Sue’s Reviews > The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness > Status Update

To be conformed to the likeness of Christ and to share in God's holiness are equivalent expressions. That is the highest good to which the believer can aspire...All pain we experience is intended to move us closer to the goal of being holy as He is holy.

God's ways, being infinitely higher than our ways, will usually remain a mystery to us.

The solution to staying on the right side of the fine line between using and abusing grace is repentance. The road to repentance is godly sorrow. Godly sorrow is developed when we focus on the true nature of sin as an offense against
God rather than something that makes us feel guilty...Dwelling on the true nature of sin leads us to godly sorrow, which in turn leads us to repentance.

Without a purpose to obey all of God's Word, isolated attempts to mortify a particular sin are of no avail. An attitude of universal obedience in every area of life is essential.

Without a purpose to obey all of God's Word, isolated attempts to mortify a particular sin are of no avail. An attitude of universal obedience in every area of life is essential.

But all of these principles and means of spiritual growth find their ultimate fulfillment only when we obey God's commandments one choice at a time. And as we obey one choice at a time, our righteous actions lead to holy character.

Do we search God's Word as if we were really seeking for hidden treasures, or do we read it and study it only because we. know it is something we should do?...When we approach Bible study as an academic subject, we become proud over our superior knowledge of biblical truth rather than humbled over our lack of obedience to what Scripture teaches.

Thinking is our most constant activity...we must be alert for those times during the day when we can turn our minds to the Word of God, and then we must do it.

So, an all-out, unreserved, nothing-held-back commitment to the pursuit of holiness may be exhausting, but it will not be oppressive if it is grounded in grace...in reliance on His Spirit that by His grace He will enable you to carry out your commitment.

One reason we do not see more progress in holiness in our lives is because we have, for the most part, lost sight of the necessity of commitment... We need to work at ensuring that our commitment to holiness is a commitment to God, not to our own self-esteem.