To Bend and Win Over the Heart

'What!' Ignorance exclaimed. 'Would you have us trust in what Christ alone has accomplished without adding our own accomplishments? Believing in Christ and His righteousness would give us complete abandon to live as we choose the moment we believed it. This way of thinking would loosen the reins of our lust and permit us to disobey God's commands to our heart's content.'

'Ignorance is your name, and as your name is, so are you,' Christian exclaimed. 'Your answer demonstrates what I say. You are ignorant of what justifying righteousness is, and you are ignorant of how to secure your soul through faith from the heavy wrath of God. Yes, and you are also ignorant of the true effects of saving faith in the righteousness of Christ, the effects of which are to bend and win over the heart to God in Christ. . . . Saving faith will not, as you ignorantly imagine, give license to do evil but will instead give the earnest desire and power to do good.'

--The Pilgrim's Progress (ed. C. J. Lovik; Crossway 2009), 204