As I wrote in the previous post, this chapter is dense. There is much that I’d like to share and think through before I have to move on to chapter 3 by Thursday. It’s not going to happen, though. I’ll just post what I can. No doubt I’ll feel the same way about the next chapter.

“If the Bible be true, it is certain that unless we are “sanctified,” we shall not be saved. There are three things which, according to the Bible, are absolutely necessary to the salvation of every man and woman in Christendom. These three are, justification, regeneration, and sanctification. All three meet in every child of God: he is both born again, and justified, and sanctified. He that lacks any one of these three things is not a true Christian in the sight of God, and dying in that condition will not be found in heaven and glorified in the last day.”

For the first ten years of my “relationship” with Jesus, I was encouraged to look back to that “moment” when I prayed, or walked down an aisle. “Do you remember that day? Do you remember when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart?”

Not once was I ever given scriptural encouragement to examine myself for a change of nature, desires, etc.

And so, I was beset with doubts and wondering about my standing before God. I knew enough to know that my life was supposed to be markedly different from the way it was before I prayed that prayer, but the truth was that my life showed almost no change at all. I shouldn’t say “no change.” Maybe fits and starts would be the better phrase. Terrible bouts of heinous sin followed by tearful repentance, and on and on. Very dim spiritual light; very weak spiritual pulse, if there was one at all.

To be perfectly honest, a relationship with God was never presented as something to be desired apart from the threat of eternal torment. My desire for knowing Him was born more from self-preservation than real spiritual sight, that is seeing God as One to be desired because of who He is. And according to Jonathan Edwards, a desire to avoid Hell doesn’t qualify as genuine rebirth. Still, God had to start somewhere. And I no longer doubt that, though it was a feeble beginning, it was a beginning for me. I may not have experience regeneration when I “walked the aisle,” but God did set me in a place of wanting to understand, to be right, and hear truth amidst all the noise.

More from Ryle:

Sanctification, then, is the invariable result of that vital union with Christ which true faith gives to a Christian.–“He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 15:5) The branch which bears no fruit is no living branch of the vine. The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. The faith which has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils. It is a “dead faith, because it is alone.” It is not the gift of God. It is not the faith of God’s elect. In short, where there is no sanctification of life, there is no real faith in Christ.

Sanctification, again, is the outcome and inseparable consequences of regeneration. He that is born again and made a new creature, receives a new nature and a new principle, and always lives a new life. A regeneration which a man can have, and yet live carelessly in sin or worldliness, is a regeneration invented by uninspired theologians, but never mentioned in Scripture.

Sanctification, again, is the only certain evidence of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is essential to salvation.

He that boasts of being one of God’s elect, while he is wilfully and habitually living in sin, is only deceiving himself, and talking wicked blasphemy. Of course it is hard to know what people really are, and many who make a fair show outwardly in religion, may turn out at last to be rotten-hearted hypocrites.

Sanctification, again, is a thing that will always be seen. The very idea of a man being “sanctified,” while not holiness can be seen in his life, is flat nonsense and a misuse of words. Light may be very dim; but if there is only a spark in a dark room it will be seen. Life may be very feeble; but if the pulse only beats a little, it will be felt.

Sanctification, again, is a thing for which every believer is responsible. I hold as strongly as anyone that every man on earth is accountable to God, and that all the lost will be speechless and without excuse at the last day. Every man has power to “lose his own soul.” (Matt. 16:26) But while I hold this, I maintain that believers are eminently and peculiarly responsible, and under a special obligation to live holy lives. They are not as others, dead and blind and unrenewed: they are alive unto God, and have light and knowledge, and a new principle within them…God, who has given them grace and a new heart, and a new nature, has deprived them of all excuse if they do not live for His praise. This is a point which is far too much forgotten…The Word of God always addresses its precepts to believers as accountable and responsible beings. If the Saviour of sinners gives us renewing grace, and calls us by His Spirit, we may be sure that he expects us to use our grace, and not to go to sleep.

Sanctification, again, is a thing which admits of growth and degrees. A man may climb from one step to another in holiness, and be far more sanctified at one period of his life than another.

Sanctification, again, is a thing which will be found absolutely necessary as a witness to our character in the great day of judgment. Evidence, evidence, evidence, will be the one thing wanted when the great white throne is set, when the books are opened, when the graves give up their tenants, when the dead are arraigned before the bar of God. I can find no evidence that will be admitted in that day, except sanctification. The question will not be how we talked and what we professed, but how we lived and what we did.

What Ryle has penned in this chapter is going so well with what I am reading from Edwards in The Religious Affections. Both solidify their arguments with God’s Word, and not in an improper manner. It will be impossible for me to put it all together, but I hope to try and get some of it compiled for my own benefit.

It saddens me that such piercing truths are exchanged for relevance and practicality in the western church today. I am convinced that many would hear and turn if God’s Word were used as the double-edged sword that it is rather than a mere pulpit ornament.