How can I live a holy life?

It will be perceived, it may be added, in conclusion, that the possession of the indwelling Spirit has been assumed in the foregoing remarks. Whether on the negative or on the positive side of holiness, He is the only power for its attainment. The apostle thus says, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live," and in the same chapter (Romans 8) he teaches that it is by the Spirit also we enjoy our heavenly relationships. Hence the need of constant solicitude, as He warns us in another epistle, of not grieving the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. It is then in having Christ Himself continually before us as our blessed Object (and for this He must possess our hearts), and in the maintenance of a walk in the power of the Holy Ghost, that holiness will be increasingly found. And we may be assured that in a day of licence, self-pleasing, and departure from the truth, no testimony will be so effective and powerful as that which springs from separation from evil and from devotedness to Christ.

In conclusion we willingly admit that the subject of holiness his been much neglected. But we earnestly counsel the reader again to beware of seeking it in himself instead of in Christ. Christ alone answers to the thoughts of God, and the more constantly we are found delighting in Him, in occupation with all that He Himself is, as revealed in the Word, the more we shall silently grow, under the blessed activities of the Holy Spirit, in His likeness. Such, moreover, is the grace of our God, that He will help us to this end in every possible way. He will cause everything to work together for our good — always having, in His dealings with us, His own perfect goal before His eyes — conformity to the image of His Son. If our steps become uncertain and feeble, in following on toward the mark for the prize of our calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, He will bring us more completely under the attractions of Christ, and so draw us onward with more zeal and purpose of heart; or, should it be necessary, He will for our profit use chastisements that we might be partakers of His holiness (Heb. 12:10.) His purpose and His desire are that we should be holy; and He would have us ardently in communion with His own mind. Let us then challenge our hearts as to whether it is so with us, whether we keep God's object for us steadfastly in view, and whether, having His own perfect standard, Christ glorified, before us, it is our daily desire to purify ourselves as He is pure. We might also enquire whether we have yielded ourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, whether we have presented our bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service. We belong wholly to Christ as Lord, and we should look unceasingly to Him for grace and strength to hold ourselves, in the power of the Holy Ghost, as absolutely at His disposal. Then, governed by His will alone, we should learn, as perhaps never before, that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and that the path of holiness on which we have entered will conduct us into an ever-increasing intimacy with Himself, and thus be the means of our ever-increasing growth in sanctification.

But there is a way in which the Christian may walk through this world, with the enemies on every side, and be in perfect safety. There is a way in which the flesh has no power whatever against the Christian. And what is that way? "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not at all give effect to the passionate cravings of the flesh." That is our secret, "walk by the Spirit." God has given the Holy Spirit to dwell in each believer, and He does dwell in us, though often we forget Him, or grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), or disregard Him; but He does dwell in you, dear Christian reader, and He is ready to give you power for your walk. Heed His least prompting, obey Him instantly as He brings to your mind the Word of God; so we "walk by the Spirit." In verse 18 we will read of being "led by the Spirit." That is true; He knows the path we are to walk, and He is a faithful, trusty Guide. If we will but let Him lead us, then we will truly "walk by the Spirit," and we will not at all fulfill the passionate cravings of the flesh. How strong the flesh is! What passionate cravings it has! But there is One who is mightier than the flesh, who dwells within each one of us, and all His mighty power is ready to lead us, and to let us walk by the Spirit, so that there is no need for us to give effect at all to these passionate cravings of the flesh. In the Greek it is a double negative; that makes it very strong, "not at all" do we need to heed the flesh.

The Holy Spirit, who dwells in all believers, is the power by which this progress is accomplished. All holy action in thought, word and deed can only be done by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God must also be given heed to, for the Holy Spirit works through and by the Word. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word" (Ps. 119:9).

But how many there are who, conscious that they had no righteousness to present to God, came to Him for forgiveness and rest; but while receiving these blessings apart from works, now seek to gain sanctification by works. Practical, progressive sanctification is not by effort of the flesh therefore (for a legal basis is an impossible foundation for holiness), but as the soul realizes its standing before God and the wonderful truth that by faith in Christ (Acts 26:18) the believer is sanctified, the desire is inwrought by the Spirit that everything incompatible with this should be denied. The conduct is brought into conformity with the truth: "Ye are sanctified." The standard of holiness is not lowered thereby, but the reverse; for self is treated as worthless and corrupt, the true standard being normal conformity to Christ, and the Holy Spirit the only power for its accomplishment. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (Heb. 13:20-21).

Hence the righteousness of the law, instead of being a claim against you, and so condemning you, is now fulfilled in you, which is more intimate than by you. Knowing God thus, you cannot but love Him; and, loving Him, you love your neighbour also, and even your enemy. By the grace of God you are able to rise above the evil to which you once succumbed. If the believer loves God and his neighbour, is not the righteousness of the law fulfilled in him? I do not admit such a thing as a Christian, in whom the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled. The grace of God has wrought this immense change. The vain or proud man, who made himself his centre, but now a believer, and in Christ, has his heart drawn out in true love to God and in love to his neighbour. And no wonder, when one is by grace so blessed! There is nothing that tends to practical holiness so much as being, not pardoned only, but made perfectly happy by and in divine love. One does not become holy first, and then happy, but if he is made happy, practical holiness follows. I speak now of what is wrought by God and His grace in the believer. But Christ is all — not only He dying for us, but we living in Him risen.

Shall we not then walk in holy separation from the world? Can we, if we love the Lord, take the hand once pierced on the cross for our many sins, and grasp at the same time the hand of the world, stained as it is with the blood of His murder? The cure, the only cure, for worldliness is the positive engagement of our hearts with Christ. Mere separation from the world is nothing less than monkishness, if our hearts are not more than recompensed by the enjoyment of the company of Christ. But if occupied with Christ, separation becomes positive privilege, and our testimony to the world will be in the power of the Spirit. Then warnings of coming judgment will be real in the ears of our listeners, and many will be led to flee from the wrath to come.

150 We may notice that there are three ways of learning the powerlessness and wretchedness of the flesh: prior to peace, often in desperate struggles (for knowledge and conscience are distinct things); when we have peace, before the Lord in prayer and communion, not daring to take a step till He leads us, and then He is glorified in us in grace and obedience, whatever the trial; or in the bitter experience in which Peter learned it, when flesh is not judged in communion with God. This last will be the way, so long as we are judging of things instead of judging ourselves. When we are faithfully judging ourselves and walking with God, we shall enter into no temptation. Trial may come, but there will be full preparation to meet it; not that we may be able to say, Now I am prepared for this or that temptation. We are in no certainty from one moment to another as to what trial may be coming; but we shall have the strength of God with us in it. Therefore our only safe place is watching and prayer - yes, prayer before the assault - prayer that may amount to agony; for so Jesus prayed!

A. I will tell you. They say, "We ought not to seek sanctification by human effort; but that by receiving Christ as our sanctification the germ of sin is destroyed, and we are perfectly holy, and without sin or evil concupiscence." It is true that we shall never, by any strength or effort of man, attain to sanctification; and that if we look to Christ, we shall find an abundant spring of life and holiness. I grant also that a soul which is under the law, and groaning beneath the burden of its wretchedness, will get no blessing by useless struggles for deliverance. But all this does not hinder the doctrine, as a whole, being false. For it is false to say, that by receiving Christ as our sanctification we can ever, on earth, attain to perfection, and extirpate entirely sin from our nature. It is an error which connects itself with a host of other errors, destructive of the most precious truths and consolations of the gospel; and which injures, in a high degree, our sanctification itself.

But the reader may say that we shall never attain to perfection. There is no greater mistake than to profess to attain to “sinless perfection.” Those who fall into that error know neither themselves nor the subtility of sin. One verse of Scripture condemns them, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Yet though this be so, perfection is the only fitting place for our eyes to rest upon and the only object for us to have before us.