Dear Amy,
Are you holy?
Why do I dare to ask such a confronting question? In fact it’s not my own. The question belongs to J.C. Ryle, and was first asked in 1887.
For one thing, let me ask everyone who may read these pages, Are you holy?
I do not ask whether you attend church regularly, whether you have been baptized and receive the Lord’s Supper, or whether you call yourself a Christian; I ask something more than this: Are you holy, or are you not?
I do not ask … whether you want to be holy and hope you will be holy some day. I ask something more than this: Are you yourself holy this very day, or are you not?
Why do I ask so directly and so strongly? I do it because the Bible says that without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness, Chapter 3
It is an uncomfortable question to be sure but a vital one, and one which I ask myself from time to time. There is enormous value in asking this question. Why is that? Not only because our personal holiness is so important, but because the question itself shows us the way to holiness.
How can such a question show the way? Simply because when I ask this of myself, certain things may suddenly and vividly spring into the forefront of my mind⸺things in my life that seek to deny that I am holy. What a revelation! These are precisely the things that need to be purged from my life, biffed out, put to death. Or things not in my life that need to be. Those must come in.
So, am I holy?
What a remarkably simple and straightforward and practical way to know how to live a holy life, don’t you think?
Ryle is quoting here from the letter to the Hebrews, just after the cloud of witnesses and running with perseverance and the Lord’s discipline of his sons and daughters.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
― Hebrews 12:12-14
Beware the pernicious lie that lurks in our subconscious which we must deal with⸺that living with such holiness is entirely beyond us, and it is unrealistic to aspire to such a thing. Repudiate the lie! It is Satan’s utmost desire that we swallow it. Jesus warns us.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
― John 8:44
What then is the truth? Paul tells us.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
― Ephesians 1:3-4
Each one of us was chosen by our Heavenly Father before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. He is ambitious to achieve his plans and purposes for and in each one of us! Praise him!
Pursue that holiness, Amy, with steadfast faithfulness and determination, so you may answer that question with a joyous and resounding yes! 🙏