The way of Christ is not a ladder for the strong to climb, but a door for the helpless to enter. It is not for the morally elite, but for those who, like the thief on the cross, confess they have nothing to offer and everything to receive, the exclusive hope of the ungodly who have no plea but mercy, Romans 5:6, whose hope is not in trying harder, but in trusting entirely. John 6:68. In Christ, the striving ceases and grace reigns. Romans 5:21. This is true liberty, not the freedom to perform, but the freedom to rest in the ONE who has performed it all. Christian liberty is not a calculated effort to glorify Christ, but the supernatural expression of a soul at rest in His sufficiency, and the spontaneous outflow of a heart captivated by Him. It manifests not in religious performance, but in sincere love, unwrought joy, and effortless thanksgiving, evidence of a soul no longer striving, but resting in the righteousness of ANOTHER. Hebrews 4:10. I began to write that Christian liberty is not the freedom to please ourselves, but the glorious freedom to please Christ, but really, what am I even talking about? Are any of our lives perfectly aligned with that which only pleases God? We must be delusional if we think so. I would imagine that most of us are painfully ordinary, nothing inherently special about us at all, or anything that sets us apart, as being different from anyone else. Luke 23:40. But there is everything extraordinary about CHRIST. Colossians 2:9. MPJ