THE JOURNEY TO PERFECTION
We, like Jesus, must learn obedience through the things we suffer. This is the suffering which results from the death of self will. Paul said, “I die daily…”
Hebrews 5:8-9 Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered;
And being made perfect He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey Him;
I can only think of Jesus as He suffered in prayer in the garden, pleading with God the Father to take away the cup that was before Him. The cup He spoke of was the agonizing death on the cross to come the following day, which was the will of God for Him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Luke 22:44 And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
His agony in the garden was His mental and emotional suffering which was so intense; He “sweat as it were” great drops of blood.” As agonizing as His death on the cross must have been, I believe there was as much suffering for Jesus in the garden as on the cross, as He brought His flesh and His mind into subjection to his Spirit and to the will of God the Father. In any event, He surely suffered much in the garden. He laid down his desires, His will, His intellect and emotions, to the will of God. So shall we suffer likewise, as we seek to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and give our old lives up in submission to the will of God. This is necessary in order to have Him effect the mortification of our flesh through the power of the Spirit and then to resurrect in us the life and nature of Christ.
2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the
knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
According as His divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of
Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature
2 Corinthians 10:5 -6 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Romans 8:17 -19 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him that we
may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
I, like D.L. Moody, also think it is nearly impossible for us to comprehend the impact that one man or woman would have on mankind, who would fully seek and allow Christ in them to mature them and then manifest Himself completely through them. Manifesting to their families, their communities, their nation and finally to the world a fully mature, “Christ in them”.
You can, as a Christian, choose to humble your old mind, will and intellect to God’s Spirit and journey on towards perfection, to a transformed mind, will and intellect. The Journey is from righteousness by faith, to righteousness in fact, or in deed, from immaturity, to perfection.
Alternatively, as a Christian, you can choose to follow all or some of your old unregenerate thought processes and imaginations, to their conclusions or try to work the changes needed yourself. Either of these alternatives will cause you to weep and gnash your teeth this side of physical death and impede the degree of your success.
Have Christians given up on the idea that it is even possible to actually reach the high calling of God in Christ Jesus in this life? To attain perfection, maturity, to become Son’s of God without rebuke? Is perfection what God had in mind for his Church?
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect.
Ephesians 4:11 -13 And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
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 fullness of Christ:
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it;
That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
As a Christian we have the earnest or down payment of our inheritance which is the Spirit. This is our eternal life. No man can know God the Father and Jesus Christ without the Spirit of God in him. No man can have the Spirit of God birthed in him unless he believes in Jesus Christ.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever
So the Spirit of a born again Christian is eternally secure, incorruptible. The Spirit is also the down payment on what God has purposed to become the fully manifest Christ in us, perfection, maturity, Sons of God without rebuke. If we press on toward the mark, the goal, of this high calling of God.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
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 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul knew that God has purposed to have a Church, perfect and without blemish. That those Old Testament Saints of faith, (before Christ) who had gone before, all having a good report through faith, did not receive the promise. (Heb 11:38-39)
Hebrews 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
So the promise is perfection in Christ, which the Old Testament Saints have not yet received without us. However, they, the Spirits of those Saints, have been justified by their faith, as Christians today are justified by faith.
Hebrews 12:22-23 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and
to the spirits of just men made perfect,
For we Christians who live, however, our Spirits are also perfected. It’s our bodies and souls, that need to be saved, day by day. Because the salvation of our bodies and souls, “in fact”, is a process, the fully manifest, completed work, must be received by faith until it becomes a fact, whenever and however that might happen.
1 Thessalonians 5:22-23 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;
and I pray God¯ your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:9-10 Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself:
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He
might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:
So in Paul’s day, the church or Body of Christ, which God has purposed will be manifest perfect, had not yet attained that goal. Yet Paul said; even though he himself had not yet attained this goal, he would forget those things behind him and press on toward that goal of perfection, which is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
Jesus started this project in us, and He will finish it.
Philippians 3:12-14 Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: 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 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
To be the faithful servant of God, in life, glorifying the Father in all that we do, only doing His will from the heart, is to have Christ fully manifest in us. It is not about us. It is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is
To manifest the nature of Christ from our hearts is impossible without the work of the Spirit in us. However we have the Spirit, which is the down payment on the fully manifest Christ in us. Like Paul, we can forget those things behind us and press toward the mark, the goal, which is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
We who are now alive, are somewhere between the new birth in the Spirit and mature Sonship. Paul insisted that he had not attained to perfection, but he also said he would forget everything behind him, and press toward the goal of perfection, which he states is the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus. Can we do anything less? Unless we have a goal, a vision, we will never attain it.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but
he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
In the meanwhile, rough as we still appear, we must see the possibility, the mark, the goal, the vision of perfection. We must do more than see ourselves by faith as mature Sons of God with Christ fully manifest in us, waiting for a physical death or a “rapture” to steal us away. We must walk after the spirit, and trust in Christ to make the true vision come to pass in fact. Without a vision of the true will of God in this regard, we, like generations of old testament saints and the Christians before us, will perish in death and must wait among that great cloud of witnesses, for another generation to catch the vision, before we can all attain the promise of perfection in fact.
Hebrews|4:5-6 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my
rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.
“Some must enter in”. Some must enter into His rest and allow Christ in them to do His full work of perfection. Not working out their own righteousness, not speaking their own words, not seeking their own pleasures.
“Some must enter in” to the rest of God and allow Christ in them to fully manifest his life and nature to the world, it is His plan that the Church follow the pattern of His Son.
Christ first came unexpectedly, unassumingly, hidden as it were, in the earth. Jesus, having been born of flesh and of the Spirit, then grew in grace, stature and in favor with God and man; until “that day” of his appearing to Israel. So is the Church in the earth, to manifest the glory of God in the earth again as Jesus did before. This Church in the earth, will be; without spot, wrinkle or any such thing. The Church of Jesus Christ that is fully mature, even unto the stature and measure of Christ. Sons of God without need of further correction in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, ready to revenge all disobedience when their obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:5-6 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Psalms 2:6-9 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Revelation 2:26-27 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works
unto the END, to him will I give power over the nations:
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
However,“THE END IS NOT ALWAYS TERMINAL” ! ! !
The word “end” in Revelations 2:26 (and in other scriptures) is translated from the New Testament Greek word; “telos”, which means; “to set out for a definite point or goal; properly; “the point aimed at, as a limit”.
“The end” is the goal, or point aimed at. That Goal is “the perfection of the Saints” and the Kingdom of God fully manifest and operational in the earth.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come.
Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,
when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as
he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Colossians 1:26-27 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
To whom God would make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles;
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;
and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for
the manifestation of the sons of God.
Romans 8:22-23 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Creation is groaning, waiting in expectation for the full manifestation of the Sons of God in the earth. Creation is waiting, for His church, to manifest the glory of God through a fully functioning government of God, operating in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation. Creation is waiting for the will of God to move outwardly from the hearts of God’s people, in order to manifest His love and His works to families, to communities and to Nations. Creation is waiting for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
What are we waiting for? “The Kingdom of Heaven’s at hand”!
##
