The Christian life is not a project to be managed, nor a system of rules to be kept. It is a mystery—one that can only be lived by the Spirit, through faith in Christ’s finished work, and never by human effort. Yet, time and again, even those who claim to champion grace slip into articulating the classic “reformed” position: a works-based sanctification that, in reality, guts the very foundation of justification by faith.
The Trap of Human Effort
Let me state this plainly: your desire to serve God through personal effort, law-keeping, or religious zeal will not sanctify you. In fact, it will do the opposite. The more you strive in your own strength, the more you strengthen the principle of sin in your members. This is not a mere theoretical warning—it is a spiritual law. The flesh, no matter how well-intentioned, cannot produce the life of Christ. When you attempt to sanctify yourself by commitment, vows, or self-imposed responsibility, you are not progressing in holiness; you are entrenching yourself in defeat.
This error is subtle, but deadly. It often begins with the assumption that salvation itself is a matter of making a commitment to God—a decision, a vow, a promise. But this is nothing more than works dressed up in religious language. If you believe your standing before God depends on your commitment, you will inevitably shift your focus from Christ’s work to your own, and the result will be doubt, striving, and ultimately, self-reliance.
Faith Alone—From Start to Finish
Sanctification is not a separate track from justification. The same faith that saved you is the faith that sanctifies you. Christ has undertaken to do everything in your Christian life. He has taken all responsibility for your sanctification, just as He did for your justification. Your role is not to “give your best” or “try harder,” but to believe—to be convinced that God’s Word is true, that Jesus died for your sins and rose for your justification, and that He is now your life.
You did not begin this journey by making a commitment to God. You began when God revealed Himself to you and drew you to faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. You were regenerated—not by your promise, but by His sovereign act. You were rescued, not because you climbed up to Him, but because He descended to you. Every day, you must return to this position: ruined, wrecked, utterly dependent on Him to save, sustain, and live through you. If He does not, you will fall into coldness, hardness, disobedience, and sin. This is not a hypothetical risk—it is the inevitable outcome of trusting in self.
The Fatal Loss: Undermining Justification and Inheritance
If you accept the error of works-based sanctification, you lose more than just “peace of mind.” You forfeit the very ground of your justification and your inheritance as a son. The logic is inescapable: if sanctification depends on your effort, then so does your standing before God. The finished work of Christ is rendered insufficient, and you are left with a gospel that cannot save. This is not a secondary issue—it is salvific. To trade faith for effort is to abandon the covenantal promise for the futility of human performance. You cannot inherit as a son while living as a servant under law.
The Cross: The End of Self, the Beginning of Christ
The delusion of works-oriented sanctification is persistent: “Now that I’m saved, I need to do something for God—or maybe I wasn’t saved to begin with.” This thinking drives you from the position of weakness and dependence—the very place where Christ’s life is manifested. When you leave the cross to “do something for God,” you leave the Spirit behind and partake only of the flesh. First, you produce religious works; eventually, you reap the full harvest of sinful works. I speak from experience: it was my own zeal for God that finally exposed the depth of my inability and the necessity of Christ as my only life.
Baptism proclaims this truth: God was finished with the old you. He condemned your old self to the cross and buried you with Christ, so that Christ—not you—would be manifested in your mortal body. As Paul declares, “Through the law, I died to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Pauline Clarity: The Only Language of Grace
If you want to articulate grace—if you want to speak accurately of the Christian life—you must be Pauline. There is no other vocabulary for this reality. Apart from Paul’s ministry, you will inevitably default to a system of effort, commitment, and law. And, it seems, there is a prerequisite: you must be brought to the end of yourself, to failure, before you can see Christ as your life.
We are not following Christ as the disciples did, with Him outside of us, issuing commands. We are living Christ, and He is living in us. The Christian life is not about your commitment or your effort; it is about Christ being magnified in your mortal body. This requires that you see the flesh for what it is and embrace your need to die with Him.
God’s goal is not to empower your zeal, but to get you out of the way so that Christ may live in you. The problem is not your lack of commitment—it is your very zeal for the things of God, when that zeal is rooted in self.
If you want to go further in these truths, I strongly recommend Miles Stanford’s The Principle of Position. But above all, do not settle for a gospel that leaves you striving. Rest in Christ’s finished work. Let Him be your life, from start to finish. Anything less is not the Christian life—it is a return to bondage and a denial of your inheritance as a son.
