No Christian is perfect and no Christian will be on this side of heaven. Every believer is a work in progress, being transformed from who they were to who they will yet be. The technical term is sanctification. Rooted in God's character and his design in and through creation, sanctification is the process by which a Christian develops into the person God wants him or her to be. Simultaneously challenging and joyous, sanctification does not happen overnight; neither is it a process with a defined end point. It is a lifelong pursuit. The beauty of God's work in sanctification is that God shapes one's life into something beyond expectation. By submitting to God's plan, believers become more like Christ and so fulfill God's purpose to glorify himself on the earth. The Blueprint of Grace serves as a primer to the beginning of the process of sanctification, how it unfolds, and how it ends.

Robert Allen is senior pastor of Salem Avenue Baptist Church in Rolla, Missouri. He holds an MTS with an emphasis in preaching and pastoral ministry from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Allen and his wife, Mandy, have two daughters, Lucy and Daisy.