'Our holiness does not consist in our changing and becoming better
ourselves: it is rather _He_, He Himself, born and growing in us, in
such a way as to fill our hearts, and to drive out our natural self,
"our old man," which cannot itself improve, and whose destiny is only to
perish.
'And how is this kind of incarnation effected, by which Christ Himself
becomes our new self? By a process of a free and moral nature, described
by Jesus in words which surprise, because they place His sanctification
upon nearly the same footing as our own: "As the living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me shall live by me."
'Jesus derived the nourishment of His life from the Father who had sent
Him: He lived by the Father. The meaning of that, doubtless, is, that
every time He had to act or speak, He first effaced Himself; then left
it to the Father to think, to will, to act, to be everything in Him.
Similarly, when we are called upon to do any act, or speak any word, we
must first efface ourselves in presence of Jesus; and after having
suppressed in ourselves, by an act of the will, every wish, every
thought, every act of our own self, we are to leave it to Jesus to
manifest in us His will, His wisdom, His power. Then it is that we live
by Him, as He lives by the Father. The process is identical in Jesus and
in us. Only in Jesus it was carried on with God directly, because He was
in immediate communion with Him; whilst in our case the transaction is
with Jesus, because it is with Him that the believer holds direct
communication, and through Him that we can find and possess the living
Father. In that lies _the secret_, generally so little understood, _of
Christian sanctification_.' (Godet, _Biblical Studies, N. T._, p. 190.)