The White Shirt and the Coal Dust

In the early days of his ministry, Billy Graham used to tell of a miner who worked the deep shafts of a Pennsylvania coal mine. Every day the man descended into the darkness, and every day he came home black with soot — it clung to his hands, his face, his lungs. When Christ saved him at a revival meeting, something changed. He still worked the same mine, breathed the same air. But he began washing differently. He scrubbed until the water ran clear. He changed his work clothes as soon as he hit the surface. He couldn't stand carrying the grime home anymore.

That's what Peter is describing in 1 Peter 1:15–16 when he quotes Leviticus: "Be holy, because I am holy." Holiness isn't a condition we achieve — it's a family resemblance we cultivate. When a person is truly born again, the Spirit of the living God takes up residence in that life, and the old tolerance for darkness begins to disappear. Sin that once felt comfortable starts to feel foreign.

John Stott put it plainly: regeneration is God's gift; sanctification is God's call. The new birth plants a desire for purity that the old nature never had.

The practical question every believer must answer is this: Are you scrubbing? Are you leaving the coal dust at the door? Because the God who saved you by His grace is the same God who says — not as burden, but as invitation — "Be holy, as I am holy."