Fire on the Mountain

We say that we would like to be more like God. So be more thrilled with moonlight. And babies. And what makes them. And holding on to one lover until you've both been aged to wine, ready to pour. Holiness is nothing like a building code. Holiness is 80-year-old hands crafting an apple pie for others, again. It is aspen trees in a backlit breeze. It is fire on the mountain.   -- N.D. Wilson (from "God the Merrymaker" from CT, April 2014)

Learn How To Move Like A Christian

"We have no idea of how to live until we first know who God is. So when we say that God's name is holy, that tells us how we ought to live. Knowing the Creator tells us where the creation is meant to move" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, 46).

Holiness

"There is not a brick nor a stone laid in the work of our sanctification till we go to Christ. Holiness is His special gift to His believing people. Holiness is the work He carries on in their hearts, by the Spirit whom He puts within them" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 50).

Begin with Christ

"Would you be holy? Would you become a new creature? Then you must begin with Christ. You will do just nothing at all, and make no progress till you feel your sin and weakness, and flee to Him" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 49).

Family Resemblance: Sanctification and Holiness

"If men have no likeness to the Father in heaven, it is vain to talk of their being His "sons." If we know nothing of holiness we may flatter ourselves as we please, but we have not got the Holy Spirit dwelling in us: we are dead, and must be brought to life again--we are lost, and must be found. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they," and they only, "are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.) We must show by our lives the family we belong to.--We must let men see by our good conversation that we are indeed the children of the Holy One, or our son-ship is but an empty name" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 42).

Sanctification Mortifies the Ninny Whiner in Us

"Of one thing I feel very sure -- it is nonsense to pretend to sanctification unless we follow after the meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and forgiveness of which the Bible makes so much. People who are habitually giving way to peevish and cross tempers in daily life, and are constantly sharp with their tongues, and disagreeable to all around them -- spiteful people, vindictive people, revengeful people, malicious people -- of whom, alas, the world is only too full! -- all such know little, as they should know, about sanctification" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 29).

Conformity to the Image of Jesus

"The selfish Christian professor, who wraps himself up in his own conceit of superior knowledge, and seems to care nothing whether others sink or swim, go to heaven or hell, so long as he walks to church or chapel in his Sunday best, and is called a "sound member" -- such a man knows nothing of sanctification. He may think himself a saint on earth, but he will not be a saint in heaven. Christ will never be found the Saviour of those who know nothing of following His example. Saving faith and real converting grace will always produce some conformity to the image of Jesus (Coloss. iii. 10.)" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 28).

"I defy anyone to read St. Paul's writings carefully . . ."

"The common idea of many persons that St. Paul's writings are full of nothing but doctrinal statements and controversial subjects -- justification, election, predestination, prophecy, and the like -- is an entire delusion, and a melancholy proof of the ignorance of Scripture which prevails in these latter days. I defy anyone to read St. Paul's writings carefully without finding in them a large quantity of plain, practical directions about the Christian's duty in every relation of life, and about our daily habits, temper, and behavior to one another. These directions were written down by the inspiration of God for the perpetual guidance of professing Christians. He who does not attend to them may possibly pass muster as a member of a church or a chapel, but he certainly is not what the Bible calls a 'sanctified' man" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 28).

Strong and Hardy Holiness

"True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but face and overcome them. Christ would have His people show that His grace is not a mere hot-house plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong, hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 26).

Trinity Evangelical Church: Family Study

On Sunday our church has a family study before the Covenant Renewal and Worship Service. I recently taught a two week course for the family study on the relationship between Worship, Worldview, and Christian Character. I leaned heavily upon the thinking of J.C. Ryle's Holiness, James K. A. Smith's Desiring the Kingdom, Jeff Meyers' The Lord's Service, and N. T. Wright's After You Believe. If you care to listen, you can find audio at http://trinity-evangelical.org/blog/.

Christ's Satisfaction: Efficacious

“So far is the doctrine of Christ’s satisfaction from throwing open a door to impiety and spreading a couch for security and negligence that it is the most efficacious means of holiness and the death of sin itself (which Christ assigns as one among others of the ends for his death. ‘That being dead unto sin, we may live unto righteousness; that henceforth we may no more live unto ourselves, but to him who died for us and was raised again for our justification,’ as Paul so often reasons on this subject (Rom. 6; Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24)” (Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2, 437-438).