DESIGN IN THE SEED

For those of you who’ve followed these blogs, don’t forget why the whole Wide Witness, Deep Roots series keeps circling back to the reforms of Josiah in “The Light in the Attic.” Josiah reminds us that sometimes you really do have to roll up your sleeves, sweep out the dust, haul off the idols, and put the Book back in its rightful place. Outward reform matters. But if all we do is rearrange the furniture, update the policies, or polish up our public image, we’re just tidying the attic while the house itself stays the same. A nation can pass better laws and still have a crooked heart. A church can fix its committees and still be running low on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And let’s be honest, a person can look squeaky clean on the outside and still be run by fear, pride, anger, appetite, or self-protection on the inside. What we need isn’t less reform, but deeper reform—the kind that gets down into the seed, where God’s design shapes Christian character by grace, under Christ, and through the Spirit. The goal isn’t just to look respectable. The goal is to align with God’s purposes and to look more like Jesus.

Recently, I took a step back and gave "The Blueprint: Christian Character Tree" a good, honest look. I’ll admit, it could use some pruning—especially in three spots: where it starts, how it grows, and even what we call it. Here’s what I want to show you: Christian character isn’t the result of a lifeless blueprint, but the unfolding of God’s living design. It begins with His eternal purpose, grows through the real process of salvation, and is best pictured not by a set of blueprints, but by something alive—a tree.

First, we’ll look at where Christian character really begins, and see that God’s plan didn’t just show up at our conversion or even at our birth. It started way back in the eternal wisdom of God Himself. Second, we’ll talk about timing—how salvation actually unfolds in real life, as the seed of God’s grace takes root, grows, and (Lord willing) becomes a tree in full bloom. Third, we’ll take a closer look at the metaphor itself and ask if calling the Christian Character Tree 'The Blueprint' really does it justice. Blueprints are fine for buildings, but they don’t quite capture the living, breathing, growing reality of a tree. So, let’s dig into each of these and see if we can get a clearer picture of how God saves a sinner and grows a saint.

Some metaphors just hold up better than others. Some keep opening up the truth, while others start to crack if you lean on them too hard—like a swing hanging from a hollow limb. That’s what happened with my use of “Blueprint.” I used it as a label for the Christian Character Tree, but after a while, it started to feel too flat and mechanical for something that’s supposed to be alive. A blueprint might show a design, but it’s still just paper—planned, measured, and finished before anything living ever shows up. A seed, on the other hand, is a whole different story. A seed carries a design, too, but it’s packed with living potential. It’s not just a diagram waiting for someone in a hard hat to show up. It’s alive, waiting for rain, sunlight, good soil, and the quiet, faithful work of God.

So instead of starting with a blueprint rolled out on a table, let’s start with the design God tucked inside the seed.

This matters because the Christian life is alive—it’s not something we build out of spare parts. It’s not religious carpentry, and it’s definitely not a spiritual Lego set. You can’t just wander out to the garage, find a better attitude, and nail it to your soul with a verse from Proverbs. The Bible talks about birth, growth, pruning, fruit, and harvest. So if we’re going to talk about Christian character, we need a picture that breathes and grows—something that can handle a little weather and maybe even a few squirrels along the way.

And every living thing comes from somewhere. I’ve been talking about this Christian Character Tree, but I haven’t really told you where the tree comes from or how it gets its start. It’s not like it just shows up one day in the church parking lot.

You may have heard theologians talk about “the order of salvation.” That phrase can sound a little stiff, like something tucked away in a secret seminary archive that regular church people aren’t supposed to find. But the idea is simple. It’s just the way God saves His people from start to finish.¹ It’s a teaching tool that helps us see what God does, what we do, and how the whole thing fits together.

That’s why the tree picture helps us. Trees grow in a certain order. You don’t see apples floating in midair waiting for a trunk to show up. Nobody walks through an orchard and says, “Great fruit—now if only we had a tree to go with it.” Life grows in a pattern.

And Sinclair Ferguson adds an important insight. He reminds us that one of Paul’s most basic ways of describing a Christian is not simply “a religious person” or even “a Christian” as a label, but a man or woman “in Christ.”² That matters because the blessings of salvation don’t come to us as loose parts tossed out of heaven like theological confetti. They come to us in union with Jesus. The whole tree grows because its life is bound up with Him.

Before the seed ever hits the soil

Before there is a seed in the soil, there is a design in the mind of God. That is where salvation begins. Not with our decision. Not with our mood. Not with a preacher catching us at just the right emotional moment. Believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined for adoption. Romans 8 says those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.³

That doesn’t mean we’re robots. It means salvation starts with God long before we ever know it. The future tree isn’t a happy accident. God has a purpose—a deeply personal and redemptive intention rooted in His eternal will. He’s not just out to give us a little vague spirituality, teach us better manners, or slap a religious Band-Aid on our problems. God’s purpose in salvation is to restore and transform people into the likeness of His Son, forming a community that bears His character. He’s not just making us look respectable for Sunday morning. He’s doing the deep work of shaping us to look like Jesus, so we reflect His holiness and love as part of God’s bigger plan for the world.

The seed is sown

Then the gospel enters history and enters our lives. The seed is sown. This is the outward call of the gospel: Christ is preached, read, heard, explained, and announced. In plain language, this is the message of who Jesus is, what He did in His life, death, and resurrection, and why sinners must trust Him. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The outward call really matters, because God ordinarily brings His people to Christ through the proclamation of His Word.⁴

But just hearing the gospel and actually being changed by it are two different things. A seed can sit in the ground for ages and do absolutely nothing. In the same way, a person can sit through years of sermons, nod at all the right times, and still not be changed—except maybe getting better at looking interested during the service. That’s why theologians talk about the outward call and the effectual call. The outward call is the gospel invitation that goes out to everyone. The effectual call is when God, by His Spirit, works through that Word and actually brings a sinner to life in Christ.⁵

Warmth under the soil

If the outward call is the seed being planted, the effectual call is the warmth there under the soil that gets things started. This is where regeneration comes in. That’s a big theology word, but it simply means new birth. God gives life where there was only spiritual death. Jesus said we must be born again. We can’t talk ourselves into it, and we can’t make it happen with enough sincerity, mood lighting, or by singing the tenth verse of “Just As I Am.” New birth is God’s work from start to finish.⁶

That’s why germination is the best tree word for regeneration. Germination is the hidden beginning of life. It’s real before it is visible. Something happens in secret that later manifests in the root, the shoot, the trunk, the limb, the branch, and the fruit. J. I. Packer notes that later Reformed theology often described regeneration as the implanting of the “seed” from which faith and repentance spring.⁷ That’s almost too perfect a picture to ignore.

And the order matters. In my opinion, faith doesn’t cause the new birth. The new birth is what makes saving faith possible. Dead seeds don’t sprout by trying harder, no matter how much fertilizer you throw at them. Life comes first, then the response. That doesn’t mean we don’t respond—it just explains how and why we do.

Root and shoot

Now we can place conversion where it belongs. Conversion is the conscious turning of the now-living sinner to God. It usually has two sides that belong together: repentance and faith. Repentance means turning from sin. Faith means trusting Christ. One turns away. The other turns toward. They are not rival responses. Ferguson says ranking them against each other is a bit pointless because saving faith is always a repentant faith, and true repentance is always a believing repentance.⁸

If we’re looking at the Christian Character Tree, I’d say conversion is like the first big move of the seed. The root goes down, and the shoot comes up. Repentance is the root side—it turns from sin, from running our own lives, from making excuses, and from all the ways we try to dress up rebellion. And let’s be honest, we’re pretty creative at that. Faith is the shoot side—it reaches out to Christ, trusts Him, receives Him, and hangs on tight.

This helps us remember that repentance isn’t just feeling bad for a while, and faith isn’t just quietly agreeing with facts we never really trust. Repentance isn’t just putting on a sad face and using church words. Faith isn’t politely nodding at the gospel while keeping both hands on the steering wheel. Real conversion means a real change in direction. And repentance doesn’t retire after conversion and move to the beach. The whole Christian life keeps going in faith and repentance.⁹

Courtroom and family

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, the tree picture only gets us so far. As much as I love a good metaphor for growth and life, not every doctrine fits neatly on a branch. Try to hang too much on it, and things start to wobble—like hanging a porch swing on a sapling. Some truths, especially the ones about legal or relational change, need their own pictures. Justification, for example, belongs in the courtroom, not the orchard. Adoption is best understood in the family room, not just out among the roots and leaves. These are places where the tree metaphor just can’t carry the full weight of what God has done for us.

Justification is courtroom language. It means God, the Judge, declares the sinner righteous in Christ. Not because the sinner has become morally impressive in record time, and not because the branches already look leafy enough to pass inspection, but because Christ has obeyed, died, and risen for him. In justification, God forgives our sins and counts Christ’s righteousness to us. That is not inner renovation. It is a legal verdict of acceptance based solely on Christ alone.¹⁰

Adoption is family language. It answers a different question. Justification asks, “How can a guilty sinner be right with God?” Adoption asks, “Now that I am right with God, whose family am I in?” The answer is astonishing: in Christ, believers are not simply pardoned criminals; they are welcomed sons and daughters. Packer famously said that if you want to know whether someone really understands Christianity, find out what he makes of being God’s child and having God as his Father.¹¹ Ligonier’s treatment of adoption helpfully adds that adoption is a once-for-all act of God that brings the justified into God’s family and gives them an inheritance in Christ.¹²

And Ferguson takes the picture a step further in a warm, supportive way. The Spirit doesn’t just hand us legal papers and walk off. He brings us out of darkness into God’s family and teaches us to cry to the Father in distress, weakness, and need.¹³ That matters for Christian character, because a tree grows best in the right orchard. A believer doesn’t grow to earn a place in the family—he grows because he’s already been given one.

Roots, trunk, branches, and fruit

Now we’re in the long, middle stretch of the Christian life. Theologians call this sanctification. That’s a big word, but don’t let it scare you. Sanctification is the lifelong process where God makes His people more holy in real life. He changes what we love, how we think, what we choose, how we react, and who we are, so we become more like Christ.¹⁴

This is where the tree picture really starts to branch out. The roots are the hidden life—poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted for righteousness. The trunk stands for stability—courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. In other words, the kind of character that doesn’t topple over every time the world leans on it. The limbs and branches are all the ways Christian virtue shows up in real life: faith, hope, and love in public, not just on a church Instagram post. And the fruit? That’s the visible life of Christ showing up in us for the good of others.

Pastor and author Brian Hedges reminds us that real change is gospel-powered, not self-powered. As Hedges writes, "The gospel is not only the foundation for our acceptance with God; it is also the power for personal change"¹⁵. The point isn’t to glue religious behavior onto the outside of a person, but to see Christ formed in us through the gospel, by the Spirit, over time. He also points out that God usually uses ordinary means to change us: spiritual disciplines, suffering, and life together in the church. Trees need weather, soil, water, light, and time. So do saints.

Ferguson adds an important distinction that keeps sanctification from turning into mush. In one sense, believers are already set apart to God in Christ. In another sense, we still need to grow in holiness.¹⁶ That keeps us from two mistakes. One is acting like holiness is automatic, like plugging in a lamp. The other is acting like nothing important has happened yet. Something decisive has happened. And because it has, growth follows.

Tim Keller adds another point. He warns that both legalism and laziness can twist the Christian life. Some folks think holiness grows by pressure, guilt, and spiritual self-criticism. Others think grace means effort no longer matters. Both miss the goodness of God and the real power of the gospel. The cure isn’t less grace or more scolding, but a deeper understanding of our union with Christ and the love of God in the gospel.¹⁷

John Piper puts it well: justification is the gate, not the garden.¹⁸ In other words, we never move beyond justification, but we do move on from it into a life of holiness, communion, obedience, joy, and usefulness. The gate matters. Without it, we never get in. But nobody moves into a beautiful garden just to stand around admiring the hinges on the gate.

So sanctification isn’t about trying to make ourselves acceptable. It’s about learning to live as people who are already accepted. We don’t earn God’s love by behaving better. We grow in the love God has already given us in Christ. That’s why the tree grows from the inside out, not the outside in.

Weather, pruning, and perseverance

Any good tree picture has to make room for weather. Real trees don’t grow in a climate-controlled greenhouse. They face drought, wind, pruning, disease, and winter. Christians do too.

This is where perseverance comes in. Perseverance means all true believers will keep going in faith to the end because God keeps them. Ferguson says the old phrase 'perseverance of the saints' is helpful because it shows both sides: Christians are preserved by God, and they keep going in faith to the end. He also warns us not to confuse present faith with a past profession of faith.¹⁹ That’s exactly right. Perseverance isn’t swagger, and it isn’t just spiritual stubbornness. It’s grace with backbone.

That’s important for pastors and for ordinary believers too. A hard season doesn’t mean the tree is dead. Pruning isn’t rejection. Winter is real, but it doesn’t last forever. Some seasons of growth are loud and obvious, like youth camp. Others are quiet and hidden, like a Wednesday night prayer group with more prayer requests than people. But God never abandons what He plants.

Full summer

After all is said and done, we come to glorification. Well, Amen. This is the grand finale for every believer, when Christ returns, and the resurrection happens. Glorification is when sin is finally shown the door for good, death is put out of business, and our bodies are raised up and made new. The whole person, inside and out, will be made like Christ—perfectly holy and full of joy.²⁰ Now that’s something worth looking forward to.

If sanctification is the tree growing up, then glorification is the tree in full summer—no rot, no drought, no blight, and not a hint of winter in sight. This is where the whole story comes together. What started as a seed with God’s design and intention is now a tree, not divine or self-made, but whole and complete. Every stage is there: what God started in eternity, what He brought to life in regeneration, what showed up in conversion, and what matured through sanctification. At glorification, the tree finally stands tall and complete in the presence of Christ, showing off the living, growing reality that God intended from the very beginning. Seeing the Christian life this way gives us practical encouragement for everyday living. Each stage reminds us that our growth, struggles, and perseverance are part of a bigger process God has promised to finish. This perspective gives hope, resilience, and purpose in the present, encouraging us to live with confidence, knowing that our present efforts in faith and character are moving toward the ultimate fulfillment God has promised.

The whole tree

Let’s pull the whole Christian Character Tree together. Here’s how I see it: First, God designs the tree long before the seed ever hits the dirt. Second, the seed gets planted when we hear the gospel—maybe in a sermon, a conversation, a Bible reading, or even a gospel tract (that’s how it happened for me, by the way). Third, God works under the surface, calling and regenerating us with that hidden warmth only He can provide. Fourth, the seed cracks open and starts to live—that’s the new birth. Fifth, the root and the first green shoot break through as conversion, with repentance and faith showing up together. Sixth, justification happens when God declares us right in His courtroom. Seventh, adoption follows as God welcomes us into His family. Eighth, sanctification is the long, sometimes slow, sometimes surprising growth: roots go deep, the trunk thickens, branches stretch out, leaves spread, blossoms open, and fruit finally appears. Ninth, perseverance is the tree holding steady through every storm, kept by God’s hand. And finally, glorification is when the tree stands tall and whole in the presence of Christ.

That, to me, is a much better way to talk about it than 'blueprint.' Blueprints are flat, outside of us, and a little too mechanical for my taste. But design in the seed? That sounds alive, organic, purposeful, and shaped by God from the very start. And the best part is, it’s true. You can take that to the bank—or at least to your small group.

The Christian life isn’t a pile of virtues we try to superglue onto ourselves, hoping Jesus will be impressed with our latest Pinterest project. It’s the life of Christ planted in a sinner by grace, brought to life by the Spirit, rooted in repentance and faith, secured by justification, warmed by adoption, strengthened through sanctification, kept through perseverance, and finished in glory. If that’s true, then Christian character isn’t for show. It’s not fake fruit taped onto dead branches. It’s the real harvest of a life God planted, God grows, and God will one day finish. No shortcuts, no gimmicks, just grace from start to finish.

Endnotes

1. John M. Frame, “Salvation and Theological Pedagogy,” Frame-Poythress.org, May 28, 2012, https://frame-poythress.org/salvation-and-theological-pedagogy/.

2. Sinclair Ferguson, “What Does It Mean to Be ‘In Christ’?” Ligonier Ministries, August 15, 2025, https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-be-in-christ.

3. Ligonier Ministries, “The Golden Chain of Salvation,” June 30, 2014, https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/golden-chain-salvation.

4. Matthew Barrett, “Effectual Calling,” The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/effectual-calling/.

5. Sinclair Ferguson, “Effectual Calling and Faith,” Theology for All: Doctrine for the Christian Life, Ligonier Ministries, https://learn.ligonier.org/series/theology-for-all-doctrine-for-the-christian-life/effectual-calling-and-faith.

6. R.C. Sproul, “What’s the Difference Between Regeneration and Conversion?,” Ligonier Ministries, https://learn.ligonier.org/qas/difference-between-regeneration-and-conversion.

7. J. I. Packer, “Regeneration,” Monergism.com, https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/packer_regen.html.

8. Sinclair Ferguson, “Faith and Repentance,” Ligonier Ministries, May 25, 2013, https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/faith-and-repentance.

9. Sinclair Ferguson, “Faith and Repentance,” Ligonier Ministries guide, https://learn.ligonier.org/guides/faith-and-repentance.

10. Philip Eveson, “The Doctrine of Justification,” The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-doctrine-of-justification/.

11. J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 20th anniversary ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), chap. 19, “Sons of God”, p. 182.

12. Ligonier Ministries, “Adoption,” guide, https://learn.ligonier.org/guides/adoption.

13. Sinclair Ferguson, “The Spirit of Sonship,” in Who Is the Holy Spirit?, Ligonier Ministries, https://learn.ligonier.org/series/who-is-the-holy-spirit/spirit-of-sonship.

14. Wayne Grudem, “Sanctification (Growth in Likeness to Christ),” BiblicalTraining.org, excerpt from Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 746–758; see also “Sanctification (Growth in Likeness to Christ),” BiblicalTraining.org, excerpt from chap. 38, https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/sanctification-by-wayne-grudem.

15. Brian G. Hedges, Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change (Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, 2010). p. 21; see also p. 99 and pp. 189–258.

16. Sinclair Ferguson, “Sanctification,” Theology for All: Doctrine for the Christian Life, Ligonier Ministries, https://learn.ligonier.org/series/theology-for-all-doctrine-for-the-christian-life/sanctification.

17. Tim Keller, “4 Lessons for the Bedeviling Sanctification Debate,” The Gospel Coalition, January 18, 2016, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/4-lessons-for-the-bedeviling-sanctification-debate/.

18. John Piper, “Justification Is the Gate, Not the Garden,” Desiring God, March 7, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/justification-is-the-gate-not-the-garden.

19. Sinclair Ferguson, “God’s Gift of Perseverance,” Ligonier Ministries, September 4, 2015, https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/gods-gift-perseverance.

20. John Piper, “Glorification Now?,” Desiring God, August 31, 2009, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/glorification-now.