Sunday, August 21

The only way to be holy

Just as we are justified by Christ’s righteousness worked out by Him and imputed to us, so we are sanctified by holiness accomplished in Christ, then imparted to us. As our corruption was produced in the first Adam, then passed on to us, so our holiness is first produced in Christ, then passed on to us. We don’t actually work with Christ in producing holiness, but we receive holiness from Christ. We put holiness into practice by using what we already received from Christ.… The only way to be holy is to receive a new nature out of the fullness of Christ, then practice holiness out of Christ’s holiness.

— Joel Beeke, Introduction
Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification
(Grand Rapids, Mi.: Reformation Heritage Books, 1999), x