Hebrews 12:14 ‘Pursue…holiness, for without it no one will see the Lord.’

‘There is no imagination wherewith man is besotted, more foolish, none so pernicious, as this – that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in their life, should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. Neither can such persons enjoy God, nor would God be a reward to them. Holiness is indeed perfected in heaven: but the beginning of it is invariably confined to this world’ (John Owen).

‘Sanctification is a qualification indispensably necessary unto them who will be under the conduct of the Lord Christ unto salvation; he will lead none to heaven but whom he sanctifies on the earth. The holy God will not receive unholy persons; this living head will not admit of dead members, nor bring men into the possession of a glory which they neither love nor like.’ (John Owen)

‘Before the plenary fruition of God in heaven, there must be something previous and antecedent; and that is, our being in a state of grace. We must have conformity to him in grace, before we can have communion with him in glory. Grace and glory are linked and chained together. Grace precedes glory, as the morning star ushers in the sun.’ (Thomas Watson)

‘Oh, let not those eyes be now defiled with sin, by which you shall see God; those ears be inlets to vanity, which shall hear the hallelujahs of the blessed. God hath designed honour for your bodies, Oh make them not either the instruments or objects of sin.’ (Flavel)

He who lives in sin and looks for happiness hereafter is like him who sows cockle and thinks to fill his barn with wheat or barley. (John Bunyan)

‘Suppose for a moment that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself, and by whose side would you sit down? Their pleasures are not your pleasures, their tastes not your tastes, their character not your character. How could you possibly be happy, if you had not been holy on earth?’ (J.C. Ryle, Holiness)

‘Unless we strenuously aim at universal holiness, we can have no satisfactory evidence that we are the servants of Christ. A servant of Christ is one who obeys Christ as his master, and makes Christ’s revealed word the rule of his conduct. No man then can have any evidence that he is a servant of Christ any further than he obeys the will of Christ. And no man can have any evidence that he obeys the will of Christ in one particular, unless he sincerely and strenuously aims to obey it in every particular – for the will of Christ is one.’ (Payson)