GOD
ALONE CAN MAKE YOU HOLY
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” -- Jude 1:24-25
Holiness is more than a
moral reformation, purity of life, or even uprightness of heart. Holiness is
nothing less than the complete restoration of manhood to the image and likeness
of God. Holiness is the complete, not partial but complete, conformity of man
to the image of God in Christ. This holiness is not something we can produce.
It is something God gives. Not even faith in Christ produces holiness. Faith
seeks, receives, embraces, and loves holiness. But it cannot produce holiness.
Holiness is the work of God alone.
The whole purpose of God in the scheme of redemption
and grace is to make his people perfectly holy for the glory of his own great
name. Salvation is neither more nor less than God taking that which is common
and unclean and making it perfectly holy (Eph. 1:3-6; 5:25-27). God makes
sinners holy by three distinct works of grace.
1.
JUSTIFICATION -- All God's elect have
been made holy positionally, holy before the law, by free justification. The
righteousness of Christ has been imputed to all those for whom the Son of God
lived and died. Just as our sin was imputed to Christ, so that he was made to
be sin, though he never committed any sin, even so his righteousness has been
imputed to us, so that we are made the righteousness of God in him, though we
are incapable of doing that which is righteous (Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21).
2.
SANCTIFICATION -- In the new birth,
regeneration, God's elect are given a new, holy nature. By the imparting of
Christ's nature to us, the Holy Spirit sets us apart from the rest of Adam's
fallen race. And we are sanctified (2 Pet. 1:4). Our old nature of flesh does
not become less sinful or more holy. The old nature is not changed at all. God
has put a new nature, a new heart, a new spirit, a new will within us. And that
new man, being born of God, is holy and cannot sin (1 John 3:9).
3.
GLORIFICATION -- When the Lord Jesus
Christ comes the second time, all who were chosen to be holy, justified, and
sanctified by the grace of God, shall be raised up from the grave and
glorified. We shall, at last, be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ,
body, soul, and spirit. Our glorified nature shall be just like his glorified
nature, holy – perfectly holy! (Read 1 Cor. 15:51-58; 1 John 3:1-2; Rom.
8:29). Then God's purpose of grace in predestination shall be fully
accomplished.
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #793
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S.
Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net