Quotes on Holiness

I have been reading The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul to take part in Tim Challies' challenge to read the Christian classics.  Although I kept thinking I was going to share the things I've been reading and learning from the book, every week passes and I just never get around to it because of time.  I'm doing well if I actually have the chapter read the day before Tim reviews the chapter on Thursdays.

I realized that even though I don't have time to put all my thoughts down in a post, I could at least share some quotes that spoke to me from the reading.  Here are my favorites from chapter 8, Be Holy Because I Am Holy.

The call to holiness was first given to Adam and Eve.  This was the original assignment of the human race.  We were created in the image of God.  To be God's image meant, among other things, that we were made to mirror and reflect God's character.

The Bible calls us "holy ones."  We are holy because we have been consecrated to God.  We have been set apart.  We have been called to a life that is different.  The Christian life is a life of nonconformity.

The "saints" are called to a rigorous pursuit of the kingdom of God.  They are called to depth in their spiritual understanding.

The key method Paul underscores as the means to the transformed life is by the "renewal of the mind."  This means nothing more and nothing less than education.  Serious education.  In-depth education.  Disciplined education in the things of God.  It calls for a mastery of the Word of God.  We need to be people whose lives have changed because our minds have changed.

To be spiritual has only one real purpose.  It is a means to an end, not the end itself.  The goal of all spiritual exercise must be the goal of righteousness.  God calls us to be holy.  Christ sets the priority of the Christian life:  "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt.6:33).  The goal is righteousness.

 

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