Holiness by J C Ryle, Sanctification, Part 3B
The following excerpts were taken from chapter 3 of J C Ryle’s book, Holiness.
THE VISIBLE MARKS OF SANCTIFICATION
This is a very wide and difficult part of our subject. It is wide because it necessitates the mention of many details that cannot be handled fully in the limits of a book like this. It is difficult because it cannot possibly be presented without giving offense. No matter what, truth ought to be spoken, and this is one truth that especially needs to be spoken in the present day. True sanctification does not consist in merely talking about Christianity and the Bible. This is a point that should never be forgotten. The vast increase of education and preaching in these latter days makes it absolutely necessary to raise a warning voice.
People hear so much of preaching and Christian beliefs that they acquire an unholy familiarity with its words and phrases, and sometimes talk so fluently about its doctrines that you might think they are true Christians. In fact, it is sickening and disgusting to hear the indifferent and superficial language that many pour out about conversion, the Savior, the gospel, finding peace, free grace, and more, while they are notoriously serving sin or living for the world.
True sanctification does not consist in temporary religious feelings. This is another point about which a warning is greatly needed. Mission services and revival meetings are attracting great attention in every part of the land and are producing a great sensation.
Many, it may be feared, appear moved and touched and stirred up under the preaching of the gospel, while their hearts are not really changed at all. A kind of emotional excitement from the contagion of seeing others weeping, rejoicing, or affected is really what has happened. Their wounds are only skin deep, and the peace they profess to feel is skin deep also. Like the stony-ground hearers, they receive the Word with joy (Matthew 13:20)….
True sanctification does not consist in outward formalism and external devoutness. This is an enormous deception, but sadly, it is a very common one. Thousands appear to imagine that true holiness is found in an excessive quantity of external religion – in constant attendance on church services, reception of the Lord’s Supper, and observance of fasts and saints’ days; in multiplied bowings and turnings and gestures and postures during public worship; in self-imposed austerities and minor self-denials; in wearing distinctive clothing; and in the use of religious pictures and crosses….
Sanctification does not consist in getting away from our responsibilities in life and renouncing our social duties. In every age it has been a snare with many to attempt to get away from their duties in this world in the pursuit of holiness. Hundreds of hermits have buried themselves in some wilderness, and thousands of men and women have shut themselves up within the walls of monasteries and convents under the futile idea that by so doing they would escape sin and become eminently holy. They have forgotten that no bolts and bars can keep out the devil, and that wherever we go we carry that root of all evil – our own hearts. To become a monk or a nun or to join a charitable organization is not the high road to sanctification. True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but it allows him to face and overcome them. Jesus wants His people to show that His grace is not a mere greenhouse plant that can only thrive under shelter, but is a strong, hardy thing that can flourish in every circumstance of life….
Sanctification does not consist in the occasional performance of right actions. It is the habitual working of a new heavenly principle within the heart that runs through all of a person’s daily conduct, both in great things and in small. Its seat is in the heart, and like the heart in the body, it has a regular influence on every part of the character.
Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual respect to God’s law and habitual effort to live in obedience to it as the rule of life. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a Christian has nothing to do with the law and the Ten Commandments because he cannot be justified by keeping them. The same Holy Spirit who convinces the believer of sin by the law and leads him to Christ for justification will always lead him to a spiritual use of the law, as a friendly guide in the pursuit of sanctification. Our Lord Jesus Christ never made light of the Ten Commandments; on the contrary, in His first public discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, He explained them and showed the searching nature of their requirements. The apostle Paul never made light of the law; on the contrary, he says, The law is good, if a man uses it legitimately (1 Timothy 1:8), and I delight with the law of God with the inward man (Romans 7:22)….
Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitually trying to do Christ’s will and to live by His practical precepts. These precepts are found scattered everywhere throughout the four Gospels, and especially in the Sermon on the Mount. He who supposes they were spoken without the intention of promoting holiness and that a Christian does not need to listen to them in his daily life is really little better than a madman, and is at the least a very ignorant person….
Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitually desiring to live up to the standard that the apostle Paul set before the churches in his writings. That standard is to be found in the closing chapters of nearly all his letters. The common idea of many people that 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 it is a sad proof of the ignorance of Scripture that prevails in our day….
Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the active graces that our Lord so beautifully exemplified – especially the grace of love. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall everyone know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35).
A sanctified person will try to do good in the world. He will try to lessen the sorrow and increase the happiness of all around him. He will strive to be like his Master, full of kindness and love to everyone – not in word only, by calling people “dear,” but by deeds and actions and self-denying work, according as he has opportunity.
The selfish person who professes to be a Christian, wrapping himself up in his own conceit of superior knowledge, seeming not to care whether others sink or swim or go to heaven or hell as long as he goes to church and is respected and is called a “faithful member” – such a person knows nothing of sanctification.
Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the passive graces of Christianity. When I speak of passive graces, I mean those graces that are especially shown in submission to the will of God, being Christlike within, and being patient and kind toward one another. Few people, perhaps, unless they have examined the point, have any idea how much is said about these graces in the New Testament and how important a place they seem to fill. This is the special point that Peter dwells upon in commending our Lord Jesus Christ’s example to our notice: Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was cursed, did not return the curse; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him that judges righteously (1 Peter 2:21-23)….
Ryle, J. C.. Holiness [Annotated, Updated]: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – Hebrews 6:1 . Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.