Do you think that you are progressing in the Christian life? Do you see yourself as growing more holy than your peers? Perhaps the answer to both of these questions is yes. However, any degree of sanctification which we have attained to, that exceeds what other people have, is nothing compared to the holiness of God. As John Calvin Explains:
Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and to ponder his nature, and how completely perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power – the straightedge to which we must be shaped. Then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God.
J. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.1.2
