Our Pursuit of Holiness

Arise at once and press on to pursue holiness and don’t stop till you’ve won the prize.

January’s Awakening, Day 20

Christian holiness is not a matter of painstaking conformity to the individual precepts of an external law code; it is rather a question of the Holy Spirit’s producing His fruit in the life, reproducing those graces which were seen in perfection in the life of Christ.

 —F. F. Bruce

The pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part.

 —Jerry Bridges

It matters but little whether this eminent state of holiness be gained by a bold, energetic, and determined exercise of faith and prayer, or by a more gradual process—whether it be instantaneous or gradual, or both the one and the other. The great matter is, with each and all of us, that we lose no time, but arise at once, and “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

 —Thomas N. Ralston

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22–25 NIV

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12–14 NIV

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV  

            The Ten Commandments were given to us to show us what sin is. But holiness is so much more than that—it goes way beyond our actions and our words to every thought manifesting in our minds. As believers, thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us in every thought, word, and deed. Yet the difficult part is that it is a fully cooperative effort between our old self and our new life in Christ, in agreement with the directive of the Holy Spirit. We are admonished to continually forget the old self and put on the new—manifesting in increasing fashion the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are not growing exponentially in these attributes, then we are not living in the Spirit but living in our old flesh, and hence, we are still drowning in our sin and not swimming to reach His holiness shore.