“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
Alas, what searching, sifting words are these! What thoughts come across my mind, as I write them down! I look at the world, and see the greater part of it lying in wickedness. I look at professing Christians, and see the vast majority having nothing of Christianity but the name. I turn to the Bible, and I hear the Spirit saying, ‘Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.’ Surely it is a text that ought to make us consider our ways, and search our hearts. Surely it should raise within us solemn thoughts, and send us to prayer.
You may try to put me off by saying ‘you feel much, and think much about these things: far more than many suppose.’ I answer, ‘This is not the point. The poor lost souls in hell do as much as this. The great question is not what you think, and what you feel, but what you DO.’
You may say, ‘It was never meant that all Christians should be holy, and that holiness, such as I have described, is only for great saints, and people of uncommon gift. I answer, ‘I cannot see that in Scripture. I read that every man who hath hope in Christ purifieth himself’ (1 John 3:3) — ‘Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.’ You may say, “It is impossible to be so holy and to do our duty in this life at the same time: the thing cannot be done.” I answer, “You are mistaken. It can be done. With Christ on your side nothing is impossible. It has been done by many. David, and Obadiah, and Daniel, and the servants of Nero’s household, are all examples that go to prove it.”
You may say, ‘If I were so holy I would be unlike other people.’ I answer, ‘I know it well. It is just what you ought to be. Christ’s true servants always were unlike the world around them — a separate nation, a peculiar people; — and you must be so too, if you would be saved!’
You may say, ‘At this rate very few will be saved. I answer, ‘I know it. It is precisely what we are told in the Sermon on the Mount.’ The Lord Jesus said so 1,900 years ago. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). Few will be saved, because few will take the trouble to seek salvation. Men will not deny themselves the pleasures of sin and their own way for a little season. They turn their backs on an ‘inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.’ ‘Ye will not come unto Me,’ says Jesus, ‘that ye might have life’ (John 5:40).
You may say, ‘These are hard sayings: the way is very narrow.’ I answer, ‘I know it. So says the Sermon on the Mount.’ The Lord Jesus said so 1,900 years ago. He always said that men must take up the cross daily, and that they must be ready to cut off hand or foot, if they would be His disciples. It is in religion as it is in other things, “there are no gains without pains.”
That which costs nothing is worth nothing.
Whatever we may think fit to say, we must be holy, if we would see the Lord.”
That great divine, John Owen, the Dean of Christ Church, used to say, more than two hundred years ago, that there were people whose whole religion seemed to consist in going about complaining of their own corruptions, and telling everyone that they could do nothing of themselves. I am afraid that after two centuries the same thing might be said with truth of some of Christ’s professing people in this day. I know there are texts in Scripture which warrant such complaints. I do not object to them when they come from men who walk in the steps of the Apostle Paul, and fight a good fight, as he did, against sin, the devil, and the world. But I never like such complaints when I see ground for suspecting, as I often do, that they are only a cloak to cover spiritual laziness, and an excuse for spiritual sloth. If we say with Paul, ‘O wretched man that I am,’ let us also be able to say with him, ‘I press toward the mark.’ Let us not quote his example in one thing, while we do not follow him in another” (Rom. 7:24; Phil. 3:14).
“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
-J.C. Ryle
http://www.ncfic.org/articlemodule/view_article/id/46/src/@random49598ead4a15d/
"You may say, ‘At this rate very few will be saved. I answer, ‘I know it. It is precisely what we are told in the Sermon on the Mount.’ The Lord Jesus said so 1,900 years ago. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14)."
ReplyDeleteOne does not want to be carried away by the idea that few will be saved; for the scripture also teaches that all nations shall become Christ's disciples, for that is the very mission of the church (Matt 28:18). And I do not know if that was how the author meant it or not, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
J.C Ryle does make some excellent points here though.