Somehow the dedicated 'self-life' is convinced that it can play the part of the Christian, despite all evidence to the contrary. It continually auditions for the role, insisting that it is capable of virtue, self-sacrifice and 'ever so humble' heroics. The official notification fails to register that the part has already been duly cast to Christ Himself. He is the only One fit for fulfilling its demands. The role of the Christian requires a divine performance in the spirit of the believer. The Christian life is not to be acted. It is to be lived. Only that which is derived from the Out-living of the In-dwelling Christ is fit to be called Christian.

It is for this purpose that God joined Himself to the human nature in the incarnation: that our natures might, through faith in the reconciling work of Christ, become partakers of His divine nature, thus salvaging the human-nature that was originally created in His image and likeness.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in (become partakers of) the divine nature" (2Peter 1:3-4a).

His Spirit has been joined to our spirit. "But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit" (1Corinthians 6:17).

Grace is about God freely doing for us in Christ what we could never do for ourselves. Not only does Christ perform all that is necessary to make full compensation before a holy God for the debt incurred by our wrongdoings (to the extent that He even removes all record of our failures), but He legally credits us with His righteous living and makes Himself available to live righteously through us by the new nature empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Do not perpetuate the delusion of the Adamic nature that insists that it can live the Christian life. Do not persist in trying to get a holy fire while striking the wrong end of the match. The Christian life is not about our dedicated self-effort, our trying. It is about the dedicated life of Christ made available to us, and our 'thanking'. We can thank God that His death is sufficient to take care of all we have done wrong. His Life is sufficient for all we can do right.