Ferguson, Sinclair B. Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification. Banner of Truth, 2016.
This book is an exposition of ten passages that Ferguson calls “Blueprint Passages” on sanctification: 1 Peter 1:1-25; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:1-14; Galatians 5:16-17; Colossians 3″1-17; Romans 8:13; Matthew 5:17-20; Hebrews 12:1-14; Romans 8:29. It is full of insights like this one from the first two pages:
Probably the most common explanation of the term ‘holiness’ is that to be ‘holy’ means ‘to be separate from’, to be cut off from’, ‘to be placed at a distance from’. And so we often say that God’s holiness means that he is separate from sin and therefore separate from us. There is a good measure of truth in this. But in my own view it starts from the wrong place. It describes the Creator’s attribute of holiness from the viewpoint of the creature; it describes his purity from the standpoint of the sinner. And ultimately that is to do our thinking the wrong way round…. Any description we give of what God is like in himself … must meet a simple test. For anything to be true of God as he is in himself it must be true quite apart from his work of creation…. It must be true of God simply as he always existed as the eternal Trinity. But in that case, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had no ‘attribute’ that involved separation…. What then is God’s holiness. What do we mean when we say ‘Holy Father’ and ‘Holy Son’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ and Holy Trinity’? We mean the perfectly pure devotion of each of these three persons to the other tw. [1-2]