"It is not imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators"

The quote in the title is from Martin Luther.  I found it as I'm trying to finish up the Tchividjian book.  Though I don't have much left in the book, there is much to consider, ponder, and meditate upon.  In the next to the last chapter the author writes about sanctification (the progress of holiness).  Here is another sampling.

"When I came to see that Christian growth doesn't happen by working hard to get something you don't have, but rather it happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you already have, this gospel insight radically transformed my life."  (p. 170)

"...after reading the Bible more carefully, I now understand that Christian growth does not happen by working hard to get something we don't have.  Rather, Christian growth happens by working hard to daily swim in the reality of what we do have....Sanctification is the hard work of giving up our efforts at self-justification.  Those efforts are what we're all naturally inclined to do, and it's what makes the sanctification process so grueling and counterintuitive....When breathed in, the radical , unconditional, free grace of God reverses every natural instinct regarding what it means to spiritually survive and thrive.  Our survival mechanism is to measure spiritual maturity almost exclusively in terms of behavior - what we do and don't do.  Only the 'toxin' of God's grace can turn that mechanism upside down." (p. 172)

This is a way of thinking that is counter intuitive.  We naturally judge ourselves by what we do.  It's very easy to feel good or bad about your life depending on the things you do, how you react, and a whole host of other things that depend on you.  But that's not how we are to judge our relationship with the Lord.  When someone meets Christ in a real way and by grace alone, through faith alone trusts in Him that relationship is secure.  The Good News is that Christ has brought about justification by His life and work, and He will continue to work on conforming His children to His image.

One last quote:  "Christian growth is forgetting about yourself!  So by all means work!  But the hard work is not what you think it is - your personal improvement and moral progress.  The hard work is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ's finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and moral progress."

That is hard work!!  It is so much easier to try and do it myself and simply pull myself up by my bootstraps and make myself "better."  But it really doesn't accomplish anything good and certainly nothing glorifying the free and amazing grace of God!  Therefore, rest in the sonship and concentrate on what that means and Who it was that bought you and you will become more and more like Him!