As a biblical counselor, I often work with people struggling with the slow process of sanctification. Believers trapped in the idea of total, instantaneous transformation wonder why it’s so hard to shed the baggage of their old life. The tension usually arises from confusion about Paul’s statement, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
The process of sanctification often feels more like slogging through mud than experiencing instantaneous change. There’s no question that Christ calls us to change through the Holy Spirit’s power. It’s true the Holy Spirit often uses our responses to experiences to help us grow. Life happens, we respond, and patterns emerge. In those patterns, we can see spiritual progress but also persistent weakness, which often points to sin. Confession and repentance of that sin leads to growth. Yet change is often gradual and, like all things that take time, frustrating.
The process of sanctification often feels more like slogging through mud than experiencing instantaneous change.
The struggle of progressive sanctification isn’t new. John Newton, 18th-century slave ship captain turned pastor, experienced both a dramatic conversion and the frustration of slow maturation. In a series of three letters, Newton identifies three stages of a believer’s growth, labeled with the first three letters of the alphabet: young (A), growing (B), and maturing (C) believers. His writing on progressive sanctification provides practical encouragement that offsets doubt and aggravation.
Progressive Sanctification
Perhaps best known for the hymn “Amazing Grace,” Newton rebelled against his Christian upbringing and father’s authority. His moment of truth came during a furious storm at sea. After nine hours bailing water, Newton came to the end of himself. “I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour,” he wrote. “I began to pray.”
God was gracious. Newton survived. He thought his dramatic rescue would lead to an immediate, radical transformation. It didn’t. Vestiges of Newton’s old nature hung around, mixed with the new. “I was little aware of the innate evils of my heart,” he observed. “I had no apprehension of the spirituality and extent of the law of God; the hidden life of a Christian, as it consists in a communion with God by Jesus Christ, and a continual dependence on him.”
Newton eventually became a pastor. He helped others on their journey toward sanctification through a ministry of letter writing. Many of his letters are available online, while others were collected and published.
In his letters, Newton helps explain the struggles that accompany the path of sanctification. He claims his teaching is not “a copy of [his] own experience” but an overview of God’s Word regarding the “nature and essentials of a work of grace.” Those familiar with Newton’s biography, however, may recognize personal illustrations in his prose.
Young Believers
Newton characterizes believers in stage A by a desire for God and his Word. They’re zealous and sometimes foolish. Newton cites legalism as a symptom of an A’s immaturity. God has shared many comforting truths, or “cordials,” with young believers. These may build their ego and their judgment of others.
Young believers often tend toward legalism as a way to prop up an incomplete understanding of who God is and how his grace operates. Checklists appeal to achievers, and A-stage Christians are eager to live their faith out. Often, they tell others how to do it. They “may be, for want of more experience, too importunate and forward.”
Hopefully, these hits and misses draw young believers back into the Word, prayer, and the community of Christ. Newton marks the beauty of this season in a believer’s life well by saying, “His faith is weak, but his heart is warm.”
Growing Believers
Believers who enter the B stage mature through its central experience: conflict. These growing believers still desire God and his Word, but “there are usually trials and exercises in B’s experiences, something different in their kind, and sharper in their measure, than what A was exposed to, or indeed had the strength to endure.”
Young believers often tend toward legalism as a way to prop up an incomplete understanding of who God is and how his grace operates.
Newton explains that conflict of many kinds is often involved in growing faith, including battles against indwelling sin. Through experience, the believer’s spirit grows resilient, but Newton notes, “B is not all spirit.” B is aware of the evil still within him and of his ongoing need for grace and forgiveness. Furthermore, B regularly finds “new and mortifying proofs of an evil nature as he goes on, such as he could not once have believed.”
Yet the B’s can gather a cascade of spiritual insights through conflict. They see their propensity to “spiritual pride, to self-dependence, to vain confidence, to create attachments, and a train of evil.” God reminds these growing believers of “what he can do for us and in us; and at other times how little we can do, and how unable we are to stand without him.”
The plodding lessons are deep ones. B-stage believers learn to depend on Christ in all things, to treasure redemption, and to love others as Christ has loved them: both patiently and profoundly.
Maturing Believers
Contemplation marks believers who enter the C stage. They have “attained clearer, deeper, and more comprehensive views of the mystery of redeeming love; and of the glorious excellency of the Lord Jesus.”
These maturing believers quickly turn to God during trials, which continue throughout life. They’ve practiced contemplating the holiness, sufficiency, and love of Christ in all circumstances. The heart of a C turns to God through habit, like a form of muscle memory.
C’s are known for their humility, which Newton defines as “submission to the will of God” and “tenderness of spirit toward his fellow Christians.” Toils and snares have led a C to surrender to God’s plans. She has “learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil. 4:11–13).
Yet sin continues to challenge C’s heart, which gives her mercy for others who stumble. Grace abounds in C’s life, and her identity is inextricably joined to God. God’s glory and C’s good flow naturally through this union.
All Newton’s letters are valuable, but these three letters on the “progressive work of grace” offer particular encouragement to Christians growing in faith in the battle against sin. They remind us that transformation happens gradually. Newton’s wisdom helps us navigate the seas of life with hope.
The Gospel Coalition