Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Within God’s chronicle of salvation, He not only resolved to declare sinners, lovingly elected for salvation before the foundation of the world, to be righteous before Him, but also ordained through the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ to our account that His people undergo continuous transformation into the image of Christ. Specifically, “for us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4, LITV).

In other words, the Christian life is to be one of progressive change through which the true believer is continuously transformed from conformity to the world to the likeness of the person of Jesus Christ.

This divine transformation is an absolute necessity. To be without the inward and visibly outward change is to be without a saving interest in the Son of God, the only Mediator between mankind and the wrath of God the Father. Therefore, it is crucial that we understand the nature of this holy alteration.

Progressive sanctification is in revolutionary contradistinction to the attitudes and activities of the world around us. There will be a difference between the life of the world and the life undergoing divine transformation.

Moreover, we know from the Word of God that there is a distinction between the children of God and the children of the Devil.

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. – I John 3:10 (ESV)

This is a distinction not of mouth alone, but in a manner of life itself (Luke 6:45, 46; Titus 1:16). This distinction is not only revolutionary, it is also a violent one.

It is a life:

1. Diametrically opposed to the attitudes of the world.
2. Diametrically opposed to the actions of the world.

• The one undergoing transformation will not seek to acquire treasure on earth, as the world does.
• The one undergoing transformation will not, as a way of life, seek his or her own selfish interests.
• The one undergoing transformation will not, as a way of life, seek to gain worth by achievement.
• The one undergoing transformation will not, as a way of life, look down upon others in unlawful judgment, remembering that “but for the grace of God, there go I.”

Progressive sanctification involves a radical departure from a previously known sin-controlled lifestyle. It is a radical departure because Christ Jesus, having broken the power and the tyrannical control of sin over the lives of His elect on that cross, has set His people free indeed, to be reconciled unto, and be able to obey, and therefore please the One who made us, Jesus our Creator. Amen.

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. – Col. 1:16, 17 (ESV)

When we deal with the subject again, we’ll take a look at the absolute necessity of this divine alteration in the life of the believer.