Holiness is proof of God’s sovereign plan

When the objection is made that sovereign grace is going to inhibit motivation for the hard work of sanctification, Paul’s answer is, Well, no—we have been sovereignly saved to that very thing. And the motivation is, in fact, not to be a cringing, servile fear, but a grateful desire to please him and to realize that this is what we are saved to. Holiness is the mark of the elect. On the one hand, that means we need to emphasize that if you believe that you are a saved person—if you say, Yes, I am elect; I have professed faith in Jesus Christ—well, the proof of that (and it is important for us to have proof of an important matter like salvation) is nothing less than holiness. We are saved through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. But whether or not that faith is real will be shown by our fruits. By their fruits you will know them, Jesus says.

And so, if you and I claim to be in Christ, and yet there is nothing of holiness going on in our lives—we are not even being challenged or pursuing it in any way—well, the Bible would tell us that we should not consider ourselves to be people who belong to this sovereign God. Greg Beale says this: Those who are not breaking off their former pagan ways of living should not be considered Christians, and should certainly not be given assurance that their faith is genuine. … The spirit of our age says, Let’s count them saved as soon as we can. So they raise their hand, they engage, and they walk down the aisle, they say a prayer, and we immediately tell them, Oh, because you did this action—this external action—you are going to heaven. What we need to say biblically is, Praise God for your profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The truth of it will be seen as you now pursue holiness in the power of God’s grace. And so that is an important mark of our election.

But the flip side is also true. You see, here is the question I ask: How can I really expect to have victory over sin? I know how weak I am. I know all too well how comfortable, in fact, I am with the world, that I do not really have, of my own, a great desire to suffer for Christ, and particularly by not engaging in those sins that have been so pleasurable to me in the past. Now, how does the sovereignty of God help me? Because I open my Bible and I see that God has a sovereign plan for me. He has called me—and you—to holiness. You are going to be holy. You are not only called to something higher, but it is going to happen. And I say, Well, let me apply myself to it. God has sovereignly willed that I would be holy. Well maybe—in fact, certainly—I can expect that I will be. And it motivates me to be more bold and active and energetic in my sanctification. Thank God that it is God’s will for me that I will be holy.¹

Richard D. Phillips