June 12, 2011

• Can holiness save us?

  Can holiness save us? Can holiness
  put away sin, make satisfaction for transgressions,
  pay our debt to God? No, not a
  whit. God forbid that I should ever say so.
  Holiness can do none of these things. The
  brightest saints are all ‘unprofitable servants.’
  Our purest works are not better
  than filthy rags, when tried by the light of
  God’s holy law. The white robe, which
  Jesus offers and faith puts on, must be our
  only righteousness, the name of Christ our
  only confidence, the Lamb’s book of life
  our only title to heaven. With all our holiness
  we are no better than sinners. Our
  best things are stained and tainted with
  imperfection. They are all more or less
  incomplete, wrong in the motive or defective
  in the performance. ‘By grace are ye saved
  through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is
  the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
  should boast’ (Eph 2:8,9).6
  — J.C. Ryle

  • 11:42 pm
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