Paul summarizes the Christian life in these words: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God” (II Corinthians 7:1).

Notice how the sequence begins with the “promises” of God: before we were born, and indeed before time began, God was already making promises on our behalf: promises regarding gifts of purpose, grace, forgiveness, and restoration, promises which would all be accomplished in the incarnation and life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Only after all that do we come to the step where we recognize and acknowledge what God has done: with gratitude for these promises, we take action to root everything bad out of our lives – making holiness perfect!? – because of our trembling reverence, our “fear of God.”

There are two common ways of getting this wrong. The first is to say that God loves and saves the good people, those whose virtuous lives earn them a spot in heaven: good works lead to salvation. The second is to say that since God saves sinners out of sheer grace, there’s no reason to try to be good. (WH Auden captured this second attitude well in his play “For the Time Being” by having a crook say, “I like committing crimes. God likes forgiving them. Really the world is admirably arranged.”)

But both of these ideas are wrong. Good works are not the cause of salvation (that is, we will never earn our way to heaven by being good enough). Yet good works are not unconnected to salvation (that is, I’m not given permission to continue in sin that grace may abound). Instead, good works are the effect of salvation. God’s action in saving us comes first; our response comes second. Because of God’s promises made and fulfilled, let us respond with active heartfelt gratitude, living out our thanksgiving by repentance and holiness.

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We are hesitant – or maybe resistant – about the idea of holiness, O Lord: and the idea of complete sanctification seems astonishing to us. Yet what if we were to decide that we really do want to live as your saints, just because we love you so much, because you have poured out your grace to us so richly? Help us to set our hearts to do that, today.

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