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

by J.C. Ryle

What practical reflections should this matter raise in our minds? For one thing, let us all awake to a sense of the perilous condition of many professing Christians. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord; without sanctification, there is no salvation (Hebrews 12:14). What an enormous amount of so-called Christianity, then, is perfectly useless! What an immense proportion of church attenders are on the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13)! The thought is dreadful, crushing, and overwhelming. Oh, that preachers and teachers would open their eyes and realize the condition of souls around them! Oh, that people could be persuaded to flee from the wrath to come (Luke 3:7)! If unsanctified souls can be saved and go to heaven, the Bible is not true. Yet the Bible is true and cannot lie! What must the end be! For another thing, let us be certain of our own condition and never rest until we feel and know that we are sanctified ourselves. What are our tastes, choices, likings, and inclinations? This is the great test question. It matters little what we wish and hope and desire to be before we die. Where are we now? What are we doing? Are we sanctified or not? If not, the fault is all our own.