The elect will not exhibit a concious pattern of sin

January 12, 2008

In his commentary on Ephesian, R. Kent Hughes shares this on the elect.

… the telltale evidence (not the cause) of one’s election is holiness. Harold Ockenga, pastor of Park Street Church and founding president of Fuller Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Seminary, put it in no uncertain terms:

If God has elected us He has not elected us to remain sinners but to become holy. It is an anomaly or an error to speak of the elect living in sin. God never chose us to continue in sin. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Therefore, the test of our election is the holiness of our lives. Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” We out not to delude ourselves into believing that we belong to the elect of God if we are not living holy lives before Him. . . . The proof of this is that we become holy, that we approximate the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus John was able to say, “Whosoever sinneth hath not see him, neither know him. . . . He that committeth sin is of the devil. . . . Wosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin.”

If your life is characterized by a pattern of conscious sin, you very likely are not a Christian.

Posted in Bible, Book, Book Review, Commentary, Crossway, Doctrine, Election, R. Kent Hughes, Salvation