Part 24 of 31 from "Christ our Righteousness".
By Carl Oluf Rosenius.
(1816-1868)
Translated from ekris.net
“But now that you have been set free from sin - the benefit you reap leads to holiness.” (Romans 6: 22)
The righteousness from God with all that belongs to it: freedom from sin, law, anger, eternal death etc. is something which is finished and closed, something which is completed. But the sanctification – the work of the Spirit in us – and all that results from it: faith, love, piety – is something which isn’t closed and completed. That is something which takes place continuously.
If you ask how great a holiness you must have in order to be pardoned and saved, then the answer is quite clear: You don’t need any. You must first be pardoned, saved, and emancipated from the sin, before the true holiness can begin with you.
But if you ask how great the holiness and fruit of the faith must be, which will prove that the faith is genuine, then the word says: “The benefit you reap leads to holiness.” Because where the faith is living and true, it will always be accompanied by a new and holy disposition, or what the Scripture calls: a clean heart and a quite new life.
This new spiritual life isn’t the work of man himself. It comes because of the fact that we get a share in the divine nature, and this nature is so delicate and clean that it instantly reacts against all sin. A Christian can, for that reason, never do anything which is deliberate sin without suffering for it, fighting against it, and wanting that he was rid of both the sin and the temptation.
Translation Gert Gravgaard
