One of the great temptations of in the history of the church has been to withdraw from other Christians in pursuit of sanctity. This was the first stage of Christian monasticism, which failed. It was not long before eremitic monasticism became cenobitic monasticism. The error has been to think that if we can just get away from the sins and corruption of others, we can attain greater sanctity. History tells us that the project has failed, because wherever we go we take our sinful nature and corruption with us. This is one of the gospel mysteries of sanctification, that the Spirit operates in the visible church through the preached gospel to bring us to new life and true faith, and in the work of the Spirit through the gospel made visible in the Supper to sanctify us.

R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Academic: 2025), 526–27.

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Post authored by:

• Inwoo Lee

  

  Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California and is author of “Righteous Before God: William Perkins’ Doctrine of Justification in Elizabethan England” (MA Thesis, Westminster Seminary California, 2020). He lives in the Great Seoul area, in South Korea with his wife Holly.

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