You seem to be confusing maturity/sanctification with simple salvation. When Jesus evangelized Nicodemus about being born again, he compared it to the physical deliverance brought about by a look to the brazen serpent in the wilderness.
Numbers 21:
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “[j]Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
No, Eli, I am not confusing the two. I understand sanctification to be an ongoing process whereby hopefully a Christian continues to mature and be able to better resist sin. Being able to resist sin is not a requirement for salvation, obviously if I could resist sin on my own then I would not need Jesus for salvation. I just need to admit that I am a sinner and believe that Christ's death and resurrection can atone for my sins, then surrender to Him as Lord of my life. It is so simple. My point from the very beginning of this thread, has been that many people do not fully understand this.
Let me give you an example. Let's say that a friend says to me, "Apple Pandowdy, please tell me what I must do to be saved." If I just replied, Annie, all you have to do is believe." Now Annie, who has never read the Bible, looks at me a bit perplexed and says, "believe in what? I believe in the constitution. Will that do it? I also believe in Goodness and mercy, will that do it? " You can see that I would need to tell Annie just exactly what it means to "believe" in order to be saved, wouldn't I? There are many people who say they believe and so think they are saved, but do not know what it is that they must believe. Those people are going to be shocked and saddened to find one day that they are not going to heaven.
So Eli, may I ask you to explain exactly what one must believe in order to be saved?