Musings,08/28/10, Biblical Freedom by John

Perfection as used in the Bible

We are all familiar with the word "perfection," aren't we? Student's, well some students, strive to make a "perfect" score. Some people strive to live a "perfect" life. If we think we have achieved it, we have unconsciously fallen into one of Satan's traps!

We deal with words from the time we are born until the time we die, but too often we lose an important or add a false connotation to a word when we translate it into another language. In English, more often than not, "perfect" does refer to everything being absolutely right, no error, ever! It did not in Hebrew or in Greek, the main languages in which the Bible was written.

Why can't we just decide to be perfect and then be perfect? Well, for one thing, Romans 3:22-24 says it well: "The righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." You see we are presently sinners. We cannot undo what we have already done. I discovered in art that when I add a smidgen of black pigment to a large amount of white pigment, it results in a shade of gray. If I reverse the procedure using a large amount of white, the result seems to be all white. When compared to an all-white pigment, it usually will be visually detectible that the black is still there. Spiritually, a sinner can never be anything except a sinner. The wonderful thing about Christ and our Father is that we don't have to be sinlessly perfect! Jesus died to cover our sins with His Own blood! I think somewhere in a past musing I mentioned an evangelist who wrote "sin" in bold red letters on a big sheet of white cardboard. Then he covered his sign with a thin layer of red plastic material. When we looked through the plastic, the word "SIN" disappeared. It was still there, of course, but his point was, God does not see our sins because He looks through the blood of Jesus. That simple physical illustration does make a point. We can't undo what we have done. It is part of our history, but it bears no penalty because we trust Jesus.

Now about this word, "perfect." In Greek, it is teleios. There are several words translated perfect in Hebrew, so I won't list them, but none of them refers to perfections in every way. I'm aware that some have a problem with Matthew 5:48 which says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Their argument is that we are to be sinless like God is. The only thing wrong with that is in thinking we can do that on our own, or even with the help of Jesus. As children of God in Christ, we should want to be like Him, and I have enough faith to believe that God's Spirit gives us the ability to become the person God intends us to be. That does not mean we will be as intelligent, as powerful, or in any other respect equal to our heavenly Father. He is Perfection! We will become perfect to a lesser degree. In Isaiah 14: 14 the last sinful goal of Lucifer in the King James, but simply Morning Star in the NIV is, "I will be like the Most High."

My hope is that everyone who trusts Jesus will find contentment in being a child of God and will not try to rise to the level of a god while he/she is on earth. I hope all of us are willing to rest in Jesus and receive whatever gifts or rewards He chooses to give us. I also hope that when we have received all of His gifts that we will be aware we have never been worthy of the least of His favors as a song author has put it.

The great Paul who rose from being a persecutor of "the way," to being the foremost person in sharing Jesus with the nations cried out, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" And then he answered his own question, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7: 24,25a). All who trust Jesus and commit their lives to Him are complete now, and we will become more complete as we approach the time when we meet Jesus face to face. All we have, and all we are, is the result of His work. We have nothing to brag about other than the joyous cry, "Jesus saves sinners! And I am one of those He saves!" That is perfection!