Holiness by Ryle


Bishop JC Ryle on Holiness for Forum 3 , Advent 4

 

  John Charles Ryle was one of the greatest of the Victorian evangelicals.  CH Spurgeon, the noblest of the Baptists called him “ the best man in the Church of England.”  A deep conversion at the age of 21 along with family poverty, the death of two wives gave him a measure of authority when he spoke Christ’s power to meet human need.  He upheld the reformation doctrine of grace as found in the 39 articles, he commended the English reformers. He was a minister of the gospel in the church of England for 40 years before being appointed as the first Bishop of Liverpool in 1880.  ( all from Holiness,  evangelical press, 1979---Ryle’s other works include Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, The True Christian, A Call to Prayer, and A New Birth and Practical Religion.)

 

Ryle says in the introduction that “ practical holiness and entire self-consecration to God are not sufficiently attend to by modern Christians…politics, or controvery, or party spirit, or worldliness, have eaten the heart of lively piety in too many of us.”  We have neglected the “ immense importance of ‘ adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour ‘ Titus 2:10 and making it lovely and beautiful by our daily habits and tempers.”

 

“ Sound Protestant and evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life.  It is worse than useless: it does positive harm.”

 

“ Faith in Christ is the root of all holiness; that the first step towards a holy life is to believe on Christ; that until we believe we have not a jot of holiness…the life that we live in the flesh we must live by the faith of the Son of God; that faith purifies the heart; that faith is the victory which overcomes the world.”

 

This takes “ personal exertion as well as faith.”  Gal 2:20; I Cor 9:26; Heb 4:11; 12:1 “ True holiness does not consist merely of believing and feeling, but of doing and bearing…our tongues, our tempers, our natural passions and inclinations.

 

I John 3:4 “ Sin is the transgression of the law”  “ The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity.”  The 9th articles of our church says, “ the fault and corruption of the nature of every man …of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth alway against the Spirit; and therefore in every person born into the world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation.”  “ Sin in short is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human race.”  There are sins of omission as well as commission as the “ Prayer Book justly reminds us by ‘ leaving undone the things we ought to do’ and ‘ doing the things which we ought not to do.’  Mt 25:41,42  Holy Archbishop Usher just before he died said, “ Lord forgive me all my sins, and specially my sins of omission.’

 

The sin of man begins from within….from Adam, Romans 5:12; Gen 6:5 ; Jer 17:9…and it runs “through every part of our moral constitution…”

 

“ Holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord.” Heb 12:14

1. “ being of one mind with God….hating what He hates, loving what He loves”

2.  “ a holy man will endeavour to shun every known sin, and to keep every known commandment”  Ro. 7:22  ; Ps 119:128

3.  a holy man will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.” He will not only live the life of faith in Him, and draw from Him all his daily peace and strength, but will also labour to be conformed to Him. “ Ro. 8:29  He will bear with others and forgive others, even as Christ forgave us…

4. A holy man will follow after meekness, longsuffering, gentleness, patience, kind tempers, government of his tongue.  Num 12:3 ex of Moses

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