Today's question is from a listener to the podcast named Jessica. She's locked in a debate with her father over the role of personal holiness in the Christian life. "Hello Pastor John, I have a hard question and I know you have a great answer for me. My father believes that when Christ died, he died for all of our sins.

This I agree with, but he concludes this also means that when you have faith and accept Christ in your heart, you are then free to live however you want to, including being loose with and living in sin. I know this is wrong, but I'm having a hard time explaining this to my father.

Can you help articulate this for me from the Bible?" As Paul concluded the great fifth chapter of Romans, he wrote, "The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." That's Romans 5, 20 and 21.

Then as soon as he finishes saying that, someone, perhaps having the same view that your father seems to hold, said, "Well, if grace abounds where sin increases, then our salvation certainly does not depend on fighting sin. In fact, let us sin so that grace may abound." Now, here's Paul's response to this person and perhaps to your father in Romans 6, 1.

He says, "What should we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" And he says, "By no means." Now what will Paul give as a reason for why he says, "By no means"? Will he just say, "Don't continue in sin because you just shouldn't. It's bad.

It's against God's will. No, it's not a salvation issue, but just don't do it." Is that what he's going to say? Well no. Here's what he says. He argues like this, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?" That's what he says.

So what's the reason that he gives for saying, "Don't go on sinning"? His reason is, "Dead people don't sin." How can we who died to sin still live in it? We can't. We can't. We died to sin. You can't go on practicing sin if you are a Christian and have died with Christ to sin.

So here's the issue that your dad does not seem to be facing. Of course, when Christ died, he paid the full price for all my sins. All of them. There is no condemnation ever, forever, for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.1. But the question is, do those who are in Christ Jesus go on living in sin?

That's the question. Over and over, the New Testament's answer is, if you go on living in sin, that is, if sin is your pattern of life and you do not make war on your sin, but instead you make peace with your sin, you have no warrant to believe that you are in Christ.

This doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation. It means that your life can show you never had it, even though you looked like you had it for a time. That's why John said in 1 John 2.19, "They went out from us because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be complained that they were not of us." In other words, those who are truly in Christ persevere in faith and fight their sin and grow in holiness, and those who walk away into sin never were in Christ.

It also doesn't mean that keeping ourselves saved depends finally on us. Paul said, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ." And he said, "Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son." In other words, we don't keep ourselves saved. God keeps us saved by the way he works in us, by the Spirit according to his call. But the pervasive witness of the New Testament is that God keeps us saved through sanctification.

That is, he keeps us by leading us to fight sin and grow in holiness. That's how he keeps us saved. Here's the key verse. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. Sanctification—that is, progressive making war on sin, progressive growth in holiness, leading sin, pursuing righteousness—sanctification is not an add-on to salvation.

It is the way God saves, preserves us, brings us to glory. Here's the way Paul describes this work in Romans 8:13. "If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit," he's talking to professing Christians, "you will put to death the deeds of the body, and you will live." Why?

Because all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. That's how we know we are the sons of God. We are led by the Spirit. And where does he lead? In this text, he leads us into mortal combat with our own sin. That's the meaning of "lead" in this verse.

If you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, into war, you will live. If you don't, you won't live, which means that your dad is very wrong to say that we can live in sin and still be assured of our salvation.

Holiness is the mark of those who are in Christ. Here's the way Hebrews 12:14 puts it. "Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." This is not our imputed righteousness, which we have by union with Christ through faith. This is the kind of righteousness that you pursue, you strive for.

Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This strived-for righteousness does not add to the ground of our acceptance. The righteousness of Christ is the ground. Rather, it confirms the ground of our acceptance as Jesus Christ and our participation in him by faith. That's what 2 Peter 1:9 means when it says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm"—there's that word, so important—"to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall, because you'll be confirming that you are in Christ, who is your righteousness." In other words, sanctification does not save us by replacing our justification. It saves us by confirming our justification. As far as I can tell, Jessica, your dad does not believe that our justification by faith needs to be confirmed with a life of holiness.

He seems not to believe that. He seems to have ideas about salvation, which both James and John wrote about in their letters. For example, James said in 2:14, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

No. So also faith"—I'm still reading—verse 17, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." In other words, the only kind of faith that saves is the kind that leads us to fight sin and practice the obedience of faith. Here's the way John said it in his letter.

In fact, I think 1 John was written for your dad, because there are a lot of folks around like that, and John knew them, and he wrote this first letter, his first letter for them. He says, chapter 5, verse 18, "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning." Doesn't make a practice of sinning.

Doesn't make peace with sinning. Doesn't have a life of sinning. First John 3, 6, "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." Chapter 2, verse 3, "By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments." First John 3, 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death." So Jessica, the way I suggest that you say it to yourself, to your dad, is, "We are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It causes us to hate sin and to fight it." So our holiness confirms that we are truly justified, truly in Christ.

Confirmation does not replace justification. It confirms it. And that confirmation is necessary, not optional. Pursue the holiness. You might even plead this with your dad, as we all plead it to our own souls. Pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Do that in the power of the Spirit on the basis of God's love through Christ.

Excellent. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for writing in, Jessica. You can ask a question of your own. You can search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast. You can do all of that at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. I am your host, Tony Reinke. Lord willing, we will be back on Wednesday.

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