“You shall be holy, as I am holy.” Such is the divine command cited by the Apostle Peter in his instructions for holiness to the first century church and to believers of all generations (1 Pet. 1:14, citing Lev. 11:44). The human obligation to personal holiness is grounded in the holiness of God. The exceeding sinfulness of sin cannot be understood apart from the perfect holiness of God, and the manner in which humans might become holy is completely obscured when holiness is detached from the character of God. As David Wells pointed out three decades ago, a departure from an understanding of the exceeding sinfulness of sin domesticates sin and replaces the means for its remedy with quaint techniques rather than real repentance.[1] In our age of domesticated sin struggles, the divinely-given means of grace have often been overshadowed by—or completely exchanged for—step-by-step methods of emotional regulation, pronouncements of the priority of self-preservation, and exercises in meditative mindfulness.[2] Such methods may provide some temporal stability to the anxious, addicted, and depressed. But they fail to acknowledge that humans never cease to function as moral-covenantal creatures created in the image of God. Thus, in every struggle, whether against sin or suffering, Christians must ask the question “what does it look like for me to live righteously before a holy God in the midst of my circumstances?” The only avenue for knowing how to live righteously and for being empowered to do it is the various practical avenues of help that God provides for making us like him. In this article, I will briefly lay out a theology of the means of grace for overcoming besetting sin and living a life of practical personal holiness before our perfectly holy God.
1. David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 81–82.
2. Examples of such approaches include sensory processing strategies, strategies for cutting off “toxic people” and promoting self-love and self-acceptance, and strategies for growing in self-attunement. There may be some truth and advantage to aspects of these approaches, but, as this article seeks to show, they have an inherent tendency to orient people toward themselves rather than to God.
Holiness by Grace and Duty
Holiness in the Christian life is produced through the mysterious bond of God’s grace and human duty. When the Christian is united to Christ by his Spirit at the moment of regeneration, this very moment of salvation enters him into a process through which he will be graciously conformed into the image of Christ, a work which God himself will perform (Phil. 1:6). And yet, though progressive conformity into the image of Christ (otherwise known as sanctification) is a gracious work of God, the believer’s confidence in this gracious work must be bound to a dutiful use of the means provided by God through which God produces this gracious work. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” writes the Apostle Paul, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). God works his gracious will in us through our obedience to his commands, “and his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3), meaning that it is for our blessing and joy that we keep them. The means of grace are the channels through which God’s grace flows to believers for their growth in godliness, and through our joyful, obedient use of them God enables us to put our sin to death and live in holiness. Though the means of grace have been divided up differently by theologians throughout the ages, I’ll focus on three particular means clearly provided by God for overcoming besetting sin: meditation on the truth of Scripture, prayer, and fellowship.
Holiness Through Meditating on the Truth of Scripture
Mindfulness—or sustained meditation-like awareness—has become a popularly prescribed method for dealing with the difficulties of life. It is true that intentional attentiveness to one’s thoughts and experiences can be beneficial for taking inventory of personal behavioral tendencies and thought patterns. But mindfulness detached from the moral categories of sin and righteousness, of truth and error, cannot provide any ultimate benefit. The addictive behaviors, persistent anxieties, and deep despondencies that plague modern life must be framed by what is ultimate: God himself. Christian meditation is the biblically prescribed means for intentionally submitting personal experience to God’s perspective.
Christian meditation is what occurs when the mind actively contemplates the truth of Scripture, whether through reading it ourselves, hearing it read aloud in worship, sitting under its preaching or teaching, singing its truth, having it counseled to us, rehearsing what we have memorized, or pondering it as we go about our day. The Bible is the living God’s supernatural revelation of himself to man, and minds are changed by encounters with the living God. Asaph expresses this reality as he reflects on his experience of contemplating the prosperity of the wicked. In Psalm 73:16–17 he writes, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” The world is a wearisome place when we do not relate our experiences to God. God by his grace uses the means of Christian meditation on the truth to transform our minds and make sense of our experience under his sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness. More than that, as his truth transforms our thoughts it also changes our affections. George Swinnock wrote, “We strike fire by meditation to kindle our affections.”[3] As we think God’s thoughts after him, we begin to desire that which he has deemed to be good. As we do, ungodly lusts are transformed into holy longings, unsettling anxieties are transformed into contentment, and deep despondency is transformed into increasing joy. And as thoughts and affections become holy, so also do words and deeds, resulting in a life of increasing practical holiness.
3. George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, in The Works of George Swinnock (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1868), 2:427.
Holiness through Prayer
Alcoholics Anonymous famously requires the acknowledgement of our need for a power greater than ourselves. Such an acceptance of human weakness and finitude is good as far as it goes, but it stops short of recognizing the absolute dependence that humans have upon the triune God in both creation and redemption. Prayer is the means prescribed by God by which we express our dependence upon him and our desire for him to do what only he can do. Furthermore, it is a means through which he works in our lives to bring about his holy will. Paul writes in Philippians 4:6–7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The simple power of these words is too often neglected. In truth, many expositions could not exhaust their depth. These verses confront the human tendency to find peace in objects other than God. We so often look to substances, media, people, and circumstances to find what can ultimately only be found in God. In prayer, we express to God our gratitude for what he has already done for us. He has created and sustained us, and, if we are in Christ, he has redeemed us by no work of our own but through the work of Christ alone and his righteousness reckoned to our account. The expression of gratitude to God for his gracious work is a means which he uses to fill us with satisfaction in him. In prayer we also express our lack to God. If we lack peace, joy, and release from addictive or besetting sins, we can express our weakness and sin to God and plead for his mercy and grace to give us what we need. And even if we struggle to believe that God can or will give us that which we desire, we can confess our lack of confidence and plead with God to increase our faith, as did the man with the demon-possessed son: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Holiness through Fellowship
As Jonathan Haidt has noted in his book, The Anxious Generation, through social media the quantity of social connections that people maintain has increased drastically, but the quality of social connections has simultaneously also drastically decreased.[4] Humans were designed by God as social creatures to function within a sphere of relationships. It is no surprise that, as those relationships become more fractured and less meaningful, struggles with anxiety, depression, and various addictions would also increase. This decreasing quality of social relationships has spilled over into the church, and Christians have also become affected. Christian fellowship in the church is a powerful means for overcoming sin. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 4:15–16, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Though every Christian is commanded to grow in personal holiness, the pursuit of holiness is a corporate effort. As Christians speak the truth to other Christians, they collectively promote one another’s sanctification and aid one another in putting sin to death. This is possible because every true Christian is a part of the mystical body of Christ, connected to their head by the same Spirit who dwells within each of them (Eph. 4:4). Holiness is promoted through Christian fellowship, and when that fellowship is neglected, we are hamstrung in our efforts to be like Christ.
4. Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (New York: Penguin Press, 2024), 168–70.
Conclusion
Christian, do not domesticate your sin struggles through casting off moral categories and failing to view your thoughts, desires, words, and actions in relation to the perfectly holy God. If you are weighed down by besetting sins, the means of grace are an aid to you that no here-today-gone-tomorrow self-help methods can supplant. The means of grace are how you take hold of Christ by faith, looking to him who is our only source of hope, joy, and peace. As we behold Christ by faith through the means of grace, we are conformed progressively into the same image until that day when faith gives way to sight, and we see our Savior face to face (2 Cor. 3:18). So, look to Christ in faith. See in him that which you are not because of the remaining sin within you. But also see in him that which you will become, because he is progressively making you like himself. “But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
