If All My Sins Are Forgiven, Why Pursue Holiness?

00:00:00.000 | Today's question is from a listener to the podcast named Jessica.

00:00:08.160 | She's locked in a debate with her father over the role of personal holiness in the Christian

00:00:12.400 | life.

00:00:13.400 | "Hello Pastor John, I have a hard question and I know you have a great answer for me.

00:00:17.220 | My father believes that when Christ died, he died for all of our sins.

00:00:20.800 | This I agree with, but he concludes this also means that when you have faith and accept

00:00:25.600 | Christ in your heart, you are then free to live however you want to, including being

00:00:31.600 | loose with and living in sin.

00:00:33.960 | I know this is wrong, but I'm having a hard time explaining this to my father.

00:00:38.440 | Can you help articulate this for me from the Bible?"

00:00:42.900 | As Paul concluded the great fifth chapter of Romans, he wrote, "The law came in to increase

00:00:51.640 | the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned

00:01:02.560 | in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ

00:01:12.160 | our Lord."

00:01:13.160 | That's Romans 5, 20 and 21.

00:01:16.080 | Then as soon as he finishes saying that, someone, perhaps having the same view that

00:01:21.320 | your father seems to hold, said, "Well, if grace abounds where sin increases, then

00:01:29.280 | our salvation certainly does not depend on fighting sin.

00:01:32.680 | In fact, let us sin so that grace may abound."

00:01:35.760 | Now, here's Paul's response to this person and perhaps to your father in Romans 6, 1.

00:01:43.960 | He says, "What should we say then?

00:01:46.280 | Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?"

00:01:50.760 | And he says, "By no means."

00:01:52.840 | Now what will Paul give as a reason for why he says, "By no means"?

00:01:58.640 | Will he just say, "Don't continue in sin because you just shouldn't.

00:02:03.720 | It's bad.

00:02:04.960 | It's against God's will.

00:02:06.440 | No, it's not a salvation issue, but just don't do it."

00:02:10.500 | Is that what he's going to say?

00:02:12.360 | Well no.

00:02:13.360 | Here's what he says.

00:02:14.360 | He argues like this, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

00:02:21.080 | By no means.

00:02:22.960 | How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

00:02:28.040 | That's what he says.

00:02:29.480 | So what's the reason that he gives for saying, "Don't go on sinning"?

00:02:34.840 | His reason is, "Dead people don't sin."

00:02:38.800 | How can we who died to sin still live in it?

00:02:41.320 | We can't.

00:02:42.320 | We can't.

00:02:43.320 | We died to sin.

00:02:44.320 | You can't go on practicing sin if you are a Christian and have died with Christ to sin.

00:02:51.720 | So here's the issue that your dad does not seem to be facing.

00:02:56.440 | Of course, when Christ died, he paid the full price for all my sins.

00:03:04.000 | All of them.

00:03:05.160 | There is no condemnation ever, forever, for those who are in Christ Jesus.

00:03:12.880 | Romans 8.1.

00:03:14.280 | But the question is, do those who are in Christ Jesus go on living in sin?

00:03:21.560 | That's the question.

00:03:22.920 | Over and over, the New Testament's answer is, if you go on living in sin, that is, if

00:03:30.720 | sin is your pattern of life and you do not make war on your sin, but instead you make

00:03:38.240 | peace with your sin, you have no warrant to believe that you are in Christ.

00:03:45.120 | This doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation.

00:03:48.360 | It means that your life can show you never had it, even though you looked like you had

00:03:55.140 | it for a time.

00:03:56.520 | That's why John said in 1 John 2.19, "They went out from us because they were not of

00:04:02.560 | us.

00:04:03.760 | For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that

00:04:08.320 | it might be complained that they were not of us."

00:04:11.540 | In other words, those who are truly in Christ persevere in faith and fight their sin and

00:04:18.680 | grow in holiness, and those who walk away into sin never were in Christ.

00:04:24.480 | It also doesn't mean that keeping ourselves saved depends finally on us.

00:04:30.240 | Paul said, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to

00:04:34.800 | completion at the day of Christ."

00:04:36.960 | And he said, "Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of the Lord

00:04:42.040 | Jesus.

00:04:43.040 | God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son."

00:04:47.120 | In other words, we don't keep ourselves saved.

00:04:49.640 | God keeps us saved by the way he works in us, by the Spirit according to his call.

00:04:57.120 | But the pervasive witness of the New Testament is that God keeps us saved through sanctification.

00:05:08.320 | That is, he keeps us by leading us to fight sin and grow in holiness.

00:05:16.120 | That's how he keeps us saved.

00:05:19.520 | Here's the key verse.

00:05:21.360 | 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification

00:05:32.080 | by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

00:05:37.800 | Sanctification—that is, progressive making war on sin, progressive growth in holiness,

00:05:45.120 | leading sin, pursuing righteousness—sanctification is not an add-on to salvation.

00:05:52.240 | It is the way God saves, preserves us, brings us to glory.

00:05:58.320 | Here's the way Paul describes this work in Romans 8:13.

00:06:02.360 | "If you live according to the flesh, you will die.

00:06:06.220 | But if by the Spirit," he's talking to professing Christians, "you will put to

00:06:11.360 | death the deeds of the body, and you will live."

00:06:14.560 | Why?

00:06:15.560 | Because all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

00:06:20.640 | That's how we know we are the sons of God.

00:06:22.840 | We are led by the Spirit.

00:06:25.640 | And where does he lead?

00:06:27.600 | In this text, he leads us into mortal combat with our own sin.

00:06:33.340 | That's the meaning of "lead" in this verse.

00:06:36.160 | If you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, into war,

00:06:43.480 | you will live.

00:06:44.480 | If you don't, you won't live, which means that your dad is very wrong to say that we

00:06:51.000 | can live in sin and still be assured of our salvation.

00:06:57.440 | Holiness is the mark of those who are in Christ.

00:07:02.480 | Here's the way Hebrews 12:14 puts it.

00:07:05.000 | "Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

00:07:13.440 | This is not our imputed righteousness, which we have by union with Christ through faith.

00:07:20.960 | This is the kind of righteousness that you pursue, you strive for.

00:07:26.760 | Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

00:07:31.200 | This strived-for righteousness does not add to the ground of our acceptance.

00:07:39.200 | The righteousness of Christ is the ground.

00:07:42.080 | Rather, it confirms the ground of our acceptance as Jesus Christ and our participation in him

00:07:50.280 | by faith.

00:07:51.280 | That's what 2 Peter 1:9 means when it says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent

00:07:59.160 | to confirm"—there's that word, so important—"to confirm your calling and election.

00:08:07.680 | For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall, because you'll be confirming

00:08:13.880 | that you are in Christ, who is your righteousness."

00:08:16.920 | In other words, sanctification does not save us by replacing our justification.

00:08:24.600 | It saves us by confirming our justification.

00:08:30.160 | As far as I can tell, Jessica, your dad does not believe that our justification by faith

00:08:37.640 | needs to be confirmed with a life of holiness.

00:08:41.960 | He seems not to believe that.

00:08:43.680 | He seems to have ideas about salvation, which both James and John wrote about in their letters.

00:08:51.520 | For example, James said in 2:14, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has

00:08:58.760 | faith but does not have works?

00:09:02.880 | Can that faith save him?

00:09:05.720 | No.

00:09:06.880 | So also faith"—I'm still reading—verse 17, "So also faith by itself, if it does

00:09:15.120 | not have works, is dead."

00:09:19.040 | In other words, the only kind of faith that saves is the kind that leads us to fight sin

00:09:27.600 | and practice the obedience of faith.

00:09:29.720 | Here's the way John said it in his letter.

00:09:32.360 | In fact, I think 1 John was written for your dad, because there are a lot of folks around

00:09:37.720 | like that, and John knew them, and he wrote this first letter, his first letter for them.

00:09:43.000 | He says, chapter 5, verse 18, "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not

00:09:50.280 | keep on sinning."

00:09:52.720 | Doesn't make a practice of sinning.

00:09:54.720 | Doesn't make peace with sinning.

00:09:56.320 | Doesn't have a life of sinning.

00:09:58.480 | First John 3, 6, "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.

00:10:03.440 | No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him."

00:10:08.360 | Chapter 2, verse 3, "By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments."

00:10:15.000 | First John 3, 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the

00:10:21.560 | brothers.

00:10:22.560 | Whoever does not love abides in death."

00:10:25.920 | So Jessica, the way I suggest that you say it to yourself, to your dad, is, "We are justified

00:10:35.080 | by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone.

00:10:41.960 | It causes us to hate sin and to fight it."

00:10:45.920 | So our holiness confirms that we are truly justified, truly in Christ.

00:10:55.160 | Confirmation does not replace justification.

00:10:59.480 | It confirms it.

00:11:01.280 | And that confirmation is necessary, not optional.

00:11:06.760 | Pursue the holiness.

00:11:09.320 | You might even plead this with your dad, as we all plead it to our own souls.

00:11:15.840 | Pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

00:11:21.640 | Do that in the power of the Spirit on the basis of God's love through Christ.

00:11:28.240 | Excellent.

00:11:29.240 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:30.960 | And thank you for writing in, Jessica.

00:11:33.120 | You can ask a question of your own.

00:11:34.560 | You can search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast.

00:11:37.080 | You can do all of that at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:11:42.360 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.

00:11:44.200 | Lord willing, we will be back on Wednesday.

00:11:46.320 | We'll see you then.

00:11:46.920 | [END]

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00:11:53.440 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

If All My Sins Are Forgiven, Why Pursue Holiness?

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