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This is the 4th message in a series of messages regarding sanctification. This message addresses the topic of Christian perfection.
Written Excerpts:
Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Introduction:
We’ve
been speaking for a few weeks now about the matter of sanctification and what
it really involves. I have been sharing ideas that I have gleaned from a book
titled, “Called to Be Holy” by Dr.
John Oswalt.
We
have been trying to show that the NT call for Christians to be holy and to be
sanctified is firmly grounded in the message of the OT and the record of God’s
work with the people of Israel through the use of the covenant.
Covenants
were very familiar to near eastern cultures.
The
covenant God established through giving the law to Moses reveals important
truths about God’s character as well as the people’s character.
Things
that covenant revealed:
· God is completely separate from the world that He
created and He stands apart from any other being.
He can’t be manipulated
through the world as a source of power and magic.
· He is sovereign
Just like a king, He as
legitimate authority to require strict allegiance.
Can stipulate how humans
should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.
· God is gracious and faithful.
The Israelites did not deserve
His offer or His choosing of them.
God repeatedly maintained His
faithfulness and offered them forgiveness when He had every “right,” according
to the terms of the covenant, to completely destroy them.
· Covenant was never intended as an instrument for
starting a relationship with God, but it was intended to teach the people of
God how to live in a way that confirmed they belonged to the Lord.
In last week’s message we learned…
· Covenant also revealed that humans have an essential
defect in their hearts.
We are naturally inclined to
rebel against authority and insist on having our own way.
God promised through the
prophets to take away the stony heart
and replace it with a heart of flesh.
In other words, He would do a
work of grace in them that would remove their rebellious, self-centered heart
and replace it with a submissive and compliant heart.
Today,
we want to take a deeper look at this gift of grace that God wants to provide
for His people.
We
will be looking into the issue of perfection that is addressed in both the Old
and New Testaments.
Title
= “Nobody’s Perfect.”
Cliché - universally accepted
as absolutely true.
Often used as a “catch-all
excuse” for behavior that we know is wrong.
However,
I believe we can find evidence in the Bible that the phrase, “Nobody’s
perfect,” is not always true. I also
think we can discover that there is a “Christian perfection” that God has made
available through grace and desires for His people to achieve.
Proposition:
The
Bible repeatedly describes people that are in a committed, “covenant”
relationship with God as being perfect.
After
looking at some references where people are described as perfect, I want to
explore the answers to two questions:
What
does it mean to say something or someone is perfect?
What
is the scriptural expectation for Christians regarding perfection?
I.
Examples of people who are described as perfect
Gen.
6:9 – Noah was a just and perfect
man.
Ps.
101:2 – I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way… I will walk within my
house with a perfect heart.
Job 1:1 – …
that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
1 Kings 15:14 – …Asa's
heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.
2 Kings 20:3 – …O
LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect
heart….
These
are some examples from the OT of men who are described as perfect or having a
perfect heart.
All
of these examples I’ve read from KJV, but newer versions almost always use
different words other than “perfect,” probably due to our modern aversion to
thinking that any kind of perfection is possible.
If
you are like most people, you’re probably thinking, “What does the word perfect
really mean in these contexts?” We know that it is impossible for anyone to
live an absolutely perfect life, with zero mistakes, so it’s got to mean
something different, doesn’t it?
I
glad you asked that question. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the words
that are used.
II.
What does perfection mean?
OT Words & Meanings
A. One of the primary words in Hebrew is the root “tmm” (consonants only). (By adding
various vowels around those consonants we can form nouns, verbs and
adjectives.)
(Oswalt)
“Five different forms of this root are used to refer to human behavior that is
without fault…. Most occurrences of the verb [form] have to do with the
completion of an object or a process…. But there are four places [regarding Job
and David] where the verb is used of human behavior, and these show that the
kind of completion being talked [about] is of a moral and ethical nature.
“In
other words, Job’s behavior toward God is not partly obedient and partly
disobedient; it is wholly [completely] obedient. In the same way [David’s
prayer in Ps. 19], the person who is delivered from [presumptuous sin] will be
completely obedient. Rebellion will have no part in his or her life.”
This
same root word is used in an adjective form most often to describe sacrificial
animals that are complete in the sense that they are everything they are
expected to be; unblemished; with no defect.
(Oswalt)
Does not mean they were “show animals.”
i.e.
– it doesn’t mean that they could not be better in some way, or improved upon
in some way, but they were entirely without defects.
We
tend to think, “If it doesn’t win a blue ribbon, it’s not perfect.” Or, “If it
wins a blue ribbon in a local fair, but not at the state farm show, then it’s
not really perfect.”
But
that’s not the meaning of the word. If it is all that a lamb is supposed to be,
then it’s perfect.
Other
uses and forms of this word indicate the idea of a faultless attitude or
integrity and uprightness.
When
Elihu tells Job that he speaks with perfect knowledge (Job 36:4), he is
claiming to speak without false motives or deceitfulness. He is claiming a
quality of knowledge, not a quantity of knowledge.
When
David says that God’s way is perfect and it is God who makes his way perfect (2 Sam. 22:31, 33), David
does not mean that he has done everything right, but he is serving God with the
same quality of integrity as God has.
In
other words, David is not serving God for deceitful or base motives but out of
a pure heart of integrity.
B. A second word
used in the Hebrew is the root word containing the consonants “slm”. This is
the word that the Hebrew word “shalom” comes from and is often translated as
“peace.” It also has to do with idea of completeness, but rather than stressing
lack of blemish or defect, it carries the idea of “all parts being present,” or
“wholeness.” So “peace” carries the idea of complete well-being; everything is
present as it should be.
This
word is used many times to describe the heart of someone.
Since
“heart” describes the center of personality, including discernment, will and
affections, then a “whole heart” or “perfect heart” is someone that is
undivided in their thinking, their will and their choices.
If
you read about the kings of Judah and Israel, you will often read one of two
descriptions about each of them.
1.
“His heart was perfect toward God as
was that of his father David.”
2.
“His heart was not perfect toward the Lord his God as was the heart of his father
David.”
King
Asa (1 Kings 15:14) is described as a man whose heart was perfect toward God, even
though we are told in the same verse that he did not perfectly perform
everything God required.
How
is that possible? Presumably because his knowledge or understanding of God’s
requirements was limited.
In
this specific example we find that being complete or perfect in one’s devotion
to God and in one’s obedience to Him does not necessarily imply perfect
performance.
So
we’ve seen in the OT that the word perfect
primarily means wholeness / completeness / undivided; or unblemished / without
defect / all it was meant to be.
NT Words & Meanings
Don’t
want to take a lot of time here, because the Greek words in the NT are very
similar to what we have already described in the OT.
Two
Grk words are used to translate the 1 word for perfect that was used in the
Hebrew. The basic idea is the same, i.e. wholeness, completeness. It carries
the idea of being mature as adults rather than infants.
But,
it goes beyond the mere idea of maturing to adulthood. It also implies having
become all that can be expected.
James
1:4 admonishes us to let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
(Oswalt)
Here it shows that it means more than just becoming an “older” Christian, it
means becoming all that can rightly be expected of a follower of Christ.
The
word often translated as “perfect” also carries the meaning of being finally
brought to the appropriate end for which it was created.
There
is so much more that can be stated here, but to save time, let me just say that
it completely agrees with what we have already seen in the OT. = wholeness,
completeness, brought to the intended level for which we have been created.
So
we have seen that the meaning of the words used in the Hebrew and the Greek do
not require us to think of perfection in the absolute sense, where no more
growth or development is possible, but rather it’s a standard of motives and
behavior that is completely what God intended it to be.
III.
Are Christians expected to be perfect?
This
brings us to the second question.
Are
Christians expected to be perfect?
Well,
first of all let me say that many of the examples I gave when I was trying to
explain the word meanings were people that were described as perfect. If God
can do it for them, I believe He can
still do it for us, and wants to do
it.
We
also have specific commands like the one in James 1:4 that we referred to, as
well as the words of Jesus that was read earlier in the service, from Matt.
5:48 – “Therefore, be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.”
Jesus
is obviously not demanding absolute perfection to the same degree as God. No, (understood
in the context) He seems to be emphasizing the fact that God’s love for people
is not mixed, diluted, or polluted. So our love should be the same kind.
One
thing seems obvious, Jesus is not merely saying, “You must be mature as God is
mature.”
Conclusion:
So
many American Christians think that God is completely satisfied for us to just
live our lives any way we please, and we are entirely comfortable to use the
cliché, “Nobody’s perfect,” as an excuse to keep living a life that shows
little resemblance to the Lord we profess to love and serve.
What
I am hoping we all take away from this message today is that this modern
thinking is totally unscriptural.
God
has something far better for us.
(Oswalt)
Such a life [of perfection] is still
possible and it is still expected by God. It is possible to be perfect – whole,
complete, undivided – in our devotion to Him, and if our obedience is …
unintentionally limited by matters beyond our control, such as ignorance or
imperceptions, it is nevertheless possible for a person to give an obedience
which is perfect, that is, flawless, utterly without blame. However, that kind
of heart and that kind of a life are never merely the result of human effort…
As
we emphasized last week, we need the work of God’s grace to give us a new
heart; a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.
How
can He do it? By the power of His Holy Spirit. This will be the focus of our
message next time.
In
closing, let’s stand and sing the song that is printed on the insert in your
bulletin:
Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God
