ISTOCK
W I can’t just lie anaesthetized on the table while God transplants my heart.
ill I ever be like Jesus in this life? Will I ever really have Christ’s insight and wisdom? Could I ever be that free of the love of money or the need for human approval? Could I ever gladly die for someone who hated me and wanted to kill me? Could I be that surrendered to the Father’s will? That’s a big question, isn’t it? We know it is by grace that we become like Christ. It is through his gracious presence and power in our lives that he draws us to himself. But this does not mean that becoming like Jesus happens without my involvement. I can’t just lie anaesthetized on the table while God transplants my heart. Paul says in Colossians 1:29 (NRSV), “For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.” That is the mystery of Christ in me, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). It is Christ in me who gives me the energy by which I struggle with all my strength to become the person I was created to be.
The mystery of sanctification
But how does this happen day to day? How do the power and personality of Christ within me come to be the energy within all my struggle? One ancient piece of wisdom in the church says it happens by setting my calendar to the sequence of events in the life of Jesus. When my calendar, the plan and order of my days, mirrors the sequence of events in Christ’s life as told in the gospels, and when this happens decade after decade, I slowly become like Jesus. His time on earth
6 The Messenger • March/April 2022
