The Christian life isn’t a climb to spiritual excellence and achievement; it’s a pattern of death and resurrection. Repentance and forgiveness. This is the circular pattern of the Christian life. Where the Law has said “do this and live” (and it never gets done), Jesus says, “I have done it all,” and the believer rests in that finished work. Repentance and forgiveness, repentance and forgiveness until we get that big old dirt nap. As we’ve said all along, God deals in death and resurrections, so it’s going to work out.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 91.