1 Corinthians 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

Remember my devotional called Emulation? Who is it you are emulating? Here we have four examples set before us, all godly, only one is God. We have a standard set before us that is perfect. Jesus Christ walked His earthly life in perfection. He walked upright in every way.

Amos 7:7-8 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:

Jesus Christ is that plumb line. He is the standard to which uprightness is measured. Look at the last line: “I will not again pass by them any more:” No man can or ever will meet that standard of uprightness. I cannot do it, you cannot do it. What chance do we have?

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

We no longer have to stand perfectly upright to be righteous.

Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Romans 3:24-26 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Ephesians 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

The inner man is the dwelling place of God. He does not push you aside and occupy your inner being, He is spirit and adds that fourth dimension. It only takes three dimensions to define the limits of any object. Breadth, length and depth define you as an object, it is the height that makes you more than just an object.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

This is where your spiritual life happens, in the inner man, with Christ. To grow in Christ is to allow His presence to change the inner man, to go beyond knowledge, to be intimate in ways you cannot be with anyone else. When the inner man changes the outward expressions, the appearances, speech, communications and actions of the outer man begins to reflect the new man in Christ.

Outward and seeming, inward and real.