The believer did not always live for Christ. That life began when God the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin, when by grace he was brought to see the dying Savior making propitiation for his guilt. From that moment of new and celestial birth, the soul begins to live for Christ.

Jesus is the one pearl of great price. For him, we will part with all we have. He has so completely won our love that it beats for him alone. For his glory we would live, and in defense of his gospel we would die. He is the pattern of our life, the model after which we sculpture our character.

But Paul's words mean more than most men think. He's not just saying Christ was his aim and end—no! His life itself was Jesus. As one ancient saint put it, Paul did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath. The soul of his soul. The heart of his heart. The life of his life.

Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ? Your business—are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self-aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is! He professes to live for Christ. How can he live for another object without committing spiritual adultery?

Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure. But who dare say they have lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet this alone is the true life of a Christian—its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word: Christ Jesus.

Lord, accept me! I here present myself, praying to live only in you and to you. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed. Let my motto be: "Ready for either!"