You and I are exactly as holy as we want to be. We are exactly as holy as we’ve determined we will be through every opportunity to act righteously or sinfully, to move forward or fall back, to be more like Christ or to forsake him altogether.

Every Christian is a work in progress. Every Christian is striving for holiness, laboring to put off the old man and put on the new. Though none of us is as holy as we will be in heaven, I trust that each of us is holier now than when we first came to Christ. And none of us is as holy as we want to be.

Yet that’s only partially true. There’s another sense in which each of us is exactly as holy as we want to be. How is that the case? Because there is no one who can force us to sin and nothing that can force us to fail to do whatever is righteous in any given moment. There is no one who can keep us from deriving spiritual growth and benefit from any of the circumstances of our lives. No one, that is, except ourselves. If we ever wonder who is hindering our holiness, we don’t need to look any further than the closest mirror.

The world can’t hinder our holiness—but we can allow the world to hinder it when we fail to resist its conforming influence through the power of the Spirit. The flesh can’t hinder our holiness—but we can allow the flesh to hinder it when we succumb to our fleshly desires in defiance of the gospel. The devil can’t hinder our holiness—but we can allow the devil to hinder it when we refuse to flee the temptations he dangles before us and cling instead to the promises of Christ. Each of these deadly enemies has the power to tempt, draw, or allure, but not the power to force, cause, or demand. None has the ability to penetrate the will unless we grant permission.

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