Whole holiness

The best thing I've ever read on how sanctification works: 

Without sincerity and diligence in a universality of obedience, there is not mortification of any one perplexing lust to be obtained...He that has a running sore upon him, arising from an ill habit of body, contracted by intemperance and ill diet, let him apply himself with what diligence an skill he can to the cure of his sore, if he leave the general habit of his body under distempers, his labor and travail will be in vain.  So will his attempts...be that shall endeavor to stop a bloody issue of sin and filth in his soul, and is not equally careful of his universal spiritual temperature and constitution.  

-John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, eds. Kelly M. Kapic, Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), pp. 86-87.

In other words, to grow in holiness we must care for our whole person and pursue spiritual health in every way, rather than spending all of our energy eliminating one or two habitual sins.  

Every Christian, every grace

 You cannot choose which beatitudes you want to be true of your life, and leave the others to one side.  The Beatitudes come as a whole, not as a series of options.  Every Christian is intended to show every grace.  One beatitude flows into the next, as we have already seen:  the poor in spirit mourn for their sins, and as a result are marked by the meekness of those who know the truth about themselves in the presence of God.  Such men and women hunger and thirst for righteousness, and receive it.  Since they have been filled only because of the Lord's mercy to them, they become merciful to others.  

-Sinclair Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World (East Peoria, IL: Banner of Truth, 2009) pp. 35-36.

Upholder and Restorer

Sobering, encouraging, and pastoral words from Augustine, preached on the anniversary of a martyr's death: 

The whole world is against you, and you can say Who is against us?  They answer you: "And what is the whole world, when we are dying for the one by whom the world was made?"

Let them say it, let them say it, let us hear them, let us all say together, If God is for us, who is against us? 

They can rave, they can curse, they can slander, they can hound us with false reproaches, finally they can not merely destroy the body but even reduce it to shreds; and what will the achieve?  For behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the upholder of my soul (Ps. 54:4).

Tell me, blessed martyr, your body is being torn to shreds, and you can say, "It has nothing to do with me"?

"Yes, I said that."

Why? Tell us why.

"Because the Lord is the upholder of my soul.  My body is restored through my soul..."

But your body is being torn by dogs.

"Even if my body is being torn by dogs, still it is to be raised up by the lord...Seeing that the Lord is the upholder of my soul, he will also be the restorer of my body. What will I be lacking, if the enemy tears my limbs to shreds, since God is numbering my hairs?"

So let us say, let us say out of faith, let us say in hope, let us say with the most ardent charity, If God is for us, who is against us?

[...]

How can you prove it, O glorious martyr, how can you prove to me what you say: If God is for us, who is against us?  It's obvious that if God is for you all, who can be against you?  But prove that God is for you.  

...Here, I'll teach you:  Who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all.  You heard this that follows when the apostle was read.  You see, after saying If God is for us, who is against us, [it is] as though he were told, "Prove that God is for you," straightaway he brought forward a grand document in proof, straightaway he introduced the martyr of martyrs, the witness of witnesses; namely the one whom as his own Son the Father did not spare, but handed him over for us all.

-Augustine, Sermon 334, The Works of St. Augustine.

How has God proven his love for us?  See Romans 5:8.