“Do your best, Pete!” When I was a kid, that’s what my mom would always say as I headed off to school in the morning. My parents were pretty low key about the “goals” they had for me . . . at the end of the day they simply wanted me to work up to whatever potential I had. There’s something very sad about unrealized potential. Something that seems wasteful when someone low-balls their goals . . . something that can even be frustrating about those who settle for “good enough” rather than for what they are capable of.

You sense that Paul was frustrated on a number of levels as you read his letter to the churches in Galatia. He was upset that false teachers had come in behind his planting of the gospel and had distorted it . . . had sown grace-strangling weeds among the seed of the good news . . . had shackled those who should be embracing freedom in Christ with the handcuffs of the law. You pick up also that Paul was a bit bent out of shape with these “foolish Galatians” who had allowed themselves to be “bewitched” by these fast-talking religion-peddlers such that they lost sight of Christ (3:1) . . . Paul shows a bit of exasperation at the foolish, muddled up thinking that was being embraced, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (3:3)

But even more Paul seems to be in excruciating agony over the lost potential . . .

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? . . . my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.    (Galatians 4:8-9, 19-20 ESV)

Christianity for Paul was not about a creed . . . not about a set a practices . . . but about new life in Christ. Being rescued from judgment by the redemptive work of Christ on the cross is worthy of eternal gratefulness . . . having a place prepared in heaven by the Son is cause for unending praise . . . but even more than these things, there is the potential for Christ to be formed in the believer. That’s what Paul went for!

Think about it . . . saved by the grace of God in order to be a mold for the Son of God . . . for the purpose of bearing His nature and image. That’s the potential for a believer. That potential existing not in ourselves, but in our new selves . . . new creations in Christ . . . powered by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit placed within us . . . having been given all the tools we need to participate in the divine nature (2Peter 1:3-4) . . . to have Christ formed in us.

That was Paul’s “home run” . . . so much so, that he would contend for it within the lives of those he had led to Christ even if it meant going through “the anguish of childbirth” again. He wanted them to be all they could be in Christ . . . actually He wanted Christ to be all that He could be in them . . . that they would be so morphed (i.e. formed), that Christ’s character and heart and mind would be evident in them and through them. And not just for their blessing, but more importantly for His glory.

How sad for potential to unrealized. How doubly sad when it’s the potential infused in a redeemed man or woman to bear the image of Christ.

I’m in awe afresh as I consider the potential . . . again, not because of who I am, but because of who He is . . . not because of what I can do, but because of what He has promised to do in me . . . not that I should boast, but that He would be brought delight and pleasure in what He has made of this lump of clay.

He has started a work in me that He desires to complete . . . to form Christ in me. Mine is to submit to that work . . . mine is to desire the finished product . . .

Do your best, Lord! . . . for Your glory . . . amen.