09/20/2017
Jesus is without sin, and perfect, but is there any hope for us to be perfect as He is? Is perfection something that we are even capable of? The glorious surprise of faith is that we are transformed not into men seeking to behave as God, but into God flowing from man.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48 KJV
I love the way Oswald Chambers puts this revelation of faith. He speaks of our having replaced the human character within us with the divine character of God Himself...
"The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not human life trying to be godly." - Oswald Chambers
We are capable of being perfected, but that perfection is not by the transformation of the man within us into a better man, but rather in the recreation of that man into the very essence of God Himself.
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
2 Peter 1:4 KJV
I come from a military family and am very familiar with the training that is undergone by recruits that enter service. This training is hard and severe, and is designed to quickly achieve its purpose. Boot camp isn't trying to make a man into a soldier, but rather to strip away the man to reveal the soldier within. Our faith has a similar goal.
This is our walk with Jesus Christ towards perfection in God. His ultimate goal for us isn't for us to become better men who reflect God, but rather to peel away the man to reveal God within him. Jesus didn't teach that we should be better followers of the law but to complete, and transform, our view of the law, and indeed, transform us. When God said "let us make man in our image", He meant to do more than make a statue of Himself... we know how He feels about those. He meant to make us capable of perfection; of becoming like Him, and He set into motion the process of doing that.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 KJV
Jesus came and taught so that we would be transformed. Our lessons, from the Sermon on the Mount to His parting words on the mount of ascension, were designed to reveal and bring out God in us. He was leading us towards perfection by serving as our example of what God had planned for us from the instant of creation itself. God sent Jesus to redeem us from sin and restore our relationship with Him so that His ultimate plan for us could be realized... our perfection. Jesus wasn't meant to be just another image of God for us to worship, but the form by which we would be cast, once and for all, into God's image. We obey Jesus because He is carving the form from us that will be poured full of God's essence. He is the artist of divinity that is preparing our sinful clay to become God's masterpiece.
“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;”
Hebrews 5:8-9 KJV
Are we ready to cast off our humanity and be reshaped into perfection? Are we ready to become more than good men and women or godlike people and allow Jesus to prepare us to be cast in the perfection that God intended for us? Are we ready to become perfect?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your ultimate plan for me and for sending your Son Jesus Christ to mold and form me in preparation for your divine purpose. I pray that your lessons are not lost on me and that I am malleable in your hand. Perfect me Father, make me more than an image of you, but the extension of your divine nature. Let the living Water that flows from Jesus temper me and give shape to your perfect character within me. Transform me Holy Father into your child, just as Jesus is your child. Remove all transgressions and perfect me through the blood of Your Lamb. In His suffering to obey and do your will I ask that you show me also the stripes you might require of me. In my perfecting let me always respond to you by saying... your will, not mine, be done. In this I praise you, and through the revelation of your essence in me I humble myself before you. Reveal in me your divine self; Fill me as you filled Jesus.
Rich Forbes