26 July, 2008

Spurgeon on Holiness


"If your religion does not make you holy, it will damn you. It is simply painted pageantry to go to hell in."

Posted by Lindon at 6:10 PM

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3 comments:

Bob Cleveland said...

The only holiness I can ever have is that which God imputes to me through the completed work of Jesus on the cross. Anything required beyond that links works to salvation, which I don't mind doing, but that's a whole 'nuther smoke.

6:35 PM
Junkster said...

Bob,
God's imputation of His righteousness to us is indeed vital, and the only basis by which we can stand before Him -- but that is not what Spurgeon had in mind by the quote Lin provided. Here is a more extended quote from one of Spurgeon's sermons on this topic:

I have selected for our topic, "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
There has been a desperate attempt made by certain Antinomians to get rid of the injunction which the Holy Spirit here means to enforce. They have said that this is the imputed holiness of Christ. Do they not know, when they so speak, that, by an open perversion, they utter that which is false? I do not suppose that any man in his senses can apply that interpretation to the context, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness." Now, the holiness meant is evidently one that can be followed like peace; and it must be transparent to any ingenuous man that it is something which is the act and duty of the person who follows it. We are to follow peace; this is practical peace, not the peace made for us, but "the fruit of righteousness which is sown in peace of them that make peace." We are to follow holiness—this must be practical holiness; the opposite of impurity, as it is written, "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." The holiness of Christ is not a thing to follow; I mean, if we look at it imputatively. That we have at once; it is given to us the moment we believe. The righteousness of Christ is not to be followed; it is bestowed upon the soul in the instant when it lays hold of Christ Jesus. This is another kind of holiness. It is, in fact, as every one can see who chooses to read the connection, practical, vital holiness which is the purport of this admonition. It is conformity to the will of God, and obedience to the Lord's command. It is, in fine, the Spirit's work in the soul, by which a man is made like God, and becomes a partaker of the divine nature, being delivered from the corruption which is in the world through lust. No straining, no hacking at the text can alter it. There it stands, whether men like it or not. There are some who, for special reasons best known to themselves, do not like it, just as no thieves ever like policemen or gaols; yet there it stands, and it means no other than what it says: "Without holiness,"—practical, personal, active, vital holiness,—"no man shall see the Lord."

2:34 PM
M. Steve Heartsill said...

Spurgeon was such a smart person!

6:54 PM

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