RENEWED IN HIS IMAGE
Chapter 4--BIBLE PERFECTION "I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou perfect." Genesis 17:1. Some people would like to do away with the word perfect in the Bible--possibly along with pure, righteous, blameless, and holy. They consider themselves too weak to even try to reach this goal.
Does God ask us to reach an impossible standard of righteousness? He knows we are weak and sinful. Even people with tremendous will-power can't reach such a high standard of perfection on their own. So, does God really expect it? Let's see what the Bible says.
"For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves and ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Leviticus 11:44. Can we take this literally? First of all, how can we be as holy as God is?
We read in the Psalms these interesting words: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Psalm 19:7-9.
God's law is perfect, righteous, pure, enlightening, converting--giving wisdom and joy to those who allow God to write His law in their minds (Hebrews 10). Why is the law able to convert a man? The law is a mirror which reveals to us our sins, for "sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. It also reflects to us the goodness of God's character--goodness that leads us to repentance. As we search our hearts and meditate on God's commandments, we find the need of a Saviour. The Holy Spirit brings us to repentance in the process. This work is continued day by day as we study His word and pray for humble hearts.
"But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Malachi 3:2, 3. Is God's promise only for a few priests or ministers? No. It's for all of us. God promises to purify and cleanse any one who will cooperate with Him by giving himself to the Lord daily.
To be thoroughly pure is to be perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48. How can this be? Certainly not in our own power or strength. Christ relied on His Father throughout His sinless life on earth. Faith in the Father's power to keep Him from sinning, made our Saviour victorious at every step of the way. Faith in Christ's divine power will give us victory over sins in our lives. But God does nothing against our wills. We must make decisions every day, to walk in His steps and thus, gain these victories every day.
In order to be victorious we need to keep our priorities where they belong. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added on to you." Matthew 6:33. All what things? Everything we really need to go through this life. Yet, this life is granted to us to prepare for eternity.
Jesus' prayer for us in John 17 ought to spur us on to live for His glory. "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth..And for their sakes I sanctify Myself; that they also might be sanctified through the truth." John 17:17-19. How was Jesus sanctified? Through willing obedience to His Father's commandments. And how was He enabled to obey? Through the Holy Spirit working in His heart and mind. And how are we sanctified? The same way--through faith in His power, through filling our minds with God's word, as Christ did, and communing with God, as Christ did.
It is by faith our hearts are purified (Acts 15:9. "for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Romans 1:17 (see Habakkuk 2:4). A living faith is an active faith. We can only retain justification (pardon for past sins) if we live day by day, trusting in Christ's power to save us from our sins. In other words, as our faith grows, our repentance deepens, and our hatred of sin increases. Thus, we will long to be rid of every particle of it in our lives.
"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Romans 6:22. We are justified and we are sanctified each day. We need to search our hearts daily, make right choices daily, repent daily, turn away from pet sins daily. God can and will give us victories daily. victory is given to the humble and contrite soul. We can bear "fruit unto holiness"--fruit which will lead to holiness of character.
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your ind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Romans 12:1, 2.
When our body temple is under the control of the Spirit of God, the higher powers of the mind are enabled to control the lower powers of fleshly desires. When we daily, and hourly, surrender to God, He can change us. Our characters will grow more like Christ's--our thoughts and feelings will be in harmony with Him.
"So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall also confirm unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 1:7, 8.
We are made to be blameless in the sight of God when we trust in His righteous merits. We can do nothing ourselves which would give us credit for righteousness, but if we are not allowing Him to work in us to change us, we won't be accounted blameless in the end. We must give God the credit for the good fruits we bear in the sanctifying process as well as the credit He deserves for justifying us when we fall into sin (and repent). The work will be finished in us by the undeserved grace He gives us.
"Awake to righteousness, and sin not." 1 Corinthians 15:34. With the aid of the Spirit, we can see ourselves as we really are and see how willing God is to restore His image in us.
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Corinthians 7:1. As we're made humble and contrite by the view of our utter sinfulness, it's hard for us to understand God's plan for our full restoration. Can it be true He will actually be able to perfect holiness in such a wretched soul as I?
Yes. But He needs our cooperation. "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24. We were created righteous in the beginning of time, and God has the power to re-create us to the righteousness Adam possessed before the fall.
Christ plans to present to Himself a church "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 5:25-27. We are to be "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Phillipians 1:11.
This righteousness is not merely the righteousness we receive when we are justified, which is accounted to our credit because of His merits. But as our faith is exercised we bear "the fruits of righteousness." It's tangible and real. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among who ye shine as lights in the world." Phillipians 2:13, 15.
We've been sinning a long time, and it takes time for the Spirit of God to do the work of cleansing and purifying our hearts. Nor can we claim to be righteous or perfect. As we gain victories we will always remember how weak we really are, and how much we need His power to keep us from falling into sin. Also, we'll often see more defects to be corrected, as we search our hearts honestly. Paul speaks of His own life: "not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after..but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 3:12-14.
We who are living in the last days of earth's history need to be aware of our special "high calling." God will have a "peculiar people" who will reflect His image perfectly. They will be the "first fruits" of the rest of the saved. What makes them unique? Only a few individuals have gone to heaven without seeing death. But God plans for a whole group to have his experience when He comes in the clouds to take us home.
This group will be living during a time when Christ has left His position as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. He no longer offers His blood for man's sins. God tells us in Revelation, those who are not ready will be unready still and those who are holy will be holy still. Man's probation will be closed.
Christ presents those who are ready as "holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight; if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Colossians 1:21-23. Now is the time to become settled forever in our faith. We need a faith that will move mountains. And we can have such a faith if we let Him take complete control of our lives.
THE END
