“‘Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). The text which heads this page opens up a subject of deep importance. That subject is practical holiness. It suggests a question which demands the attention of all professing Christians: Are we holy? Shall we see the Lord?”-J.C. Ryle

In the third chapter of his book, Holiness, Ryle deals with three things: what true holiness is, the reason it is so needful, and the way in which holiness can be attained. It’s the first of these that is our present focus. He asks, “What sort of persons are those whom God calls holy?” Men and women can go a very far way in the “appearance” of holiness, and yet not be holy people. Just ask Balaam, Judas, Herod, Jehu, Joab and Gehazi, and Demas. Holiness is not knowledge, profession, zeal, morality, outward respectability, taking pleasure in the preached Word, or keeping good company. Rather in twelve points Ryle paints a picture of what true gospel holiness looks like:

1. Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, which mind is revealed in the Scriptures. It is, hating what he hates and loving what he loves, and measuring all things by his Word.
2. A holy man will shun every known sin, and keep every known commandment. “He will have a decided bent of mind toward God, a hearty desire to do his will, a greater fear of displeasing Him than of displeasing the world, and a love to all His ways.”
3. A holy man will strive to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. “He will not only live the life of faith in Him, and draw from Him all his daily peace and strength, but he will also labor to have the mind that was in Him, and to be ‘conformed to His image.’”
4. A holy man will follow after meekness, longsuffering, gentleness, patience, kind tempers, and government of his tongue.
5. A holy man will follow after temperance and self-denial; crucifying the desires of his body and flesh and restraining carnal passions.
6. A holy man will follow after charity and brotherly kindness.
7. A holy man will be a man of mercy and benevolence towards others, trying to do good and be useful in his generation.
8. A holy man will follow after purity of the heart. “He knows his own heart is like a tinder, and will diligently keep clear of the sparks of temptation.”
9. A holy man will follow after the fear of God. Not the fear of a slave, but the fear of a child who lives always before the face of his Father.
10. A holy man will pursue humility.
11. A holy man will strive after faithfulness in all the duties and relationships of his life.
12. A holy man will aim at spiritual mindedness, “He will endeavor to set his affections entirely on things above, and to hold things on earth with a very loose hand.”

It cannot be overlooked that after this list, Ryle moves to some pastoral considerations. This list isn’t intended to discourage tender consciences, or make holy hearts sad. So he reminds us of a couple of truths: first, holiness in this life is not the eradication of every sin, but like Paul we find ourselves doing what we hate (Romans 7). But a holy man is not at peace with indwelling sin. Secondly, holiness comes to ripeness through time. Sanctification is a progressive work, and grace is not always in full bloom. Nevertheless, the picture he has painted is “the heart’s desire and prayer of all true Christians. They press towards it, if they do not reach it. They may not attain to it, but they always aim at it. It is what they strive and labor to be, if it is not what they are.”

“The subject of sanctification is one which many, I fear, dislike exceedingly. Yet the subject does not deserve to be treated in this way. It is not an enemy, but a friend.”-J.C. Ryle

It has been popular in Reformed theology to speak of the duplex gratia (twin graces) of justification and sanctification. John Calvin argued, and rightly so, that union with Christ resulted in this two-fold blessing of Christ and both are necessary for the Christian. That’s because sin has done two things, it has made us guilty and it has corrupted us. Justification is that act that deals with the guilt of sin, wherein we are accepted as righteous before God on account of Christ’s imputed righteousness. Sanctification is the work that deals with the corruption of sin, slowly weeding out its pollution by killing vice and stirring up virtue that we might be conformed more and more to the likeness of Christ. J.C. Ryle wrote, “He who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived and died and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins for His people has yet much to learn. Whether he knows it or not, he is dishonoring our blessed Lord, and making Him only a half Saviour.” In the second chapter of Holiness, J.C. Ryle takes up the topic of sanctification, first dealing with its nature. He has eleven points:

1. Sanctification is the invariable result of that vital union with Christ which true faith gives to a Christian.
   We sometimes get into the mindset that we’re justified by faith and sanctified by works. This isn’t true. While outward fruits are evidence of our sanctification, we are sanctified by faith–though faith operates differently in our sanctification than it does in justification.
2. Sanctification is the outcome and inseparable consequence of regeneration.
   A person who is born again and made a new creature receives a new nature and a new principle of life. While a regenerate person can still sin it is contrary to the Bible to think that a regenerate man can live carelessly and perpetually in sin. Where there is no sanctification, there is no regeneration.
3. Sanctification is the only evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
   The Spirit of Christ always makes his presence known and he causes fruit in the heart, character, and life of any who have him. 
4. Sanctification is the only sure mark of God’s election.
   God has not afforded his own a stamp on their forehead that reads “ELECT.” He has not given us x-ray glasses to examine the heart of a man. Rather, we must judge a tree by its fruit, and sanctification is that work of grace that produces fruit. Elect men and women are distinguished by their holy lives.
5. Sanctification is a thing that will always be seen.
   Though it seems to be a rule of its nature that the more sanctified a man is the more unsanctified he feels, true sanctification which inevitably bears fruit is seen by others. It is not something that is hid–not even under a bushel.
6. Sanctification is a thing that every believer is responsible for.
   Believers are under a special obligation to live holy lives. They are not dead, unrenewed, and blind, but they are alive unto Go, and have right knowledge and a new principle of life within them. In his grace God has deprived any believer of any excuse if they do not live for his praise.
7. Sanctification admits for growth and degrees.
   Unlike justification, sanctification is a process and something in which we grow. We are not more or less justified one day to the other, but we can be more or less sanctified. There is no biblical warrant for the antinomian sympathy of “imputed sanctification.”
8. Sanctification depends on the diligent use of Scriptural means.
   Those who are careless about the means of grace (defined by the Reformed as prayer, sacrament, and the Word–primarily the preaching of the Word) cannot expect to make progress in sanctification.
9. Sanctification does not mean that a man has no inward conflict.
   A sense of the battle that wages between flesh and Spirit is not a sign that one is unsanctified or dead in sins. A true Christian even while he possess a peace that passes understanding, may be known by his war as well as his peace.
10. Sanctification cannot justify a man and yet it still pleases God.
    The only righteousness by which we can stand right before the Throne of God is the righteousness of Christ. His work, and his work alone is our title to heaven–and we must be prepared to die for that truth. Nevertheless, even as children please their parents by their acts of obedience, so too the Lord is pleased by his children’s obedience.
11. Sanctification will be absolutely necessary as a witness to our character on the great day of judgment.
    It will be pointless to plead that we believed in Christ, unless our faith has had some sanctifying effect and born fruit in our lives. The question will not be so much what we talked and professed, but how we walked.
12. Sanctification is absolutely necessary to train us for heaven.
    Being perfectly conformed to Jesus is one of the highest blessings of heaven. That process begins in the present day for the believer. We must be holy now if we will be holy afterwards in glory.

“He that wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin.” -J.C. Ryle

Ryle opens the book, Holiness, by discussing the grim reality of sin. If someone is going to build a high-rise he must first dig very deep to set the foundation. So it is with holiness, for at the root of all saving Christianity is a right knowledge of sin. He believed that wrong views of holiness are “generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption.” What was true of his day, is true of ours. Our society equates sin with things like “guilty pleasure” or “dangerous delights,” but seldom do people announce sin in its true color. He says five things about sin:

1. First, a definition: simply, sin “consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God.” The smallest departure from God’s revealed will in any way–either by commission or omission–is sin, whatever else a man may think about it.
2. Secondly, its origin and source: he identifies it as a “family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents.” This, of course, is the teaching of original sin, that we who are born in the natural way inherit a heart and a nature that is inclined to evil.
3. Thirdly, its extent: the only way to determine the extent of sin is to be informed by Scripture. And there we are told that sin extends to every part of man, “sin is a disease which pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, the will, are all more or less infected.” Quite interestingly he argues that the best proof of sin’s extent and power of sin is the way in which it still cleaves to a man who has been converted and made subject to the work of the Holy Spirit, “Mighty indeed must that foe be who even when crucified is still alive!”
4. Fourthly, the guilt, vileness and offensiveness of sin: quite right, he wrote, “I do not think, in the nature of things, that mortal man can at all realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the sight of that holy and perfect One with whom we have to do.” In other words, we can only form an inadequate conception of the hideousness of sin–and the proof is in the reality of the cross.
5. Fifthly, the deceitfulness of sin: Moses described sin in terms of a creature who crouches at the door (Genesis 4), and yet too often we do not realize just how subtle sin is. He wrote, “We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself to us in true colors, saying, ‘I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you forever in hell.’ Oh, no! sin comes to us, like Judas, with a kiss.”

The result of all this is twofold: first, it should humble us to self-abasement, and secondly, it should raise us to great gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ-the only remedy for such a sinful condition. He wrote, “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.” Only in framing it all rightly can we avoid a hazy theology, a liberal theology, a formal or outward Christianity, overstrained theories of perfection, and low personal views of holiness.

“I have had a deep conviction for many years that practical holiness and entire self-consecration to God are not sufficiently attended to by modern Christians in this country.”-J.C. Ryle

On this side of eternity the church is always afflicted with weakness. If you look through the pages of church history you’ll find this is obvious, and if you consider the current state of the church it’s true too. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of good. We can rejoice that the 5-Points of Calvinism are becoming more widely accepted, that Reformed theology is being promoted through a number of avenues, that justification by faith alone is slowly being reclaimed in local pulpits, and worship is slowly being reformed. This doesn’t constitute a major movement, but even small signs of grace are happy signs.

But it seems to me that one of the greatest threats for the contemporary Reformed church–and one that unless dealt with will undo much of what has and could be done–is a failure to rightly understand the nature and work of sanctification. In the 19th century J.C. Ryle had the same concern, and so he complied a series of papers into a book that has become one of his most beloved classics, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties & Roots. He wrote, “Just as in times past he [Satan] has succeeded in mystifying and confusing men’s minds about justification, so he is laboring in the present day to make men ‘darken counsel by words without knowledge’ about sanctification.”

In his Introduction to the book he commends his readers to ask and answer seven questions which he regards as “cautions for the times on the subject of holiness.” Some which are particularly relevant today:

1. “I ask, whether it is wise to speak of faith as the one thing needful, and the only thing required, as many seem to do nowadays in handling the doctrine of sanctification?”
   He doesn’t belittle the role of faith as the “root of all holiness” but rightly points out the fact that the role faith plays in sanctification is not the same role of faith in justification. Rather, Scripture teaches that in following holiness there is a need for personal exertion and work as well as faith. Without large qualification one should not assert that faith alone sanctifies.
2. “Is it wise to make so little, as some appear to do, comparatively, of the many practical exhortations to holiness in daily life?”
   Scripture deals not only with generalities about holy living, but he rightly notes that the details and particular ingredients need to be pressed upon every believer.
   Holiness doesn’t merely consist of believing and feeling, but of doing–and of being made more in the image of Christ.
3. “Is it wise to assert so positively and violently, as many do, that the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans does not describe the experience of the advanced saint, but the experience of an unregenerate man, or of the weak and unestablished believer? I doubt it.”
   While we are to call no man master, Ryle rightly points to the fact that the very best commentators have applied Romans 7 to believers–and the commentators that do not take that view, with few exceptions, were the Romanists, Arminians, and Socinians. Though the interpretation of all the Reformers and Puritans may not convict every mind, it must be respected.
4. “Is it wise to use the language which is often used in the present day about the doctrine of “Christ in us”? I doubt it. Is not this doctrine often exalted to a position which it does not occupy in Scripture?”
   He is not saying that the expression is unbiblical, but he is saying we must be guarded against an extravagant and unscriptural importance to the idea contained in the expression, so much so that we belittle the work of the Holy Spirit who especially works sanctification.
5. “Is it wise to teach believers that they ought not to think so much of fighting and struggling against sin, but ought rather to ‘yield themselves onto God,” and be passive in the hands of Christ? I doubt it.”
   There are twenty-five or thirty places in the Epistles where believers are clearly instructed to use active and personal exertion. Not merely as passive agents who sit still, but those who arise and do work. Holy violence, a conflict, a struggle, a fight, a soldier’s life are characteristic of the true Christian.

In the coming weeks, Lord willing, we will continue to work our way through this book touching on each of the twenty chapters of this phenomenal and extremely relevant book.