When we are willing to obey known truth without compromise, and seek after the perfect righteousness of Christ with heart and soul, we will have the mind of Christ. Then the gospel, the holy law of God, begins the work of re-creation by the Holy Spirit's power. This brings the perfection of character that the law demands. Man cannot create righteousness. It is only as we remain willing to obey, that Christ imputes and imparts to man His righteousness.
Justification comes to the sinner in a moment, and sanctification begins at that moment.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to hold the sinner in the relationship of justification, the work of a lifetime, an experience in victory over all temptation. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Christ's great prayer for the fallen race in John 17 is a demonstration of the divine love which He extends to every son and daughter who is willing to be made willing to obey all known truth. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. . . .