There’s a fresh-faced feeling to early January. As one year winds up and another lies open before us, anything seems possible. We’re told this is going to be the year when you—yes you—get fit, or save money, or eat healthy, or start reading, or stress less. Hey—this is the year when you can do all those things. New year, new you.
Or perhaps, as Christians, our aspirations for the year ahead take on a different hue. I want to be more present with my family, stop sniping at my housemate, love people better, and love God more. Anything is possible.
Until, of course, it isn’t. As much as I might have been inspired by yet another viewing of Ebenezer Scrooge’s dramatic overnight transformation in A Christmas Carol (the Muppet version, of course), I can’t seem to get the magic to work on the night of December 31 in quite the same way. Estimates claiming that as many as 80 percent of people will have given up on their resolutions by the end of January suggest I’m not the only one.
The truth is, you won’t wake up on January 1, 2025, as a different person. But you could on January 1, 2026. That’s the slow but significant process of sanctification.
Sanctification Is Slow
Sanctification—the process of becoming more and more like Jesus over the course of our Christian lives—can seem painstakingly slow. God could’ve designed it so we’d be zapped on day one to sinless perfection, without any fleshly desires or affectional deficits. But in his wisdom, he didn’t.
To be sure, we’re no longer slaves to sin (Rom. 6:18). There’s a sense in which we have been sanctified (1 Cor. 6:11). And there may well be areas of our lives where we experience a near-instantaneous old-self to new-self transformation in our struggle against sin.
But in God’s wisdom, that’s not how it normally works. Instead, we continue to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) as we’re changed gradually “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). And in the slowness of the process—as we fail and repent and renew our resolve on repeat—we glimpse God’s patience.
Sanctification Is Significant
Sanctification may be slow and sometimes hard to observe, but it’s significant. In the Spirit’s power, we really can change. Discipleship is what Eugene Peterson described as a “long obedience in the same direction”—which means that if we keep going, over time, we end up in a very different place.
In the Spirit’s power, we really can change.
My 4-year-old nephew changes imperceptibly from month to month when I visit. But when I look back on photographs and videos from a year ago, the difference is unmistakable—he’s become more articulate, more capable, and somehow simply more him. The same is true as we grow up into our salvation as God’s children.
That means on January 1, 2026, you can be a new you: a version of you who’s more “renewed in knowledge after the image of [your] creator” (Col. 3:10), or two or three degrees more glorious than you are now (2 Cor. 3:18). More loving, more wise, and somehow simply more you—more the person God created you to be.
Step by Step
The new you of 2026 starts today. The difference between a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old might be striking, but it takes a whole lot of snacks and story times to fuel the growth.
So too with sanctification. Our growth in holiness will be helped by harnessing the power of everyday habits. So in the coming year, among whatever else you set as your goal, resolve to embrace afresh the ordinary means of grace God has provided you.
Resolve to read God’s Word: hearing his voice, beholding his character, and seeking to do what he says.
Resolve to pray: sitting in his presence, giving thanks for his goodness, and uplifting your concerns.
Resolve to press into church community: sitting under the preaching of God’s Word, worshiping with the saints, bearing their burdens, serving and being served in word and deed.
Resolve to embrace afresh the ordinary means of grace God has provided you.
Most of us will be helped by structure—some concrete plan for how we’ll turn our aspirations into actions. We’d also benefit from being conscious of where we’re starting from—a long-lapsed Bible reader, for example, may be wise to begin small and build up, rather than attempting to go straight into full Murray M’Cheyne mode from a standing start. But don’t let this be another year where you know all this stuff would be good for you but somehow never quite get around to actually doing it.
Your habits may not look dramatic. But the fruit will follow. So look with hope to the slow but significant change God wants to work in you in this next year—and imagine what he can do with 20 years. In his grace and by his power, the change can be unmistakable: next year, new you.
The Gospel Coalition