! What madness! What folly! What suicide can be worse than this?

If you have reason to hope that you are a true believer and yet do not grow in grace, there must be a fault, and a serious fault somewhere. It cannot be the will of God that your soul should stand still. “He giveth more grace.” He “takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.” (James 4:6; Psalm 35:27). It cannot be for your own happiness or usefulness that your soul should stand still. Without growth you will never rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 4:4). Without growth you will never do good to others.

We can never have too much humility, too much faith in Christ, too much holiness, too much spirituality of mind, too much charity, too much zeal in doing good to others. Then let us be continually forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth unto the things before. (Philippians 3:15).

It is a melancholy fact, that constant temporal prosperity, as a general rule, is injurious to a believer’s soul. We cannot stand it. Sickness, and losses, and crosses, and anxieties, and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful, and spiritually-minded. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine, and the refiner’s furnace to the gold. They are not pleasant to flesh and blood. We do not like them, and often do not see their meaning. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11). We shall find that all worked for our good when we reach heaven.