The essence of the Christian religion

“The essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that

the creation of the Father,

ruined

by sin,

is restored

in the death of the Son of God,

and re-created

by the grace of the Holy Spirit

into a kingdom of God.”

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1:61.

Holiness

From Herman Bavinck‘s Reformed Dogmatics (4:248),

To understand the benefit of sanctification correctly, we must proceed from the idea that Christ is our holiness in the same sense in which he is our righteousness. He is a complete and all-sufficient Savior. He does not accomplish his work halfway but saves us really and completely. He does not rest until, after pronouncing his acquittal in our conscience, he has also imparted full holiness and glory to us. By his righteousness, accordingly, he does not just restore us to the state of the just who will go scot-free in the judgment of God, in order then to leave us to ourselves to reform ourselves after God’s image and to merit eternal life. But Christ has accomplished everything. He bore for us the guilt and punishment of sin, placed himself under the law to secure eternal life for us, and then arose from the grave to communicate himself to us in all his fullness for both our righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). The holiness that must completely become ours therefore fully awaits us in Christ.