It seems I keep stumbling upon quotes about holiness. I am being convicted daily about the lack of holiness in my life. God's holiness is not only moral goodness (although it is as C.S. Lewis wrote, "not less"). God's holiness is in a sense "otherness." He is not at the top of the scale. He is exponentially off the scale. With this in mind, take a look at some of the quotes that are convicting my heart today.
"Dear friends, I do beg you to attach the highest importance to your own personal holiness. Do live unto God. If you do not, your Lord will not be with you. He will say of you, as He said of the false prophets of old,"I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all," saith the Lord."" You may preach very fine sermons, but if you yourselves are not holy, there will be no souls saved. The probability is that you will not come to the conclusion that your lack of holiness is the reason for your nonsuccess. You will blame the people, you will blame the age in which you live, you will blame anything except yourself. But there will be the root of the whole trouble." C.H. Spurgeon
"If you will stop here and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it." William Law
"I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else." C.S. Lewis
"The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful "adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part to the very moral order against which they have been sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are." A.W. Tozer
Follow after holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church is useless to the world and has no esteem among men. It is an abomination; it is hell's laughter and heaven's abhorrence. The worst evils that have ever come upon the world have been brought by an unholy church." C.H. Spurgeon
"The road to the promised land runs past Sinai. The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims upon them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim, and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure." C.S. Lewis
There is no way to holiness but through the gospel. The only way to run after true holiness is to admit our need of a Savior. But, never let that need be something to hide behind in a pursuit of holiness. We have been given all things in Christ. We are holy in him. The Father will look at us and say, "Well done," because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Let that be our motivation for our relentless pursuit of God's holiness. Let us aim at perfection knowing we are already complete in Christ.
1 comments:
Danny this is a great post. We must and will pursue holiness as we are now grounded in Christ as he is our foundation.
Holiness, is a natural desire for those whose foundation and identity are in Christ.
If it is not our desire we must test ourselves to ensure we are in the faith. Check out verse 8 & 9, as we are really picking up our Cross, we will realize that we need our Savior daily. John is talking to believers, here. We will still fall short of the goal. However, we must confess that as we are corrected by our Heavenly Father, who loves us enough to correct us.
I John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
I John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
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