We don’t pick and choose the aspects of holiness we prefer - or the pursuit of God that best fits our low expectations.

On this point, John Calvin writes, “It is not lawful for you to divide things with God in such a manner that you undertake part of those things which are enjoined upon you by his Word but omit parts according to your own judgment.” In other words, we shouldn’t go lax on those things we think are less profitable. We don’t settle down our desire for more of Jesus or drop the bar of our passion.

Just because there is something yet to come - that there is a reality we can only know partially here - we don’t ease up in our quest. There is yet a fuller, deeper, more glorious experience to come.īut that doesn’t mean we put on the breaks. As satisfying and wonderful as God’s grace is, we’ll always be longing for more. We will not be fully glorified here in this age. In this life - in the Christian’s sojourn in this world - we will never reach perfect conformity to the image of Jesus. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.