Reader's Comments on Ryle
Here is a reader's comments on the article on Sanctification by J. C. Ryle
(If you have comments about any article on our website, let us hear from you.)

So, in the first place, he is claiming that sanctification has to be part of salvation, because without it we are not truly saved. Then he makes the point that this sanctification is a work performed by Jesus Christ in a man. Up until this point he is speaking as a man who understands, and agrees with, the concept of the grace of God. 

The fact that sanctification, as you call it, or spiritual growth, as I call it, is part of God's plan for us after salvation cannot be denied. What can be debated is how this growth comes about. Is it the Fruit of the Spirit, or is it the works of man to try to keep himself saved? Galatians 3: 1-3 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Then when he starts out defining "Sanctification", he ties it right back into the fact that our salvation depends on the outward results of our sanctification. In doing this he is bringing Christians right back under bondage and guilt. If I have to show evidence of my sanctification in order to be saved, then how much evidence is enough? What if I fail like David did, does that mean I am condemned because I produced a work of the flesh? What if I struggle like Paul did in Romans 7: 14-25? Paul would fail brother Ryle's test where he argues that a saved man cannot sin. Our Christian lives are a struggle between the our carnal selves and our spiritual selves. 

Now, it is true that our spiritual selves cannot sin, but our carnal selves sure can. A man that denies that is just not being truthful with himself. 1John 1: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The trouble with trying to put the responsibility back on us for our sanctification is that you immediately put us back under bondage and take away all the assurance that God gives us... including the assurance that He will grow us spiritually! Galatians 5: 1  Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Ph. 1: 6 Being confidant of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 

There are many more verses that deal with our freedom from bondage as well as God's responsibility for producing fruit through true believers. This doesn't mean that fruit won't happen, it will, because our faith is in God, not in ourselves. That's why Paul, when he was listing all his accomplishments was quick to add: " Yet not I, but Christ." 

The danger in trying to bring that back to human responsibility, is that you get all kinds of flesh going around pretending to be holy, instead of the truth, which is that sinful human beings are slowly changed by God over our lifetimes. First, He changes us from the inside where a human cannot witness, and then these changes start resulting in outer fruit, which can be seen by others. 

I have been a Christian for 28 years now. I agree that we can make ourselves more available to God by reading His word often, praying without ceasing, fellowshipping with Christian brothers and abiding in Him in every way we discover we can. If we do this, I believe we can grow faster because we are not resisting His work on our behalf. But, having been a Christian that started very slowly, and didn't make myself available to God in many areas of my life... I can testify to you that He did not stop working in me. I do believe He had to use more chastisement on me than on many, but He never abandoned me. In the early years of my Christian experience, brother Ryle would have accused me of not having salvation because he would not have been able to see any significant fruit in me. In fact, he would have seen a lot of the works of my flesh. 

Now, years later, after a lot of suffering and chastisement, he would say that he can see some evidence of Christ in my life. I think it is a lack of faith in God when we demand quick results out of a young Christian. God works slowly, and we have a lifetime of bad habits for Him to clean up. In our efforts to try to motivate a young Christian to do what only God can do, we demoralize him and put him right back under works.

I could say so much more about this, but I have to go. I have been privileged by God to be teaching His word to some Indian tribes high in the mountains down here in Mexico. I go every other week for four days. Please let me hear your thoughts on this matter. In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ed