The Father did not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us.

There is nothing more important to learn about Christian growth than this: Growing in grace means becoming like Christ.

Christians have a new identity. We are no longer 'in Adam' but 'in Christ'; no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit.

Our thinking about who we are as Christians should not begin with what we can discover about ourselves by self-analysis. Rather, it begins with what God says about those who trust in Christ.

The conviction that Christian doctrine matters for Christian living is one of the most important growth points of the Christian life.

God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that He loves us.

This, then, is the foundation of sanctification in Reformed theology. It is rooted, not in humanity and their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in what God has done in Christ, and for us in union with him. Rather than view Christians first and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed doctrine first of all sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in redemptive history. It is seeing oneself in this context that enables the individual Christian to grow in true holiness.