Conformity to Christ

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 5
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It is faith and hope that drive us, even in this life. You sow, because you hope for a crop. A man is ambitious, because he hopes for power. It is always the thing hoped for that characterizes the man, if he is a consistent, energetic man. If I am hoping to be like Christ, I shall get the character of being as like Christ as I can by the way. The rest is a weight, and the moment it gets the character of weight, it is the simplest thing to get rid of it.
The flesh has to be overcome because it likes these things. Where Christ really takes possession of the soul, the difficulty is gone. My heart may care for something, while my conscience says, “You ought to do this or that,” but my heart does not chime in. The Word has reached my conscience, but it has not reached the heart. If we are really in earnest in seeking to glorify Christ, death works in us. It has already worked for us, and the effect of death working in us is that nothing but the life of Christ works from us towards others.
If Christ is actually the object, everything else is dross and an entanglement. I have nothing to do but throw it off. It is easy to throw off a weight when it is only a weight. Not that there is no conflict, but it is easy when Christ is everything!
Adapted from Words of Truth, 1871