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

by J.C. Ryle

The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creation in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner.

say furthermore that sin, to speak more specifically, consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. As the Scripture simply says, Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

I am persuaded that the more light we have, the more we see our own sinfulness. The nearer we get to heaven, the more we are clothed with humility.

It is vain to shut your eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity today that you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not quite accurate or biblical. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably something about Christ, something about grace, something about faith, something about repentance, and something about holiness, but it is not the real thing as it is in the Bible. Things are out of place and out of proportion.

Nothing of the kind! We must simply repent and do our first works (Revelation 2:5).

The very idea of a person being sanctified while no holiness can be seen in his life is flat nonsense and is a misuse of words. Light may be very dim, but if there is only a spark in a dark room, it will be seen. Life may be very feeble, but if the pulse only beats a little, it will be felt. It is just the same with a sanctified person:[1] his sanctification will be something felt and seen, though he himself may not understand it. A

I would as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who was content with sowing his fields and never looking at them until harvest, as to expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, prayer, and the use of his Sundays.

Anyone who thinks that works are of no importance because they cannot justify us is a very ignorant Christian.

True sanctification does not consist in merely talking about Christianity and the Bible.

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.

I do not say for a moment that holiness shuts out the presence of indwelling sin. No – far from it. It is the greatest misery of a holy man that he carries about with him a body of death (Romans 7:24); that often when he wants to do good, evil is present with him (Romans 7:21); that the old nature is blocking all his movements and, as it were, trying to prevent every step he takes. It is the excellence of a holy man, though, that he is not at peace with indwelling sin, as others are. He hates it, mourns over it, and longs to be free from its company. The work of sanctification within him is like the wall of Jerusalem – the building goes forward even in troublous times (Daniel 9:25).

He must cast away all pride and prideful thoughts and any conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, owing all to the merit and righteousness of another.

When I speak of growth in grace, I do not for a moment mean that a believer’s portion in Christ can grow. I do not mean that he can grow in safety, acceptance with God, or security. I do not mean that he can ever be more justified, more pardoned, more forgiven, or more at peace with God than he is at the first moment he believes. I strongly believe that the justification of a believer is a finished, perfect, and complete work, and that the weakest saint, though he may not know and feel it, is as completely justified as the strongest. I strongly believe that our election, calling, and standing in Christ are not gradual and do not increase or decrease.

When I speak of growth in grace, I only mean growth in the degree, size, strength, vigor, and power of the graces that the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I contend that every one of those graces can grow, progress, and increase. I believe that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like can be little or great, strong or weak, and may vary greatly in the same person at different periods of his life.

When I speak of someone growing in grace, I simply mean that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, and his spiritual-mindedness more evident. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart. He manifests more of it in his life.

I say that there are many Christian men and Christian women today very much like Lot. There are many real children of God who appear to know far more than they live up to and who see far more than they practice, yet they continue in this condition for many years. It is amazing that they go as far as they do, and yet go no further! They acknowledge Christ and love the truth. They like sound preaching and agree with every article of gospel doctrine when they hear it, but there is still something indescribable that is not satisfactory about them. They are constantly doing things that disappoint the expectations of their more advanced Christian friends. It is amazing that they think as they do, yet stand still!

What can we say of these people? They often bewilder godly friends and family members. They often cause great concern. They often give rise to great doubts and searchings of heart. They may be classed under one sweeping description: they are all brothers and sisters of Lot. They linger. These are the ones who get the notion into their minds that it is impossible for all believers to be so very holy and very spiritual!

Lot’s wife must have seen and known all this. This was no small privilege. When Abraham first received the promises, it is probable that Lot’s wife was there. When he built his altar by his tent between Ai and Bethel, it is probable she was there. When her husband was taken captive by Chedorlaomer and delivered by God’s providence, she was there. When Melchizedek, king of Salem, came forth to meet Abraham with bread and wine, she was there. When the angels came to Sodom and warned her husband to flee, she saw them. When the angels took them by the hand and led them out of the city, she was one of those whom they helped to escape. Once more, I say, these were no small privileges. Yet what good effect had all these privileges on the heart of Lot’s wife? None at all.

The eyes of her understanding were never opened. Her conscience was never really stirred up and awakened. Her will was never really brought into a state of obedience to God. Her affections were never really set upon things above. The form of religion that she had was kept up for fashion’s sake and not from feeling. It was a garment worn for the sake of pleasing her relatives, but not from any sense of its value. She did as others did around her in Lot’s house: she conformed to her husband’s ways, she made no opposition to his religion, and she allowed herself to be passively towed along in his wake – but all this time her heart was wrong in the sight of God. The world was in her heart, and her heart was in the world. In this condition she lived, and in this condition she died.

cannot describe what kind of place paradise is because I cannot understand the condition of a soul separate from the body. I ask no clearer view of paradise than this – that Christ is there. All other things in the picture that our imagination draws of the state between death and resurrection are nothing in comparison to this. How He is there and in what way He is there, I do not know. Let me only see Christ in paradise when my eyes close in death, and that is enough for me.

their Master and cry for help. Jesus arises

Empathy has the greatest power to draw us and to open our hearts. Proper and correct counsel often falls dead and useless on a heavy heart. Cold advice often makes us remain silent, shrink, and withdraw into ourselves when it is given in the day of trouble. Genuine sympathy in such a day will call out all our better feelings, if we have any, and obtain an influence over us when nothing else can.

Why do I dwell on this? Do I want to apologize for the corruptions of professing Christians and excuse their sins? God forbid! Do I want to lower the standard of sanctification and support anyone in being a lazy, idle soldier of Christ? God forbid! Do I want to wipe out the broad line of distinction between the converted and the unconverted and ignore inconsistencies? Once more I say, God forbid! I hold strongly that there is a great difference between the true Christian and the false, between the believer and the unbeliever, between the children of God and the children of the world. I hold strongly that this difference is not merely one of faith, but of life. It is not just one of profession, but of practice. I hold strongly that the ways of the believer should be as distinct from those of the unbeliever as bitter from sweet, light from darkness, and heat from cold.

A person can have the faith of demons, a mere intellectual faith, without love, but the faith that saves is always accompanied by love.

The true Christian delights to hear something about his Master. He likes those sermons best that are full of Christ. He enjoys that company most in which people talk of Jesus. I read of an old Welsh believer who used to walk several miles every Sunday to hear an English clergyman preach, though she did not understand a word of English. She was asked why she did so. She replied that this clergyman named the name of Christ so often in his sermons that it did her good. She loved even the name of her Savior.

If we love someone, we like to please him. We are happy to ask about his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice, and to do the things that he approves. We even deny ourselves in order to meet his wishes. We abstain from things that we know he dislikes, and we learn to do things that we are not naturally inclined to do – because we think it will please him. This is how it is between the true Christian and Christ!

thousands of people living in civilized nations whose ideas about Christ are not any clearer than those of the heathen. Ask them what they know about Jesus Christ, and you will be astounded at the terrible darkness that covers their minds. Visit them on their deathbeds and you will find that they can tell you no more about Christ than about Mohammed. Some of these people are in small villages, and others are in large cities, but all have the same thing in common: they are without Christ.

If you are already following Jesus, I exhort you to be thankful. Awake to a deeper sense of the infinite mercy of having an almighty Savior, a title to heaven, a home that is eternal, and a Friend who never dies! A

few more years, and all our family gatherings will be over. What a comfort to think that we have in Christ something that we can never lose!

Awake to a deeper sense of the sorrowful condition of those who are without Christ. We are often reminded of the many people who are without food, clothing, education, or a church building. Let us be compassionate toward them and help them as much as we are able, but let us never forget that there are people whose cond...