ALONE WITH GOD     

Christian Perfection

    The subject of Christian perfection is often greatly misunderstood. This is true not only of those who give the subject little attention, but also of those who study it and sometimes of those who are even teachers of it. Texts bearing on different phases of it or not touching the subject at all are often jumbled together into a hopeless confusion, from which there can come no clear knowledge of the doctrine. It is highly necessary, therefore, to "rightly divide the word of truth," applying to each phase of the question those scriptures which belong to that phase. The connection in which they are used determines their meaning. To class the word always under one definition is to involve ourselves in endless difficulty. We can arrive a t the truth only when we carefully study each text in its proper connection.

There are two kinds of perfection - absolute and relative. Absolute perfection means perfection in every attribute, that is, lacking in nothing and having no imperfection whatever. This sort of perfection can be attributed only to an infinite being, and as God is the only infinite being, he alone can be perfect in this absolute sense. He is perfect in this sense. He is a perfectly infinite being, imperfect in not a single attribute. Such a perfection is unattainable by man either in this world or in the world to come, or by any other beings of God's creation. It is just as unattainable by the angels as by man. In the consideration of Christian perfection, therefore, we must needs lay aside this definition. We must find another sense in which the word may be applicable to man. If man is perfect, he can be so only in a relative sense. He is finite and imperfect in all his attributes, and he will never be otherwise. For this reason his perfection must be judged from an entirely different standard from that of absolute perfection.

God is perfect in his nature; therefore the acts that flow from his nature are perfect acts and reflect nothing of imperfection. He always chooses and wills and does that which is just and right and holy. He will ever be what he is now, and his actions will ever be as they are now, so far as their quality is concerned. As already stated, we shall always remain finite, so always more or less imperfect, and we cannot therefore apply the word "perfection" in its absolute sense to ourselves.

Relative perfection means a coming up to or fulfilling of some particular standard. This standard requires certain things, whatever they may be. That which possesses those things or qualities is perfect judged by that standard. There are degrees of perfection, strange as that may seem, but only as they relate to the relative nature of this perfection. To illustrate: You walk out into the field and pluck a blade of grass. You look it over. You see no imperfections in it, and you say, "Here is a perfect blade of grass." But look at that insect crawling yonder. It is a higher type of life. It possesses a higher organization. It has higher and greater powers. It need not stay in one place as does the blade of grass, simply waving in the wind, but it moves about from place to place at will. You may take it up and look it all over, or examine it with a microscope, and possibly you will find in it no defect of any character. If so, you may say that it is perfect. But that animal which stands yonder under the shade of that tree is still higher type of life. If it possesses no defect, you may say that it also is perfect. Man is still higher type of life, and if he is without defect, he may also be said to be perfect .

Jesus recognized the possibility of man's being perfect. To the rich young man he said, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor" (Matthew 19:21). In the Sermon on the Mount he said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Paul believed that men could reach a perfect state. "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect" (I Corinthians 2:6). He not only believed that they could be, but commanded that they should be. To the Corinthians he said, "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect" (2 Corinthians 13:11). Not only did he teach and command perfection, but he professed to be perfect. "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded" (Philippians 3:15). He also taught that provision had been made for the attainment of that state. He said that the Scriptures are given "that the man of God may be perfect" (2 Timothy 3:17). In Ephesians 4:11, 12, he says, "And he gave some, apostles;�and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints." James speaks on the subject thus: "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:4).

From these Scriptures we are forced to conclude that there must be some definite New Testament standard of perfection to which man can attain in this life. Otherwise these scriptures would be meaningless. This perfection is not something held up to be merely aimed at and never realized. It is something to be attained, and that attainment is to be reached in this life. It is something capable of present and actual realization. It is not an idealism; it is a practical reality. Throughout the whole New Testament it is so viewed and taught.

This perfection is not a perfection in knowledge, wisdom, power, foresight, judgment, or other such quality. In this world our knowledge is and will be imperfect; our wisdom is often inadequate; our power will often come short of our needs; our foresight will often fail to pierce the future; our judgment will often be mistaken. Christian perfection does not imply perfection in any of these qualities or attributes.

The word has different applications in different places; not all texts where the word is used apply to the same thing. We need to distinguish carefully between its various uses; unless we do so, we cannot have clear views upon the subject. In our study, therefore, we should give each text a critical examination. Let us first notice the application of the term to moral‚ perfection. In this sense it means the purification of our natures so that they no longer contain any moral corruption. This idea is expressed in Hebrews 13:20, 21, as follows: "Now the God of peace, ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will." The blood of Christ was shed solely for purification; it has no other office. Therefore this text must refer to a moral cleansing, and that cleansing reaches through to the state which is here called perfection. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). John said, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7).

Paul thus expresses the purpose of God's commandment: "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (I Timothy 1:5). That men could be so perfected in their moral natures as to be truly pure in heart is expressed by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:22 - "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." This shows not only the condition of the heart to which man may attain, but also the life which flows forth from such a heart. The nature and extent of this perfection is thus set forth: "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). According to this text, it is holiness in which we are to be perfected, and Paul defines that as being the result of a cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, that is, a making pure in the heart so that there remains no moral corruption. The apostle John says, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I John 3:3).

Attention as already been called to the fact that there is both a divine and a human side to this purification, this perfecting of our moral natures. We are now noticing only the final effects, the perfected result. Paul says, "Unto the pure, all things are pure" (Titus 1:15). By this he recognizes the fact that men are pure, and we are made pure only by the blood of Christ.

This perfection or purification is the purification of our natures, so that from our hearts we desire and love and seek only what is good. It is the purification of our wills, so that we choose God's will ever as our guide and the limitation of our lives, and gladly conform our conduct to his will. The holy heart sincerely seeks to know and do God's will. It is moved only by motives that are holy and just. Our attainment of this state does not prevent our having all those natural functional desires that belong to our being. It only requires us to subject these desires to the will of God. God does not raise up for us an impossible standard, one to which we cannot attain. All his ways are just and right and wise. He requires of us only what he ought to require and only what we can duly render unto him. He has made full provisions for our attaining the state of grace that he marks out as being in his mind perfect. There is nothing unreasonable about his standard. There is nothing idealistic; it is intensely practical all the way through. It is only when we misapprehend the subject that difficulties appear which are insurmountable. The way to this state lies through the grace of God; it is not a human attainment independent of grace.

This perfecting work of God's grace purifies our affections so that we may love God supremely. All other things must take a secondary place. The nearest and dearest of earth, and even our own selves, our lives, our ways, and our possessions, must be loved less than God. He becomes the soul's beloved one, so that we may say, "My beloved is mine and I am his." Paul speaks of us as being espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin. In this experience the strength of our souls is poured out in tender affection to him, and in return we receive the riches of his love. John expresses it as being the perfecting of our love, or of God's love in us, which amounts to the same thing. He says, "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (I John:2:5).

Again, John says, "Herein is our love made perfect, ... because as he is, so are we in this world" (chapter 4:17). From this we see that this perfecting of love is, according to John's idea, being like Christ in this world. The professor of Christi an perfection who does not bear the image of Christ upon his heart and manifest the life of Christ in his daily deportment does not come up to the standard of these scriptures. The man to whom God is not nearer than everything else has not yet attained unto this grace. There is no such thing as a worldly-minded sanctified man. Those who are worldly-minded are of the world, but those who are God's are minded after the things of the Spirit. Their desire runs out after God and the things that will please him, and when they enter this perfect state, their desire runs stronger and fuller after God than ever before. He fills their whole horizon, as it were. Into all the avenues of their being come his Spirit, his power, and his light. We may expect to see in the life of a truly sanctified man or woman the characteristics of Christ that we see pictured in the Bible. "As he is, so are we in this world," said the apostle. This is the true standard of the sanctified life. Christ likeness is the key-note of that life.

Speaking of Christ, John says, "But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Our mortality will be changed, and we shall put on immortality, but that is not all: we shall be like him spiritually - not made like him when he comes, but like him when he does come; ready and waiting for him in his likeness. A pure heart and a pure life are inseparable from the experience of entire sanctification or the perfected moral state.

PERFECTION OF CONDUCT

The word "perfection" sometimes relates to our conduct. If the fountain is pure, the stream which flows out of it will be pure. Likewise, if the heart is pure, the life that flows out of it must of necessity be pure. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." He had been speaking specifically of conduct. Illustrating God's perfection, he says in verse 45, "For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Our being perfect in this regard means that we shall act from the same principles and considerations as God acts, and that those acts will be of the same character as his acts. It dose not mean that our acts must needs be as wise as his, nor correspond to them in some other regards; but there is one thing in which they must correspond to his, and that is, they must flow forth from love. That love must be the underlying and all-powerful spring of our act ion. This is the secret of a sanctified life. God's love, being perfected in us, flows out in love to all our fellow men, in kindness, gentleness, mercy, forbearance - in fact, in all those virtues which are God-like in their nature.

Back of conduct lies character. This character gives quality to conduct. The moral quality of conduct lies in the intent, and not in the outcome of the action. The things that we do are judged, not by the wisdom of the acts, by their timeliness or success, but by the purpose back of them. Pure purposes always arise from a pure heart. Through lack of knowledge these pure purposes may not always be perfectly translated into pure and holy and wise and good actions, at least so far as the judgment of our fellow men is concerned. We may make mistakes; we may come short of our expectations; things may not turn out as we supposed they would; but out of a pure heart flows only deed prompted by love, and deeds so prompted are always pure in God's sight.

I once heard the testimony of a man who had formerly been a saloon-keeper and an exceedingly wicked man. He said, "When I was a sinner, I was wholly sanctified to the devil." I was forcibly struck by this saying, but I knew, when I considered a little, that it was true. I his sinful life he had acted from wholly selfish considerations. His heart had contained nothing whatever of righteousness. Just as Paul says, "When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness" (Romans 6:20). There is nothing whatever in the sinner's heart that God can count as righteousness, and he who gives himself over to do the will of the flesh and of sin may truly be said to be wholly sanctified to the devil. To be wholly sanctified to God means the exact opposite of this. It means that our hearts and our lives are conformed to the image of God. Perfect conduct is that conduct which, springing from pure desire and pure intent, conforms to God's standard for us in our present situation and state. It is not conforming to man's standard or judgment, but to God's.

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