It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps

By A.B. Simpson


United to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, we are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take our place as a man and settle our debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and reproduce Himself in us. If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have the same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of Christian holiness and divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life within us. Some say man can never be perfect. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We are all failures. This is true, but we should go further. We must take God's provision for our failure and rise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for our miserable selves. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take Him instead. It is hard for us to learn that we must relinquish even the good in order that we will depend upon divine impulses rather than even our best attainments.