Will you please turn to Philippians 3—the letter to the Philippians, chapter 3? Just one verse: verse 15.
I am reading from a new translation, so it may be a little different from yours, but the substance is the same.
“As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal unto you.”
—Philippians 3:15
Turn also to Genesis 17:1.
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.”
—Genesis 17:1
And Matthew 5:48.
“Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
—Matthew 5:48
Then Hebrews 6:1-3.
“Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this will we do, if God permit.”
—Hebrews 6:1-3
Finally, Hebrews 13:20-21.
“Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus,
make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
—Hebrews 13:20-21
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do gather together in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus. We believe that Thou art here with us. We are standing on holy ground. We do desire to remove our shoes, as it were, and listen to what Thou hast to say to us.
We are all here. Speak, O Lord; Thy servants hear. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
As I was before the Lord, asking the Lord what we should hear together this time, I felt it may be of the Lord that we should hear together on this matter of Christian perfection.
We know this is a subject that is very greatly ignored. It is also one that is very much misunderstood.
We believe Christian perfection is the will of God. It has much to do with God’s eternal purpose. But the enemy knows how important Christian perfection is, so you see how the enemy tries every way to confuse that issue.
Among God’s people today, either we have never heard of Christian perfection and whether there can be Christian perfection on this earth, or people may have heard it, but they are very much confused. They really do not know what Christian perfection really is.
So we do need to wait upon the Lord, that the Lord will somehow clarify this issue for us and bring us into His mind, that we may really not only know, but enter into, what is Christian perfection.
Now, what is not Christian perfection? First of all, Christian perfection is not sinless perfection.
There is only One Who is sinless perfect, and that is our Lord Jesus. Aside from our Lord Jesus, there is no one throughout the ages in the history of mankind—there is not even one—who is sinless perfect.
We are born in sin, and we have sin. Only the Lord Jesus is sinless perfect. He Who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God.
When our Lord Jesus was born, He was called the Holy One because He was born of the Spirit of God overshadowing the womb of a virgin.
Our Lord Jesus did not inherit the sinful nature of the Adamic race. Throughout His life, He never knew what sin was. Not only did He never commit sin, but He never knew what sin was. He was always obedient to His Father.
Because He is sinless perfect, that qualified Him to be made sin for us. So, brothers and sisters, first of all, we are not talking about sinless perfection.
Secondly, Christian perfection is not the eradication of sin.
You know, I was saved among the holiness people. Among the holiness people, they believe that you can receive a second blessing. Their second blessing is that you will pass through an experience, and from that experience sin will be rooted out from you. From that day onward, you will never sin. Very beautiful.
But if you read the Word of God, you find that sin as a nature resides in us. It is not eradicated; it is isolated.
In Romans 6:6, we are told:
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.”
—Romans 6:6
Or, strictly speaking, it may be unemployed—out of employment—that we may be delivered from sin, from the power of sin.
As long as we live on this earth, as long as we are still in this mortal body, sin as a nature still resides in us. But thank God, it is isolated because our old man was crucified with Christ.
So this body is out of employment, and it has to be employed anew. It is employed by the Lord unto righteousness and holiness.
Because of the salvation of the Lord, a Christian is not obligated to sin. We may not sin; we should not sin. But it does not mean that we cannot sin.
If you read 1 John 2, you will find the Apostle John said, “I write these things to you that ye may not sin.” Thank God, we may not sin. We are not obligated to sin because there is the redemption of the Lord.
But he said, “If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate”—a Paraclete—our Lord Jesus the righteous, Who is before the Father. He is our propitiation, not only for us, but for the whole world.
So, brothers and sisters, again you will find Christian perfection is not the eradication of sin. We can overcome sin, but it is not eradicated—not until we put on a new body, a spiritual body.
Now, thirdly, Christian perfection is not limited to a few. In other words, Christian perfection is not for the elite. It is for all God’s children.
The call to perfection is a call to all the children of God. If you are saved, if you are born again, if you are a child of God, you are called to Christian perfection. The calling is universal to all God’s people.
Oftentimes, we think Christian perfection is only for a few very special people. The reason why we think it that way is because we look at our walk instead of looking at God’s calling.
When you look at your walk, you think, “Well, I have not arrived yet. It is impossible. Maybe a few special saints arrive, so Christian perfection is for them. It is not for us common believers.”
But, brothers and sisters, do not confuse calling with walking. Calling is from God, and God’s calling is universal. He calls all of us into perfection because our God is perfect. He cannot call us less than what He is.
Whether we respond to His calling—that is our responsibility. Unfortunately, oftentimes we fail in our responsibility, and because we fail, we say we are not called. That is not true. You are called, and because you are called, therefore let us respond.
If you read the Word of God in the Old Testament, you find in Genesis 17:1 that when Abraham was ninety-nine years old—now Abraham is the father of faith, and we are to walk in his footsteps.
Thank God, by faith, when God called him, he obeyed. He came out of Ur of the Chaldees. He followed the Lord, not knowing where he was going, but he knew God was leading him. If you read the book of Genesis, you find how God led him on in the way of faith.
In Genesis 15, you find that God revealed Himself to Abraham and gave him great promises. He believed in God, and because he believed, he was reckoned as righteous. Thank God for that.
But when you come to chapter 16, you find something happened. God promised to give him seed as the stars of heaven, but he did not even have one child.
You remember how he hoped that from Hagar he might get seed, and tried to help God a little bit to fulfill God’s promise. He did that when he was eighty-six years old. He got Ishmael.
But after that, God did not have a word for him for thirteen years. God was silent with him because he was not following the Lord. He was not walking perfect in the sight of God.
Those thirteen silent years were very deep discipline to Abraham. But after thirteen years, when he was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and spoke to him again. God said, “I am the Almighty God. Walk before My face, and be perfect.”
In other words, it tells us that God’s thought concerning Abraham is perfection. God was not pleased with Abraham when he was not walking perfect before Him.
But God said, “I am the Almighty God—El Shaddai. I am the all-sufficient God. Walk before Me, and be perfect.”
How can you be perfect? What is the secret of perfection? Remember, the secret of perfection is not in you. The secret of perfection is in God.
God said, “I am the Almighty God. Remember that I am the all-sufficient God. Because I am the all-sufficient God, if you walk before My face—just be before Me, just wait upon Me, just see My face, just trust Me—and if you do, you will be perfect.”
That is Christian perfection, brothers and sisters.
If we know God, if we know Who He is, and we are in constant communion with Him—not walking behind Him, hiding from Him, but walking before His face—we see Him daily. Brothers and sisters, He will perfect us. He will do the work.
Go back a little bit. You remember Noah. If you read Genesis 6, you will find that Noah found favor in the sight of God. Then later on you find that Noah, the Bible says, was perfect in his generation.
First, he found favor in the sight of God. In other words, he found grace before God. Then he was said to be perfect in his generation. So again, you find a secret here: the secret of perfection is the grace of God.
If you find grace in God, then you will be perfect.
This perfection was in his generation; in other words, according to the light that one has in his time. It does not tell us that it is sinless perfection.
Noah was a perfect man, perfect in the sight of God, but it was not sinless perfection. As a matter of fact, we do find later on that he got drunk.
But he found grace in the sight of God, and he was perfect in his generation, according to the light he had at his time.
So, brothers and sisters, how can we be perfect before God? If we know the grace of God, and if we obey the light that God has given to us and walk in it.
God is light; He dwells in the light. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins.
Another person: we know that the book of Job, so far as we know, is the first written book in the Bible. Job lived in the time of the patriarchs. He was not even a Jew; actually, he lived in Edom, in the land of Uz.
But if you read the book of Job, you find the Bible says Job was perfect and upright. He feared God and abstained from evil.
He was considered as perfect before God in his generation. Why? Because he feared God and abstained from evil.
It does not say he was sinless perfect. It does not say that he had the roots of sin eradicated and therefore could sin no more. No, it just said he feared God and abstained from evil.
Now, if you want to hear what Job said about himself, turn to Job 9:20-21.
“Though I be righteous, mine own mouth shall condemn me:
Though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse.
I am perfect; I regard not myself;
I despise my life.”
—Job 9:20-21
In other words, Job knew very well that if he considered himself as perfect, God could prove him perverse. So he did not think of himself as perfect, and yet God said he was perfect because he feared God and abstained from evil.
Use another illustration: David. David is a man after God’s own heart. But was David perfect—sinless perfect? Everybody knew he was not.
Yet David talked about perfection. If you read Psalm 37:37, it is easy to remember:
“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
For the end of that man is peace.”
—Psalm 37:37
David was a man after God’s own heart. He knew where God’s heart was, so he said, “Mark the perfect, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.”
Then turn to Psalm 138:8. That is almost like a prayer of David concerning this matter of perfection.
“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me:
Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, endureth for ever;
Forsake not the works of Thine own hands.”
—Psalm 138:8
In other words, David believed that God would perfect him. It is the lovingkindness of God that perfects him. It is the work of God that perfects him.
In other words, perfection is God’s work. Because of His mercy, because of His lovingkindness, He will perfect you to the praise of His glory.
Now, if you turn to the New Testament, of course, in Matthew 5:48, our Lord Jesus said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
If this is not Christian perfection, what is it? To whom does the Lord say such words: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”?
If you read Matthew 5, you find the Lord Jesus went up into the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth and spoke what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
In other words, these words were spoken to the disciples. They were not spoken to the multitude. The multitudes came and overheard what the Lord spoke to His disciples, but these words were addressed directly to the disciples because only the disciples are able to hear these words.
If you are not a disciple of Christ, if you hear these words and try to imitate them, try to do them, you will find it is impossible. You cannot do it; it condemns you.
But if you are a disciple of Christ, you will find the possibility is there. So the Lord Jesus said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
You know, perfection is after God’s character. Because our God, our Father, is perfect, therefore we should be perfect.
Perfection here is not concerned with deity. I hope we will make it very clear at the very beginning: it does not mean that we should be so perfect that we become deified.
We are always human beings. Thank God, we are human beings. Do not try to be an angel. You are a man, a woman, a human being, and for eternity we are human beings.
We are created in God’s own image; that is higher than the angels. But we are never deified. Remember, God is always God, and we are always human.
But we need to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. In what sense is that? It means that we should have the same character as our Father has, because we are His children. We are born with His life. His life is in us.
Therefore, we need to have that life develop into a character that is like God.
God loves the good man and He loves the bad man. He gives rain to the good and to the bad. He lets the sun shine upon the bad and shine upon the good. In other words, there is the love of God there.
So the Lord said, be perfect in love, as your heavenly Father is perfect in love. He is concerned with our conduct, our walk, and our Christian character. We need to develop our Christian character so that we may be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
You remember in Matthew 19 a young man, a young ruler—a good young man. You do not find it today.
He ran to the Lord. He knelt before the Lord among the multitude and said, “Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
The Bible says the Lord looked at him and loved him. He was a rarity, even in that time, and of course today too: a young man desiring eternal life.
Because he desired eternal life so much, he was not ashamed to kneel before the Lord and ask the Lord to teach him. He was a good young man.
So the Lord said, “Why do you call Me good? There is only One good: it is God. God is the only good One. You are not good. Do not think that you are good. You are not. Only One is good.”
But he was confused. He thought eternal life was something to be earned, and by doing good he might earn eternal life.
So the Lord told him, “Well, if you really want to be good, keep the commandments.” He said, “Well, what commandments?”
The Lord called to him the second table of stone, not the first table of stone. The first table contains the four commandments concerning our relationship with God. But the Lord called to him the commandments concerning his relationship with human beings, because that was something he could understand.
He said, “From childhood I have kept them.” Yes, he kept them in the letter, but not in the spirit. So when the Lord challenged him with the spirit, you find he had to go away sadly, because he had not loved his neighbor as himself.
The Lord said, “All right, you are good. Now let Me tell you what good is. If you want to be perfect”—now remember, he asked the Lord for good, and the Lord said, “If you want to be perfect,” because perfection is good.
“If you want to be perfect, sell all that you have, because the Lord knew that he loved money too much. Give to the poor, keep the spirit of the commandments, and come and follow Me.”
It does not mean that if he gave away to the poor, he would be perfect. No, it was to get rid of the barrier: come and follow Me.
In other words, with man it is impossible; with God all things are possible. So, brothers and sisters, if you want to be perfect, it is impossible with you, but it is possible with God.
Do not think that you can perfect yourself. You can try to perfect yourself; you will go away sadly like that young man. But thank God, if you just trust His grace, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can even think of. He is able.
You know, if you read the letter to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 2:6, Paul says, “But we speak wisdom among the perfect.”
From verse 1 through verse 5, Paul said, “When I came among you, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
“I did not come with flowery speech or great wisdom, as it were. I presented to you simply, with fear and trembling, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I knew nothing else among you.”
Then in verse 6 he suddenly changed. He said, “But among the perfect, we speak wisdom.” Of course, if you read the description of that wisdom, you know he is talking about the church. That is the wisdom of God.
But he said, “Among the perfect, we speak wisdom.” In other words, you find there are people who are perfect—who are considered as perfect.
Perhaps if you read 1 Corinthians, you may say, “Well, probably they are the elders, not all the believers.” But if you turn to 2 Corinthians 13, when Paul concluded the letter, he said, “Finally, brethren, rejoice; be perfected.”
In other words, he said, “Be perfected, brethren”—every brother, every sister, because our sisters are female brothers. You know, male brothers and female brothers: we are all brothers. Brother, be perfect. It is for all.
Read Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 6. You find the writer says, “You holy brethren, who receive that heavenly calling, now it is time for you to leave the beginning of the word and go on into perfection—full growth.”
Do not just remain on the foundation. The foundation must be laid, but after the foundation is laid, you need to build on it and go into full growth.
So, brothers and sisters, if you read the Bible, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, I am just giving you a few illustrations to see that perfection is what God is after in you.
Perfection is based upon God Himself. Because God is perfect, how can you imagine that He will call us into imperfection? It is contradictory to the very character of God. He loves us so much. He wants us to be like Him.
Now, what is Christian perfection?
This very word perfect in Greek has several words, but I think if we mention two, that should be enough, because these are the two main words.
One is teleios—T-E-L-E-I-O-S. The word teleios means full-grown, mature, complete, sound, and complete.
When you apply it to a Christian, it means Christian maturity.
Now there is another word: katartizō—K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O. It means mending, like mending the nets; or, when bones are out of joint, fitting them together. It means to equip, prepare, or make ready.
When it is applied to a Christian, it means spiritual equipment.
In contrasting these two words, teleios refers to Christian experience and Christian life, while katartizō refers to Christian service.
Teleios refers to Christian maturity in relation to character. Katartizō refers to Christian equipment: we are equipped for service.
So in the New Testament, you find these two principal words are both translated “perfect.” Either it refers to character—that is, you are maturing and putting on the character of Christ—or it refers to being equipped with spiritual gifts that you may serve the Lord according to His will.
That is the word perfect. So perfection does not mean sinless perfection. It means mature and equipped.
When we first believe in the Lord Jesus, we are born again. We are born from above.
But, brothers and sisters, when we are born physically, we are a baby. We are not like Adam. When he was created, he was created a full-grown man. He did not go through babyhood, childhood, and adolescence.
But aside from Adam, when we were born, we were all born as little babies. Even our Lord was born as a little baby. Thank God, He went through babyhood and childhood.
So spiritually, when we are born again, brothers and sisters, do not forget: we are babes in Christ. We have a new life. We have the life of God. We have the life of Christ in us. There is such potential there.
But when we are born, we are only babes. Now, babies are beautiful. Everybody loves babies. There is not a baby that is not beautiful.
But a baby is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is manhood and womanhood. If one should remain a babe after thirty years, everybody would shake their heads. Ugly.
Now spiritually, it is the same thing. When we are first born, we are babes in Christ, but that is not the will of God.
The will of our heavenly Father is that we may grow up into manhood and womanhood, that we may be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. That image refers to character. That is the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, unfortunately many believers are so happy to be babes. Why? Because as long as you are babes, people have to take care of you. You have no responsibility whatsoever.
But that is not the will of God. He wants us to grow. If we do not grow, well, He still loves us; He still takes care of us, that is true. But how it hurts. It does not fulfill His purpose.
So you need to grow. Look at the Corinthian believers. Paul was with them for a year and a half. They were so privileged.
But not long after Paul left—several years later—Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 3, you find Paul says, “When I was with you, I treated you as babes because you were babes. You were fleshly.”
That word “fleshly” means you are of the flesh; that is your element. I would like to use another word: you are fleshy.
You know, a baby is very fleshy. Why? Because at midnight, when he feels hungry, he does not mind your sleep. He will cry. He will not stop until you feed him. Very fleshy.
You find he just exposes himself, showing you what he is. There is no pretension. The older you grow, the more facade you put on. But a baby is just fleshy—all flesh.
When you are a babe in Christ, you are like that. There is no hiding. If you are not happy with your brothers and sisters, you speak your mind. If you are not happy with what I am talking about, you stand up and walk out.
A certain period is allowed for you to be fleshly. You cannot expect newly born believers to be full-grown. You have to allow a certain time for them to grow.
But after a few years, Paul says, “You are still carnal.” You are still fleshly. That is not merely the material you are made of; it has a moral tinge to it.
In other words, after a few years, you ought to outgrow your carnality. You ought to know to put your flesh to the cross. But you still live in the flesh like the people in the world.
You still have to be told that you are not exercised spiritually to discern the more excellent things. That is very wrong—very wrong.
If you read the book of Hebrews, you find the same thing. The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 5 tells us, “By this time you ought to be teachers. You should be able to help others. But now you still have to be fed with milk. You cannot digest solid food.”
Solid food is for the grown-up, but milk is for babes. Now, what is milk? Milk is predigested food. Your mother digests the food; it becomes milk for you.
So you are so weak that you are not able to absorb solid food. You have to have milk to feed you. You cannot take solid food. You are not exercised in your spiritual senses, and that is very wrong.
So the writer said, you should leave the foundation—not leave the foundation in the sense of abandoning it, but go beyond the foundation. Build on the foundation and go into full growth, into perfection.
So, brothers and sisters, is that not the call of God to every one of us? We are called for Christian perfection. We are called to grow up into maturity. We are called to be equipped for service. That is for every believer. This is the will of God.
Is there danger in Christian perfection? How do you know you have arrived, or you have not arrived?
On the one hand, you find Paul in 1 Corinthians says, “Among the perfect.” There must be people who are perfect. Yet, on the other hand, how do we know that we can be considered among the perfect? Is there a standard?
My brothers and sisters, I meditated on it. I waited upon the Lord, and I just propose this to you. I hope you will think about it. If it is of the Lord, accept it; if it is not, reject it.
But this is just the way I feel before the Lord: I feel Christian perfection is both absolute and relative.
Christian perfection has an absolute standard, because God is the standard.
The Bible says, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Can you think of God as not absolutely perfect?
He is perfect in love, perfect in mercy, perfect in beauty, perfect in purity, perfect in holiness, perfect in righteousness—perfect in everything. He is perfect.
Because He is the standard, I do believe there is a standard for perfection. There is a standard.
But you remember the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He said, “I cannot say that I have arrived.”
“Oh, how I long to be apprehended, that I may apprehend Him, as I was apprehended by Him. God has a purpose in my life. God wants me to be perfect like Christ, and how I long to be like Christ.”
“But I have not attained it. I pursue. I forget that which is behind, and I stretch myself toward the goal, the high calling, for the prize that is on high.”
Brothers and sisters, Paul was already in prison in Rome when he wrote this letter—a mature Christian, so mature that he had helped many, many people. Yet he said, “No, I am still pursuing.”
When you see perfection with God as the goal, you are on the way. You never arrive.
Not only will you not arrive in this life, in your lifetime; even in eternity, you will never arrive. All the thrill of eternity will never dull.
In eternity, revelation will be so fast—not like today. You know, our revelation comes perhaps once in a lifetime, so slowly, and it is always limited.
But in eternity, light will come with full brightness and with such speed, and yet it takes eternity to know God. You are still knowing Him. You are still in the way of perfection—never arriving.
Well, that is the thrill of being a Christian: never arrive, always striving, always something ahead of you. You think you are right, and you look up, and He is ahead, and you have to run after Him.
So when you see there is an absoluteness of perfection, then, brothers and sisters, the wonder of it is that we are always pursuing. Is that not good?
Yet on the other hand, Christian perfection is relative. By relative, I mean there is a point you will come to.
When you are saved and you try to pursue the Lord, you begin to grow. When you grow to a certain point, it seems as if you cross a threshold. When you cross the threshold, you are considered among the perfect.
Among the perfect are not those who are absolutely perfect—never. But Paul said there are people among the perfect because they have crossed the threshold.
Now, what is the threshold? Let me use another illustration.
You remember the children of Israel. There they were in Egypt as slaves, but God delivered them out of Egypt.
What is God’s purpose? God’s purpose is to bring them into Canaan, not just out of Egypt. Of course, if you are in Egypt, you will never be in Canaan. But coming out of Egypt is for coming into Canaan. That is the purpose of God.
God never wants us merely to be delivered out of sin, out of the world. God wants to deliver us into the fullness of Christ.
But when the children of Israel were in Egypt, they did not know themselves. So God gave them the Ten Commandments, the law, to prove—not to God, but to themselves—that in themselves it is impossible.
They said, “Whatever God commands, we will do,” out of their zeal—honest, but deceived.
For forty years, they wandered in the wilderness. Those forty years were to reveal to them who they were. They were flesh. Even though they had been delivered out of Egypt, in themselves they were still flesh.
But then, in the mercy of God, God brought them into Canaan—a new generation. They crossed the River Jordan, and after they crossed the River Jordan, they were in Canaan.
When they were in the wilderness, God rained manna day after day to sustain their lives for forty years. As they crossed the Jordan and settled there, the manna stopped because they began to eat the old corn of the land.
You see the difference? In a sense, after they crossed the River Jordan, they were considered among the perfect. But they had to learn to possess their possession.
The possibility was there. They could possess the land. They could not possess it when they were in the wilderness, but now they could possess the land because they were already in the land.
So, brothers and sisters, using this as an illustration, what I am thinking is this: is there a threshold in our spiritual life that we must cross in order to go the way of the perfect? I believe there is.
It is Romans 6:6.
Brothers and sisters, what is the River Jordan? The River Jordan is co-death with Christ.
The Red Sea is there, but you find it is the Word of God that divided the sea, and they went through it. By the power of God, they were delivered out of death into life.
But the River Jordan is different. The ark went through before them, and the ark speaks of Christ.
In other words, in baptism there is the Red Sea, symbolizing that we are baptized unto Christ. At the River Jordan, we are baptized unto His death. So there is a co-death there.
Even though we are saved, there is still our old man. Inside is the new man, but outside is the old man. Inside is Christ, but outside is ourselves.
Because of this, we are hindered from perfection. Therefore, we have to come to a place where we begin to realize that there is no good in me—that is, in my flesh.
Do not even try to be good, to keep the commandments, because we have tried, but we could not. So we begin to realize what Christ has done for us.
He knew it long before we knew it. He knew that there was no good in us. Therefore, when He died, He took our old man—He took us—and crucified us with Him on the cross.
My brothers and sisters, we do not believe it. We think we are too good to be crucified.
So after we are saved, we try to use our old man, our old energy, to serve God and try to keep God’s commandments, until we come to a point and see there is no good in us.
God has already crucified us with Christ two thousand years ago, but this dead man is still trying.
Then one day we realize, “We were crucified with Christ. No longer I; it is Christ Who lives in me.” I have given up myself.
In myself and in serving God, I am dead, buried, out of sight. It is Christ Who lives in me. I look to Him. He lives through me.
Brothers and sisters, when you come to that, you cross the threshold. You are among the perfect, because the way of perfection is now wide open to you.
You know, lots of believers do not grow. Why? Because they are all stuck there. They are out of Egypt, but they have not crossed the Jordan.
They are like the two and a half tribes that stayed on the east side of Jordan. They are never in the land.
So, brothers and sisters, how we need to ask the Lord to really show us that Christ not only bore our sins on the cross so that our sins are forgiven, but Christ bore you and me on the cross.
So, no longer I, no longer you; it is now Christ. Do you believe it?
If you believe it, if you stand on it, you cross the threshold. The way of perfection is wide open to you. Now you are on the way of growing up.
Brothers and sisters, what is Christian life? What is Christian service? Christian life is nothing but Christian perfection.
Christian life is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Christian life is growing into Christ. Christian life is putting on the character of Christ. That is Christian life: to be perfect in Christ.
In Colossians 1, you find Paul says:
“The mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to His saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
—Colossians 1:26-27
Now this is the mystery: Christ in you, the hope of glory. Is Christ in you? Here you are. So there is hope there.
Hope is something in the future. You have not obtained it yet, but there is a hope. Why is the hope glory? What is glory? God is glory. To be conformed to the image of Christ, that is glory.
So he says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now listen carefully:
“Whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.”
—Colossians 1:28
Now, that is the purpose of God: Christ in you, the hope of glory; every man perfect in Christ. That is Christian life.
Then in Colossians 2, Paul speaks of the great conflict he has for the believers, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Again, you find that all Paul labors for is to bring the saints into that perfection in Christ Jesus.
You remember Ephesians 4. God gave gifts to the church to equip the saints, to perfect the saints—to mature them and equip them.
They are brought into function for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body in love.
So whether you think of Christian maturity in life, or whether you think of Christian equipment in service, you find the same thing: our goal, God’s purpose, is that we be perfect. That is our calling.
So, brothers and sisters, this afternoon I would just like to put this before you: you have a wonderful calling. Every one of you is called to Christian perfection—to maturity in life and to being equipped with gifts for the service of God.
God willing, tomorrow afternoon, we would like to hear together on the way to Christian perfection. But I do hope that you will pray much, that the Lord will really show us how we can enter into this matter of Christian perfection, because I believe it is the will of God.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do acknowledge that human words can only hide Thy thought.
We pray that Thou wilt, by Thy Spirit, bring Thy Word into the hearts of all the brothers and sisters, creating in us a desire for Christian perfection.
O Lord, Thou art the only One Who can do it. We just pray that, if it please Thy heart, Thou wilt do this in every one of us.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.