If there is no heart longing for God, no love for the word, no desire to obey the commandments, no submission of spirit, no despising of sin and sinful ways, can you still be saved?

God's saving work is not simply to pardon us without changing us. His Grace toward us is not merely some back-office accounting.

We are new creations in Christ. God has given us a new heart. We are being transformed into the image of Christ. We have been given the Holy Spirit to work in us, that we may love the scriptures and heed its words.

And this is not something that you need to create in yourself out of whole cloth. As a true child of God, your new heart and its desires are given to you by the Spirit. If you find that there is absolutely no desire to be in the word, no desire to spend time on your knees in prayer, and no desire to obey God's commandments or to submit to Him, then it should ring an alarm bell that something is not right. Oh dear reader – if you find yourself in this place, do not wait another moment, but cry out to God for Him to rescue you now!

But at the same time, if you are a Christian you are not to be passive in all this. God calls you to work at these things, and because you have the Spirit, God will give you success thereby. Do understand that in this life, you still have the heart of flesh that is daily enticed by this world. There is a battle to be fought, but greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.