The full title is attached here in pdf form. This work may also be found on the website of Covenant PRC in Ballymena, N. Ireland. Below you may find the table of contents and the foreword to this title.
Published by the British Reformed Fellowship, 2016
www.britishreformed.org
Printed in the United States of America
Scripture quotations are taken from the
Authorized (King James) Version
Quotations from the Three Forms of Unity are taken
from The Confessions and the Church Order of the
Protestant Reformed Churches (Grandville, MI:
Protestant Reformed Churches in America, 2005)
Quotations from the Westminster Standards are taken
from Westminster Confession of Faith (Glasgow:
Free Presbyterian Publications, 1988)
Main Distributors:
Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street
Ballymena, N. Ireland BT43 5DR
Phone: (028) 25 891851
Website: www.cprc.co.uk
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Heritage Protestant Reformed Church
3800 E. 15th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103 USA
Phone: (605) 335-6623
Website: www.reformedsiouxfalls.org
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contents
Foreword .................................................................................................. v
Part 1
1. The Divine Work of Sanctification .................................................1
2. Justification and Sanctification: Their Differences
and Their Relation to Each Other ................................................25
3. The Role of the Law in Sanctification ..........................................36
4. The Imperfection of Sanctification in This Life ..........................57
5. “A Faire and Easie Way to Heaven:” The Threat
to Sanctification of Antinomianism .............................................68
6. The Victorious Christian ...............................................................91
Part 2
7. Only the Holy Inherit the Kingdom ...........................................101
8. Our Calling to Work Out Our Own Salvation .........................112
Part 3
9. Zealous for Good Works .............................................................122
10. A Scottish Classic on Sanctification: James Fraser
of Alness’s “Explication” of Romans 6:1-8:4................................129
Appendix
About the British Reformed Fellowship ..........................................149
Foreword
“Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed
in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled
more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” This is
the admirable, succinct definition of sanctification given in the Westminster
Shorter Catechism (Q. & A. 35).
The truth of God’s definitive and progressive work of making us holy,
beautifully summarized in the sentence above by the Westminster
divines, is explained, illustrated, defended and applied in great depth
and length in the ten chapters of this book. In this little volume, the
orthodox teaching of sanctification is set forth over against various
heresies, especially antinomianism or antinomism. Here Scripture
(and its exegesis), the Reformed confessions (both the Three Forms
of Unity and the Westminster Standards) and church history are all
brought to bear on the glorious subject of the believer’s conformity
to Christ in sanctification.
The goal is that we might know the truth of sanctification—which
biblical doctrine, like all other aspects of God’s truth, makes us free
(John 8:32)—and obey the gospel call to holiness in heart and life,
by God’s grace. Some 2,000 years ago, on the day before His crucifixion
for us, our Saviour prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy
word is truth” (John 17:17). Christ’s prayer on that momentous night
and His continuous intercession for His church embraces not only
the billions of God’s elect over the millennia and the innumerable
occasions whereby He uses His truth in various ways; it also includes
this humble book and all the saints who shall read it.
The two main authors of this work are Profs. David J. Engelsma and
Herman Hanko, who are responsible for the first eight chapters which
are contained in the first two parts of the book. Part 1 embraces, in
written form, the six main speeches at the 2014 British Reformed
Fellowship (BRF) Family Conference at Gartmore House, near Loch
Lomond in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands (26 July - 2
August). Part 2 consists of the Sunday sermons at that Conference
by our two chief speakers; they supplement the six core lectures by
developing various aspects of the doctrine of sanctification. Part 3
begins with the introductory speech at the 2014 BRF Conference by
Rev. Martyn McGeown, editor of the British Reformed Journal (BRJ)
and missionary-pastor of the Limerick Reformed Fellowship (LRF)
in the Republic of Ireland, and concludes with the special lecture on
James Fraser of Alness and his famous “explication” of Romans 6:1-
8:4 by Rev. Angus Stewart, the minister of the Covenant Protestant
Reformed Church (CPRC) in Ballymena, N. Ireland.1
Be Ye Holy is the sixth BRF book co-authored by Profs. Hanko and
Engelsma, the others being Keeping God’s Covenant (2006), The Five
Points of Calvinism (2008), The Work of the Holy Spirit (2010), The
Reformed Worldview (2012) and Ye Are My Witnesses (2014).2
As you read this book, heed the biblical commandment: “Be ye holy;
for I am holy” (I Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26)!
Rev. Angus Stewart
BRF Chairman
1 For publication in this book, Prof. Engelsma has expanded his lectures in places
and has inserted notes documenting most of the quotations in the speeches.
What is not fitting in an oral presentation is helpful in their written form. The
three other writers of this book have also done this to a greater or lesser extent.
2 All six of these books, plus many others by Profs. Hanko and Engelsma, as well
as other fine Reformed literature and box sets of CDs and DVDs, are available
from the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church Bookstore (www.cprf.co.uk/
bookstore). The main distributor of Be Ye Holy in North America is listed opposite
the Contents page. Most of the works of Profs. Engelsma and Hanko are
published by, and available from, the Reformed Free Publishing Association
(RFPA) in Jenison, Michigan, USA (www.rfpa.org).