I hear men talk of progressive
sanctification. I am told that God's people grow in holiness and righteousness.
Some men will even dare to assert, "I am holier than thou". They
think that their good works, their piety, their devotion, their prayers, their
meditations and their Bible reading since they professed faith in Christ makes
them more holy, inwardly and outwardly, before God. But it is all a
self-righteous delusion. God says of all such pretenders of piety, "These
are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day." It is true,
God's elect grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We grow
in faith, devotion, submission, and even obedience to Christ. But never in all
the Word of God do I read of a man who trusted Christ claiming to grow in
holiness, purity, or sanctification before God. In fact, the very opposite is
true. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, "Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean lips." When Job had grown the most in grace
and had seen the most of God's glory, he cried, "Behold, I am vile!"
When David had the greatest assurance of God's pardoning grace, he had also the
greatest awareness of his own sin. He said, "I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." When Paul had faithfully
preached the gospel for many years he said, "I know that in me (that is,
in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." When Paul was about to lay down his
life in martyrdom, when he reached a far higher degree of faithfulness and
dedication than anyone I know, he did not call himself the holiest of all
saints, he called himself the chief of all sinners.
Where do you find sanctification? I can tell you
where all of God's saints find it - Christ is our Sanctification. He is all my
righteousness, all my redemption, all my sanctification and all my holiness
before God. Sanctification is not by the works of the flesh any more than
justification is. Sanctification is the work of God's sovereign grace whereby
he has separated us to be holy in Christ by election, declared us to be holy in
Christ by redemption, and made us to be holy in Christ by regeneration.