WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PAUL    (SPIRITUALITY)

The better, the longer, a man gets to know Jesus Christ, and the closer he gets to Him, two things are bound to happen in his life.  First, he is bound to see more and more clearly that standard of perfection in Christ by which he must judge his own life. A man might think that he does his duties and behave perfectly well … until one day he sees a real expert doing the same duty and behaving, and then he learns, he sees, rather realizes how inadequate his own standard of performance is. 

He might think that he is fairly satisfactory in whatever he does, and that he has nothing to learn, nothing to worry about, as long as he compares himself to his neighbours and to his fellow men. But the question that the Christian has to ask is not: “Am I as good as my neighbour?”  In actual fact the question should be:  “Am I as good as Jesus Himself?”

No human being can ever have any cause of satisfaction when the standard against which he sets himself is Jesus Christ. Such a comparison leaves him in a constant mourning that he falls so far short. Secondly, the more he gets to know Jesus Christ, the more he realizes the cost and effect of sin.  If the effect of sin was such as to necessitate the Passion and Death of Jesus on the Cross, consequently sin and its effect stands revealed in all its terrible consequence. Sin is completely unmasked and we are face to face with stark reality. And he realises that he can do nothing about it, but mourn as long as sin has one last grip on his life.