What is needed is not a second conversion by which such perfection is secured but the continuing and maintaining of a conversion that is never completed in this life. Evangelical theology in the tradition of the Reformation contends that we can make progress toward perfection, but we can never attain it as a realized goal. We cannot be converted through our own power, but we can repent and turn to Christ through the power of his Spirit. We cannot maintain our walk with Christ on the basis of our own resources, but we can maintain this walk with the aid of his Spirit. Conversion entails the promise of sanctification just as it reveals the gift of justification.
Divine grace is the efficient cause, human agency the responding effect.