A response to the last comment on Tozer's passage:
I absolutely agree that by grace alone we are able to go to heaven. We have salvation by no work of our own. Thank goodness it isn’t on us! I think Tozer would have agreed if he was here with us today. But this doesn’t make what he wrote any less true. “In the Bible the offer of pardon on the part of God is conditioned upon intention to reform on the part of man.” He writes this and the key word here is INTENTION. He is not saying we have to live perfectly, we can no longer sin, but we do need to expereince repentence. In the Bible the people who encountered Christ were told to “go and sin no more.” Most of their lives were utterly and magnificently transformed: paul, moses, peter, david and sampson to name a few. Did they still sin? Absolutely…but they reformed, they were changed.
Tozer was merely defuting a trend in Christian culture that has only inflated since his time; a belief that we do not need to live by the Lord’s standards because we are covered by the blood. In this, we are lessoning the grace of the Lord…true grace causes a desire to change in the heart of the person experiencing the Lord’s compassion.
Before one accepts Christ, one must understand his need for Christ. To understand that, it is necessary to see the shortcomings and desire a change of heart, soul, spirit and yes, even action. Then, and only then can one understand grace. In Matthew and in John, Jesus says, “if you love me, you will obey me.” James writes that “faith without works is dead.” This is non-arguable scripture that does not contradict the fact that we do receive salvation when we do not deserve it, the fact that we do not earn it. I do want to claify something though, the pharisees were incorrect in their motive and heart, not in their action. People who cling to truth get labeled a pharisse too quickly. If their heart is to uphold the Lord’s ways because they love and compassion of the Lord is so great and because they trust Him so much they desire to follow Him in their action, if their motive is correct, then how awesome is that!?!?
Someone once wrote “our actions give a fair and accurate showing of the reality of our salvation”, but it is not 100% perfect depiction because as you said, we are human. Regardless, are actions today are very important to God because he commands us to live differently. It is not something we can reason around doing. If we love Christ, our actions will change by Gods power and our choice to obey Him.
I appreciate your comment greatly. I agree with everything you said, but I think it was missing the point of Tozer’s passage and missing a part of God’s heart in His desire to see His people set-apart.

In the Bible the offer of pardon on the part of God is conditioned upon intention to reform on the part of man. There can be no spiritual regeneration till there has been a moral reformation. That this statement requires defense only proves how far from the truth we have strayed.
In our current popular theology pardon depends upon faith alone. The very word reform has been banished from among the sons of the Reformation!
We often hear the declaration, ”I do not preach reformation; I preach regeneration.” Now we recognize this as being the expression of a commendable revolt against the insipid and unscriptural doctrine of salvation by human effort. But the declaration as it stands contains real error, for it opposes reformation to regeneration. Actually the two are never opposed to each other in sound Bible theology. The not-reformation-but-regeneration doctrine incorrectly presents us with an either-or; either you take reformation or you take regeneration. This is inaccurate. The fact is that on this subject we are presented not with an either-or, but with a both-and. The converted man is both reformed and regenerated. And unless the sinner is willing to reform his way of living he will never know the inward experience of regeneration. This is the vital truth which has gotten lost under the leaves in popular evangelical theology.
The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion is contrary both to the Scriptures and to common sense. How horrible to contemplate a church full of persons who have been pardoned but who still love sin and hate the ways of righteousness. And how much more horrible to think of heaven as filled with sinners who had not repented nor changed their way of living.
A familiar story will illustrate this. The governor of one of our states was visiting the state prison incognito. He fell into conversation with a personable young convict and felt a secret wish to pardon him. ”What would you do,” he asked casually, ”if you were lucky enough to obtain a pardon?” The convict, not knowing to whom he was speaking, snarled his reply: ”If I ever get out of this place, the first thing I’ll do is to cut the throat of the judge who sent me here.” The governor broke off the conversation and withdrew from the cell.
The convict stayed on in prison. To pardon a man who had not reformed would be to let loose another killer upon society. That kind of pardon would not only be foolish, it would be downright immoral.The promise of pardon and cleansing is always associated in the Scriptures with the command to repent. The widely-used text in Isaiah, ”Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,” is organically united to the verses that precede it: ”Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” What does this teach but radical reformation of life before there can be any expectation of pardon? To divorce the words from each other is to do violence to the Scriptures and to convict ourselves of deceitfully handling the truth.
I think there is little doubt that the teaching of salvation without repentance has lowered the moral standards of the Church and produced a multitude of deceived religious professors who erroneously believe themselves to be saved when in fact they are still in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. And to see such persons actually seeking the deeper life is a grim and disillusioning sight. Yet our altars are sometimes filled with seekers who are crying with Simon, ”Give me this power,” when the moral groundwork has simply not been laid for it. The whole thing must be acknowledged as a clear victory for the devil, a victory he could never have enjoyed if unwise teachers had not made it possible by preaching the evil doctrine of regeneration apart from reformation.
written by Tozer....please let this resonate~