Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

We must be saints before we die if we are to be saints afterward in glory. The treasured idea of many that dying people need nothing except a quick confession and forgiveness of sins to make them ready for their great change is a profound delusion. We need the work of the Holy Spirit as well as the work of Christ. We need renewal of the heart as well as the atoning blood. We need to be sanctified as well as to be justified.