But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
Those who try to separate the call of the Gospel from the call to be holy make a great error. Preachers who misunderstand the connection between holiness and belief in the Gospel often confuse those they seek to evangelize by presenting the Christian life as compartmentalized - that "being saved" comes first, and then a "commitment to holiness" or "receiving Jesus as Lord" can come later.
The Bible presents the life of faith as the pursuit of the holiness and righteousness demanded by the lordship of Christ from the moment of conversion, coming out of the new man through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. We must not separate belief in the Gospel from living out the call of God in our lives to be imitators of Christ and to obey all that He commands. Therefore we respond in love and obedience, not as a way to gain favor with God, but because Christ has already done so for us.