⭐  It is very simply relying on God's love for us to do what we cannot...

Tim Keller liked to put it this way:  The Gospel is not that we change our lives so that we can have a relationship with God, but rather, that when we have a relationship with God, our lives are changed.

So much New Testament scripture is pointed at this simple truth.  Look at the language: born again, new creation, transformed, changed into his likeness, being sanctified, living in holiness, the narrow path, obeying his commands, walking in light and love instead of darkness, faith without works is dead .......  

Scripture insists that we be transformed.  And it tells us how.  By relying on God the Holy Spirit.

We rely on God the Son to "save" us -- to spare us from the death, the total separation from God, that is the natural and just consequence of our sin.  God the Son stands in our place, takes that death for us, and then rises from the dead -- all to reconcile us to God the Father, to reconnect us to Him, to put us back into right relationship with Him.  How could we ever do this ourselves?  We cannot.  We must rely utterly on the work of Jesus to do this for us.  

Our reliance on God does not end here, as many imagine.  (We keep wanting to take the reins, don’t we?) It is, in fact, just beginning!  True relationship with God will inevitably transform us -- the natural consequence of our faith and desire and His power at work in our lives.  Look again at the language used to describe our new walk with God.  Again, the question:  How could we ever do this ourselves, of our own effort?  And again, the answer is that we cannot.  We must rely utterly on the work of God the Holy Spirit to do this for us… to work in us to achieve God's good purposes for us.  

As we cannot possibly be good enough to justify ourselves before God, neither can we change ourselves into the likeness of Christ.  So we rely on God's love to both save us and transform us.  

And accessing this power, these results, is the same in both instances:  “Repent and Believe.”  We Turn Godward (again and again), and Rely upon Him for it (again and again).  Note that these are very active verbs, to turn and to rely upon.

This, I believe, is a great encouragement -- we have a role indeed, one that is full of hope, because it places the outcome in supremely good, capable, and loving hands... so much better than our own!  

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  John 6:28-29