# “Believers can and will become holy because in Christ they are holy” by Herman Bavinck

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2021/08/06/believers-can-and-will-become-holy-because-in-christ-they-are-holy-by-herman-bavinck/
- Published: 2021-08-06T12:00:49-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Naturally, God is the Almighty One, and He could, had He wanted to, have perfectly
sanctified all His children in the moment of regeneration. But that apparently was
not His will; in the recreation He does not deny Himself as Creator.

All the life of the creature is born, grows up, and only gradually reaches its maturity.
Because the spiritual life is actually life it comes to be and it develops in this
same way.

God does not inject the righteousness and holiness of Christ into us mechanically,
or pour it out as one does water into a vessel, but He works it out in us in an 
organic way. Hence the one detail does not conflict with the other when the Scripture
constantly presents the matter as though the believers must become that which they
are.

The kingdom of heaven is a gift of God (**Luke 12:32**) and yet it is a treasure
of great worth which must be sought after (**Matt. 6:33** and **13:46**). The believers
are the branches of the vine, and they can, accordingly, do nothing without Christ,
and yet they are told in His word to remain in Him, in His word, and in His love(**
John 15:1ff**).

They were elected in Christ from before the foundation of the world, and yet they
must be diligent to make their calling and their election sure (**Eph. 1:4** and**
2 Peter 1:10**). They have been sanctified by the one sacrifice of Christ, and must
nevertheless follow after sanctification, without which no man shall see the Lord(**
Heb. 10:10** and **12:14**).

They are complete, and nevertheless require constant perfecting and establishment(**
Col. 2:10** and **1 Peter 5:10**). They have put on the new man, and must nevertheless
constantly put him on (**Eph. 4:24** and **Col. 3:10**).

They have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, and must nevertheless
still mortify their members which are upon the earth (**Gal. 5:24** and **Col. 3:
5**). It is God who works in them both to will and to do according to His good pleasure,
and yet they must work out their salvation with fear and trembling (**Phil. 2:12–
13**).

These data do not conflict with each other. The one is simply the ground and guarantee
of the other. Because sanctification, like the whole of salvation, is the work of
God, we are admonished, obliged, to a new obedience, and we are also qualified for
it.

He grants abundant grace not that we should instantly or suddenly be holy and continue
to rest in this holiness, but that we should persevere in the struggle and remain
standing.

He hears our prayers but does it in accordance with the law and order which He has
fixed for the spiritual life. Hence we are always of good courage, for He who has
begun a good work in us will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.

The believers can and they will _become_ holy because in Christ they _are_ holy.”

–Herman Bavinck, [_The Wonderful Works of God_ ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733627227?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 484-
485.

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