Perfection - Part 2 of 2 - The good news

I'll start this one off with some brief technicalities and then get on with it.

The words that are translated as "perfect" or "perfected" originate as two Greek words:

Teleios (Strong's 5046) is the adjective form of the word, and it's used more commonly. It means "brought to it's end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness; perfect; that which is perfect."

The word that is used a little less often is Teleioo (Strong's 5048). It's the verb form of the word and it means "to make perfect, complete; to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end; to be found perfect; to bring to the end goal."

(The root word for both words is Telos (Strong's 5056), which, simply put, means "the end, the termination, the limit, the purpose, the end, the aim, the end to which all things relate.")

I bring all this up simply to give a bigger sense of what "perfect" means, but in short the words are all related and they have to do with being complete, finished, mature, lacking nothing, perfect, brought to the end goal.

In the first post I attempted to point out the "bad news" about man's lack of perfection. Jesus came as a masterful teacher of the law, and in case anyone thought they were doing ok in regards to being perfect or complete through keeping the law, Jesus made it perfectly clear that they fell far short. The rich young ruler, for example, after claiming to have kept certain laws since his youth, asked Jesus, "What do I still lack?" (In other words, "in what ways do I still fall short of perfection?"). Jesus answered him, "If you want to be perfect (teleios), go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The man went away sorrowful.

Why?

I'll just cut to the chase. It's because it's impossible for sinful man to become perfected (complete, brought to the end goal, perfect) through anything he does (!) - no matter how well he thinks he has performed. We can pick on the rich young ruler for not wanting to give up his riches, but who among us could have a conversation with Jesus in which we bring to Him our mighty list of accomplishments and leave Him satisfied with our supposed state of perfection! To me, the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to get that point through to man's thick, self-righteous skulls!

But I said I was getting to the good news. :) Actually, I think Jesus gives the good news near the beginning of His Sermon, right before spelling out the bad news, and I think we zip right past it without realizing it. He says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matt 5:17). That's an earth-shattering statement!

"Excuse me, Jesus. Did I hear you right? Did you say you've come to FULFILL the law?"

"Yup."

Jesus goes on, "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt 5:18).

From that point on, He begins to lay out the bad news about the consequences for those whose righteousness does not "exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees."

"You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Those words, along with the rest of the bad news in Matthew 5-7, make the good news all the more clear: Jesus came to fulfill the law! I believe that one reason Jesus went on to spell out all the bad news was to show how extremely important it was that He came to fulfill the law!

When sinful man finally realizes the truth about his lack of completeness and lack of perfection and lack of true righteousness, he can see much more clearly that standing perfect before God can only come as a gift. He will finally see that he can never earn it or attain to it through anything he does. If the Sermon on the Mount, in addition to the Law, doesn't get that across to sinful man, I don't know what will.

The good news is that Jesus fulfilled the law! And the result of that, along with His sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection is that "He has perfected (teleioo) forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb 10:14). Everything that was lacking in sinful man was completed, accomplished, carried through completely, perfected... through Jesus and only through Jesus.

Col 2:9-10 says, "For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

In Christ... and in Christ alone... we have been perfected and we are complete. We can't add to it or take away from it! This is our actual, factual standing before God. Perfect, complete, holy, justified, sanctified, righteous.

Of course there is another use of the word perfect/perfected. It can also mean to be mature or complete in the things we do, in how we live our lives. This, of course, is something that doesn't happen instantly, in the way that our perfect and complete standing in Christ did. This is a matter of a lifetime of being transformed on the outside to the reality of what is true on the inside. Now, if you think that following the Law or the Sermon on the Mount plays any part in this, please understand the true meaning and the true depths of the Law, and please read the Sermon on the Mount again... and again... and again... until you understand that Jesus is not talking about Christian growth and maturity!

But if you do find yourself truly growing in grace and growing in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - not through your own efforts but through resting in Christ, who fulfilled the Law - you may just find your outward performance naturally lining up with some of what you see in the law and with the things Jesus said! If you truly find this happening, I can guarantee that you won't ever make the claim that it's all because you've followed the Law or the Sermon on the Mount. Either that, or you've deceived yourself into thinking you have!

I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in Me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in Christ. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness (or perfection!) comes through the law, then Christ died in vain (see Gal 2:20-21). This is good news!

(By the way, I'm soliciting all comments about any or all of this - whether negative or positive, or neutral. This is my personal take on things, and I'm open to hear what you have to say).

God needs a filter to see me as righteous?

A lie that I believed for years is that I was still some filthy, dirty sinner who was fortunate enough to have a God who would look past my sin, because He was looking through the filter of Jesus when He looked at me. But the truth is that He has taken away my sin (something the blood of bulls and goats - i.e. sacrifices other than Jesus) could never do. Through the perfect offering of Jesus, God "has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." (Heb 10:14)

Do I still commit acts of sin? Well, my mind and body definitely think and do sinful things. But the person who I am inwardly - a born again spirit, a new creation of God, the core of my existence - is righteous and is indwelled by God Himself. He has joined His Spirit together with my spirit (1 Cor 6:17). The sin that I commit is "no longer I, but sin that dwells in me," that is, in my members (my body). (Rom 7:17, 20). Along with Paul, as a regenerated being (again, in my spirit), I can say that "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." This is something an unregenerated, dirty, rotten sinner simply could never say truthfully.* And so if it is "no longer I who do it," then I can't call myself a sinner. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and God sees me that way, not because Jesus is standing in front of me making me appear righteous to God, but because Jesus is in me and God has in actuality made me righteous (2 Cor 5:21).



*Side note: Someone may want to bring up King David's claims in the Psalms about how he delighted in the law. But I would contend that he was off base in his claims, just as the Apostle Paul admits was true of himself back in his law-abiding Pharisaical days when he was known by his Hebrew name, Saul. David's claims, I would contend, were based on his lack of understanding and revelation about the true purpose and function of the law. David said things such as, "I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart" (Ps 40:8). "The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, But I delight in Your law" (Ps 119:69-70). "Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life" (Ps 119:92-93).

These claims were perhaps made with a sincere heart, but were far from reality. The law was given to impute sin, and to sentence people with guilt, condemnation and death. There is no law that ever gave life (Gal 3:21). The law never did one single thing to help a person live right. The law never curbed sin. Actually, the opposite is true. The law only caused a revival of sin and it caused sin to abound (see scripture below). Paul had previously thought the same way David had thought, that the law was actually beneficial in his life, but after receiving revelation from Jesus Christ, Paul's understanding was corrected.

"But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me." (Rom 7:8-11) The law is holy and just and good... but unregenerated man (man under the law, having not received the life of Christ) is not.