THE PERFECTION OF THE BELIEVER

Matt. 5:48

Morning Meditation 12/8/14

Verse 48 says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Christian perfection is a completely misunderstood subject by a large segment of the professing family of God. I hope to clear up some of the misunderstanding in this article. Is human perfection necessary to salvation? Is it possible for a man to be perfect? Can God in His holiness and justice accept anything short of perfection and maintain His own holiness?

The word “Be” is a future indicative verb. Why the future tense? Doesn’t He want them to be perfect in the present? Is this a condition to salvation? You would think it would be in the imperative mood if Jesus were making this a condition to salvation. The word “ye” translates “humeis,” the plural you. In the Greek, personal pronouns are attached to the verb endings. But when emphasis is being made the pronoun is added. The emphasis in this verse then would be on “ye” and is referring to every one who heard Him and will ever hear Him through His Word.

The word “perfect” translates “teleios” and means “brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness.” This word comes from the root word “telos” which means, “end, termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time).” —Strong’s Dictionary. When Jesus cried “It is finished” on the cross, it was the perfect tense of this word that He used.

The words “even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” describe the kind of perfection Jesus is speaking about. The words “as your” translate a possessive plural personal pronoun. The word “Father” translates “pater” and means “generator or male ancestor, either the nearest ancestor: natural fathers.” Those who are being spoken to are born again believers because this is the only way that God would be their father. God is the creator of all. He is only a Father to the saved. If Jesus is acknowledging that God is their Father, He is not making this a condition to salvation because they are already saved. The words “which is in heaven” settle the issue of who the Father is of whom He speaks. The words “is perfect,” translate the same word for perfect about which Jesus is making this admonition. In other words Jesus is admonishing them to have the same perfection as their father in heaven has. Quite a goal, right? A question. How perfect do you think God is?

Leviticus 11:45 says, “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity . . .” When the priests served in the tabernacle they wore a holy crown that identified God as a holy God. Exodus 39:30 says, “And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.” God is a holy God and He cannot fellowship with or accept worship from anyone who is not as holy as He.

Now lets look at perfection in four ways:

THERE IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE. Jesus is the perfect example of perfection. First of all, He is perfect in His birth. Luke 1:35 says, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” He is the only one ever born that was perfect in His birth. Read Rom. 5:12 and Psa. 51:5.

He is perfect in His life. 1 Peter 2:22 says, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”1 Peter 1:19 says, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

The Father testified to His perfection. Matthew 3:16-17 says, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” You can be sure that God is not satisfied with anyone who has sin in his life. Jesus is the ONLY example of perfection.

Then we have a PERFECT POSITION. When a person is saved, he is put in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The words “in Christ” describe the new position of the believer. It is called “positional truth.” This simply means that our position as believers is “in Christ” and every thing that is true of Him is true of us. This is the way God sees it and describes it. Positional truth has nothing to do with feeling or how you think or even your faith. It is a family truth and is true of EVERY BELIEVER including those who are saved but out of fellowship. That it has to do with carnal Christians is brought out in 1 Cor. 1:2 which says, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” Many if not most of the Christians in Corinth were carnal and walked as men (1 Cor. 3:1-3). What does this have to do with perfection? Everything. 1 John 4:17 says, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.”(Caps mine for emphasis) What does, “as He is,” mean? Is Jesus perfect now? He always has been. He is in a perfect state in a perfect glorified body right now. Romans 8:30 says, “ Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” The word “glorified” translates “doxazo” and is an aorist active indicative verb. The aorist tense means that it happened at a point of time in the past. When did this glorification take place? I want to suggest it happens when we are saved. Most apply this to the future. They explain it as being as good as done with the Lord. This is true. But I do not believe that that interpretation is consistent with the use of the verb here (and we do believe in the VERBAL inspiration of the Bible). What part of you was saved when you were saved? It is evident that your old sin nature wasn’t because you still need to confess sin. Right? It is evident that your body was not saved because you are getting older each day and wrinkles are developing to your dismay!

It is important to be right on this point. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3: 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” You will notice that the first “Spirit” is capitalized and the second one not. It is because the second one is the human spirit. It is our spirits that are born again. God literally creates in us a SPIRITUAL MAN when He saves us. This is brought out in Ephesians 4:24: “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” The believer does not obtain perfection by human effort but by creation. We are created in Christ Jesus perfect.

If you are a believer in Christ, you are no longer an adamic man. You are a spiritual man created in Christ Jesus. You have already been glorified according to Romans 8:30 and are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). God has made Christ your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Cor.1:30). But you share the same body with an old sin nature that causes you to cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Then there is the PERFECT INDWELLING. The Perfect Holy Spirit indwells the new Spiritual man created at salvation. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer (Eph.. 1:13). The struggle in the Christian life is the struggle to allow Him to remain in charge (Gal. 5:17). So we have a Perfect Example, a perfect position, and a perfect Indwellor.

Next we have a PERFECT GOAL. This is brought out in Ephesians 4:12-13: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ..” This is perfection as a goal. This takes place through the teaching of the Word of God (see verse 11) by the gifted men. It is a perfection (maturity experientially) that has Christ as its goal: “ . . . unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” We are not to look to men as hero’s. We are to look to Christ (Heb. 12:2). While we won’t reach experiential perfection here, it is the goal throughout our pilgrim journey. It will have its glorious climax at His return. This is brought out in Phil. 3:20-21: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” May He come soon!

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White