The cultivation of holiness will inevitably meet with numerous ob­stacles. Much impedes holiness. Five common problems against which we need to be on guard are these:

1. Our attitude to sin and life itself is prone to be more self-centered than God-centered. We are often more con­cerned about the consequences of sin or victory over sin than about how our sins grieve God. Positive conse­quences and victory then wrongly be­come by-products of obedience and holiness. The cultivation of holiness necessitates hating sin as God hates sin. Holiness is not merely loving God and our neighbor; it also involves ha­tred. The hatred of sin is of the es­sence of holiness. Those who love God hate sin (Prov. 8:36). We must cultivate an attitude of viewing sin as always being preeminently against God (Ps. 51:4).¹

Low and distorted views of sin reap low and distorted views of holi­ness. "Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption," J. C. Ryle asserted. "If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul's diseases, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect reme­dies."²Cultivating holiness demands a rejection of the pride of life and the lusts of the flesh as well as the prayer, "Give me the single eye, Thy Name to glorify" (Psalter 236, stanza 2).

We fail when we do not consciously live with our priorities centered on God's Word, will, and glory. In the words of the Scottish theologian, John Brown, "Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fer­yours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."³

2. Our progress is hindered when we misunderstand "living by faith" (Gal. 2:20) to imply that no effort towards holiness is commanded of us. Some­times we are even prone to consider human effort sinful or "fleshly" Bishop Ryle provides us with a corrective here:

Is it wise to proclaim in so bald, naked, and unqualified a way as many do, that the holiness of con­verted people is by faith only, and not at all by personal exertion? Is this according to the proportion of God's Word? I doubt it. That faith in Christ is the root of all holiness no well-in­structed Christian will ever think of denying. But surely the Scriptures teach us that in following holiness the true Christian needs personal ex­ertion and work as well as faith.⁴

We are responsible for holiness. Whose fault is it but our own if we are not holy? As Ralph Erskine counsels, we need to implement the fight-or-flight attitude with regard to sinful temptations. And sometimes we simply need to heed Peter's plain injunction, "Dearly be­loved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Pet. 2:11). Abstain — often it is that simple.

If you have put off the old man and put on the new (Eph. 4:22-32), live accordingly (Col. 3:9-10). Mortify your members (i.e. unholy habits) and seek those things which are above (Col. 3:1-5) — not as a form of legal­ism, but as a repercussion of divine blessing (Col. 2:9-23).⁵

Make a cove­nant with your eyes and feet and hands to turn from iniquity (Job 31:1). Look the other way; walk the opposite way. Put away uncontrolled anger, gossip, and bitterness. Put sin to death (Rom. 8:13) by the blood of Christ. "Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin," wrote Owen, "and thou wilt ...live to see thy lust dead at thy feet."⁶

3. On the other hand, we fail miserably when we take pride in our holiness and think that our exertions can somehow produce holiness apart from faith. From beginning to end holiness is the work of God and His free grace (Westmin­ster Confession of Faith, Chapter 13). As Richard Sibbes maintained, "By grace we are what we are in justifica­tion, and work what we work in sanc­tification."⁷ Holiness is not partially God's work and partially our work. Holiness manufactured by our heart is not holiness after God's heart. All working out of the Christian life on our part is the fruit of God working in us and through us: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trem­bling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13). "The regen­erate have a spiritual nature within that fits them for holy action, other­wise there would be no difference between them and the unregenerate," wrote A. W. Pink;⁸⁸nevertheless, self-sanctification, strictly speaking, is non-existent.⁹ "We do good works, but not to merit by them (for what can we merit?), nay, we are beholden to God for the good works we do, and not He to us" (Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24). As Calvin explained, "Holiness is not a merit by which we can attain communion with God, but a gift of Christ which enables us to cling to him and to follow him."¹⁰ John Murray put it this way: "God's working in us is not suspended be­cause we work, nor our working sus­pended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of coopera­tion as if God did his part and we did ours.... God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work.¹¹

And every virtue we possess,
And every conquest won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone.

Kenneth Prior warns: "There is a sub­tle danger of speaking of sanctification as essentially coming from our own effort or initiative. We can unconsciously do this even while acknow­ledging our need for the power of the Holy Spirit, by making the operation of that power dependent upon our surrender and consecration."¹²

Our dependence on God for holi­ness ought to humble us. Holiness and humility are inseparable.¹³¹³ Not least of what they have in common is that neither one recognizes itself. The most holy complain of their im­purity; the most humble, of their pride. Those of us who are called to be teachers and examples of holiness must beware of subtle and insidious pride working its way into our sup­posed holiness.

Holiness is greatly impeded by any number of wrong views of holiness in its relation to humility; for exam­ple: (1) As soon as we think, speak, or act as if our own holiness will some­how suffice us, without being clothed upon with Christ's humility, we are already enveloped by spiritual pride. (2) When we begin to feel compla­cent with our holiness, we may be sure we are far from both holiness and humility. (3) When self-abase­ment is lacking, holiness is lacking. (4) When self-abasement does not make us to flee to Christ and His holiness for refuge, holiness is lack­ing. (5) Without a dependent life on Christ, we shall possess no holiness.

4. Embracing unscriptural, erroneous views about holiness can greatly impede our holiness. The need to experience "the second blessing," an earnest search for our own special gift of the Spirit or to exercise various charismatic gifts such as speaking in tongues or faith healing, and the acceptance of Jesus as Savior but not as Lord — these are but a few of the many erroneous inter­pretations of Scripture that can skew a proper understanding of Biblical ho­liness in our personal lives. Though addressing these issues lies beyond the scope of this article, allow me to quote three summary statements. Concerning the first error mentioned above, H. Ironside quips: "Far from being 'the second blessing,' subsequent to justification, [holiness] is a work apart from which none ever would be saved."¹⁴ Or, to put it another way: It is not just the second blessing that the believer needs, but he needs a second blessing, as well as a third and fourth and fifth — yes, he needs the continual blessing of the Holy Spirit in order to progress in holiness so that Christ may increase and he may decrease On. 3:30). Concerning the second error men­tioned above, John Stott wisely com­ments that "when Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they were not lacking in spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 1:7), he makes it clear that the evidence of the Spirit's fullness is not the exercise of His gifts (of which they had plenty), but the ripening of His fruit (of which they had little)."¹⁵And with regard to the third error of separating the Savior from His lordship, the Heidelberg Catechism provides a summary corrective in Ques­tion 30: "One of these two things must be true, that either Jesus is not a complete Savior or that they, who by a true faith receive this Savior, must find all things in Him necessary to their salvation."

5. We are prone to shirk the battle of daily spiritual warfare. No one likes war. The believer is often blind himself to his real enemies — to a subtle Satan, to a tempting world, and especially to the reality of his own ongoing pollution which Paul so poignantly expresses in Romans 7:14-25. To be holy among the holy takes grace; to be holy among the unholy is great grace. Maintaining per­sonal holiness in an unholy world with a heart prone to backslide necessitates a perpetual fight. It will involve conflict, holy warfare, struggle against Satan, a battle between the flesh and the spirit (Gal. 5:17). A believer not only has peace of conscience, but also war within (Rom. 7:24 to 8:1). As Samuel Rutherford as­serts, "The devil's war is better than the devil's peace "¹⁶ Hence the remedies of Christ's holiness (Heb. 7:25-28) and of His Spirit-supplied Christian armor (Eph. 6:10-20) are ignored at our peril. True holiness must be pursued against the backdrop of an acute awareness of indwelling sin which continues to live in our hearts and to deceive our un­derstanding. The holy man, unlike oth­ers, is never at peace with indwelling sin. Though he may backslide far, he will again be humbled and ashamed because of his sin.