Chapter 1
A PERFECT HEART MAKES A PERFECT MAN
"Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generation, and Noah
walked with God." Gen. 6:9.
"And the Lord said unto Satan, Have you considered My servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one
that fears God and shuns evil?" Job 1: 8.
"The heart of David was perfect with the Lord his God." 1Kings 11: 4,
15: 3.
"Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days." 1 Kings 15: 14.
We have grouped together four men, of all of whom Holy Scripture testifies
that they were perfect men, or that their heart was perfect with God. Of each
of them Scripture testifies, too, that they were not perfect in the sense of
absolute sinlessness. We know how Noah fell. We know how Job had to
humble himself before God. We know how sadly David sinned. And of Asa
we read that there came a time when he did foolishly, and relied on the Syrians
and not on the Lord his God; when in his disease he sought not to the Lord,
but to the physicians. And yet the heart of these men was perfect with the
Lord their God.
To understand this, there is one thing we must remember. The meaning
of the word "perfect" must in each case be decided by that particular stage in
God's education of His people in which it is used. What a father or a teacher
counts perfection in a child of ten, is very different from what he would call
so in one of twenty. As to the disposition or spirit, the perfection would be
the same; in its contents, as the proofs by which it was to be judged of, there
would be a wide difference. We shall see later on how in the Old Testament
nothing was really made perfect; how Christ has come to reveal, and work
out, and impart the true perfection; how the perfection, as revealed in the New
Testament, is something infinitely higher, more spiritual and efficacious, than
under the old economy. And yet at root they are one. God looks at the heart.
A heart that is perfect with Him is an object of complacency and approval.
A wholehearted consecration to His will and fellowship, a life that takes as
its motto, WHOLLY FOR GOD, has in all ages, even where the Spirit had
not yet been given to dwell in the heart, been accepted by Him as the mark
of the perfect man.
The lesson which these Scripture testimonies suggest to us is a very simple,
but a very searching one. In God's record of the lives of His servants there
are some of whom it is written: his heart was perfect with the Lord his God.
Is this, let each reader ask, what God sees and says of me? Does my life, in
the sight of God, bear the mark of intense, wholehearted consecration to God's
will and service? of a burning desire to be as perfect as it is possible for grace
to make me? Let us yield ourselves to the searching light of this question. Let
us believe that with this word PERFECT, God means something very real
and true. Let us not evade its force, or hide ourselves from its condemning
power, by the vain subterfuge that we do not fully know what it means. We
must first accept it, and give up our lives to it, before we can understand it.
It cannot be insisted upon too strongly that, whether in the Church at large
and its teaching, or in the life of the individual believer, there can be no hope
of comprehending what perfection is except as we count all things loss to be
apprehended of it, to live for it, to accept of it, to possess it.
But so much we can understand. What I do with a perfect heart I do with
love and delight, with a willing mind and all my strength. It implies a fixity
of purpose, and a concentration of effort, that makes everything subordinate
to the one object of my choice. This is what God asks, what His saints have
given, what we must give.
Again I say to every one who wishes to join me in following through the
Word of God its revelation of His will concerning perfection, yield yourself
to the searching question: Can God say of me as of Noah and Job, of David
and Asa, that my heart is perfect with the Lord my God? Have I given myself
up to say that there must be nothing, nothing whatever, to share my heart with
God and His will? Is a heart perfect with the Lord my God the object of my
desire, my prayer, my faith, my hope? Whether it has been so or not, let it be
so today. Make the promise of God's word your own: "The God of peace
Himself perfect you." The God, who is of power to do above all we ask or
think, will open up to you the blessed prospect of a life of which He shall say:
"His heart was perfect with the Lord his God."
Day 2
WALK BEFORE ME, AND BE PERFECT
"And when Abram was ninetynine
years old, the Lord appeared to Abram,
and said to him, I am Almighty God: walk before Me, and be perfect. And I
will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you
exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him." Gen.17: 13.
"You shall be perfect with the Lord your God." Deut. 18: 13.
"Let your heart be perfect with the Lord your God to walk in His statutes."1 Kings 8: 61.
It was now twentyfour
years since God had called Abram to go out from his
father's home, and that he had obeyed. All that time he had been a learner in
the school of faith. The time was approaching for him to inherit the promise,
and God comes to establish His covenant with him. In view of this, God meets
him with this threefold word: I am Almighty God: walk before Me: be perfect.
Be perfect. The connection in which we find the word will help us to
understand its meaning. God reveals Himself as God Almighty. Abram's faith
had long been tried: it was about to achieve one of its greatest triumphs: faith
was to be changed to vision in the birth of Isaac. God invites Abram more
than ever to remember, and to rest upon, His omnipotence. He is Almighty
God: all things are possible to Him: He holds rule over all. All His power is
working for those who trust Him. And all He asks of His servant is that he
be perfect with Him: give Him his whole heart, his perfect confidence. God
Almighty with all His power is wholly for you; be wholly for God. The
knowledge and faith of what God is lies at the root of what we are to be: "I
am Almighty God: be perfect." As I know Him whose power fills heaven and
earth, I see that this is the one thing needed: to be perfect with Him, wholly
and entirely given up to Him. WHOLLY FOR GOD is the keynote of
perfection.
Walk before Me, and be perfect. It is in the life fellowship with God, in
His realized presence and favor, that it becomes possible to be perfect with
Him. Walk before Me Abraham had been doing this; God's word calls him
to a clearer and more conscious apprehension of this as his life calling. It is
easy for us to study what Scripture says of perfection, to form our ideas of it,
and argue for them. But let us remember that it is only as we are walking
closely with God, seeking and in some measure attaining, uninterrupted
communion with Him, that the Divine command will come to us in its Divine
Power, and unfold to us its Divine meaning. Walk before Me, and be perfect.
God's realized presence is the school, is the secret, of perfection. It is only he
who studies what perfection is in the full light of God's presence to whom its
hidden glory will be opened up.
That realized presence is the great blessing of the redemption in Jesus
Christ. The veil has been rent, the way into the true sanctuary, the Presence
of God, has been opened; we have access with boldness into the Holiest of
all. God, who has proved Himself God Almighty in raising Jesus from the
dead and setting Him, and us in Him, at His right hand, speaks now to us: I
am God Almighty: walk before Me, and be perfect.
That command came not only to Abraham. Moses gave it to the whole people
of Israel; "You shall be perfect with the Lord your God." It is for all Abraham's
children; for all the Israel of God; for every believer. Oh! think not that ere
you can obey you must first understand and define what perfection means.
No, God's way is the very opposite of this. Abraham went out, not knowing
where he went. You are called to go on to perfection: go out, not knowing
where you are going. It is a land God will show you. Let your heart be filled
with His glory: I am God Almighty. Let your life be spent in His presence:
Be Perfect Walk Before Me, And Be Perfect
walk before Me. As His Power and His Presence rest upon you and fill you,
your heart will, before you know, be drawn up, and strengthened to accept
and rejoice in and fulfil the command: be perfect. As surely as the opening
bud has but to abide in the light of the sun to attain perfection, will the soul
that walks in the light of God be perfect too. As the God, who is ALL, shines
upon it, it cannot but rejoice to give Him ALL.
Day 3
PERFECT WITH THE LORD YOUR GOD
"You shall be perfect with the Lord your God." Deut. 18: 13.
To be perfect before God is not only the calling and the privilege of a man
like Abraham, it is equally the duty of all his children. The command is given
to all Israel, for each man of God's people to receive and obey: "You shall be
perfect with the Lord your God." It comes to each child of God; no one
professing to be a Christian may turn aside from it, or refuse it obedience,
without endangering his salvation. It is not a command like, "You shall not
kill," or, "You shall not steal," having reference to a limited sphere in our life,
but is a principle that lies at the very root of all true religion. If our service
of God is to be acceptable, it must not be with a divided, but a whole, a perfect
heart.
The chief hindrance in the way of obedience to this command lies in our
misapprehension of what religion is. Man was created simply to live for God,
to show forth His glory, by allowing God to show how completely He could
reveal His likeness and blessedness in man. God lives for man; longing in the
greatness of His love to communicate His goodness and His love. It was to
this life, lost by sin, Christ came to redeem us back. The selfishness of the
human heart looks upon salvation as simply the escape from hell, with so
much of holiness as is needed to make our happiness secure. Christ meant us
to be restored to the state from which we had fallen the
whole heart, the whole will, the whole life given up to the glory and service of God. To be
wholly given up to God, to be perfect with the Lord our God, lies at the very
root, is the very essence of true religion. The enthusiastic devotion of the
whole heart to God is what is asked of us.
When once this misconception has been removed, and the truth begins to
dawn upon the soul, a second hindrance is generally met with in the question
of unbelief, How can these things be? Instead of first accepting God's
command,and then waiting in the path of obedience for the teaching of the
Spirit, men are at once ready with their own interpretation of the word, and
confidently affirm, "it cannot be." They forget that the whole object of the
gospel and the glory of Christ's redemption is, that it makes possible what is
beyond man's thoughts or powers; and that it reveals God, not as a Lawgiver
and Judge, exacting the last penny, but as a Father, who in grace deals with
each one according to his capacity, and accepts the devotion and the intention
of the heart.
We understand this of an earthly father. A child of ten is doing some little
service for the father, or helping him in his work. The work of the child is
very defective, and yet the cause of joy and hope to the father, because he
sees in it the proof of the child's attachment and obedience, as well as the
pledge of what that spirit will do for the child when his intelligence and his
strength have been increased. The child has served the father with a perfect
heart, though the perfect heart does not at once imply perfect work. Even so
the Father in heaven accepts as a perfect heart the simple childlike purpose
that makes His fear and service its one object. The Christian may be deeply
humbled at the involuntary uprisings of the evil nature; but God's Spirit
teaches him to say, "It is no more I, but sin that dwells in me." He may be
sorely grieved by the consciousness of shortcoming and failure,but he hears
the voice of Jesus, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Even as Christ
counted the love and obedience of His faithless disciples as such, and accepted
it as the condition on which He had promised them the Spirit, the Christian
can receive the witness of the Spirit that the Father sees and accepts in him
the perfect heart, even where there is not yet the perfect performance.
"You shall be perfect with the Lord your God." Oh! let us beware of
making the Word of God of no effect by our traditions. Let us believe the
message, "You are not under the law, but under grace." Let us realize what
grace is in its pitying tenderness: "As a father pities his children, so the Lord
pities them that fear Him." And what, in its mighty power working in us both
to will and to do: "The God of all grace shall Himself perfect you." If we hold
fast our integrity, our confidence, and the rejoicing of hope steadfast unto the
end, being perfect in heart will lead us on to be perfect in the way, and we
will realize that Christ fulfils this too in us, "You shall be perfect with the
Lord your God."
Day 4
I HAVE WALKED BEFORE YOU WITH A PERFECT HEART
"Then Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, 'I beg You, O Lord,
remember now how I have walked before You in truth, and with a perfect
heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight.' And the word of the
Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 'Tell Hezekiah, this is what the Lord says, I
have heard your prayer, and seen your tears; I will heal you.'" 2Kings 20:
What a childlike simplicity of communication with God. When the Son was
about to die, He spoke, "I have glorified You on earth, I have finished the
work which You gave Me to do. And now, O Father, You glorify Me." He
pleaded His life and work as the ground for expecting an answer to His prayer.
And so Hezekiah, the servant of God, also pleaded, not as a matter of merit,
but in the confidence that "God is not unrighteous to forget our work of faith
and labor of love," that God should remember how he had walked before Him
with a perfect heart.
The words first of all suggest to us this thought, that the man who walks
before God with a perfect heart can know it it may be a matter of
consciousness. Let us look at the testimony Scripture gives of him (2 Kings 18: 36),
"He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to
all that David his father did." Then follow the different elements of this life
that was right in God's sight. "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel. He held
to the Lord. He departed not from following Him. He kept His
commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with
Him." His life was one of trust and love, of steadfastness and obedience. And
the Lord was with him. He was one of the saints of whom we read, "By faith
they obtained a good report." They had the witness that they were righteous,
that they were pleasing to God.
Let us seek to have this blessed consciousness. Paul had it when he wrote,
"Our glorying is, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and
sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we behaved
ourselves" (2 Cor. 1: 12). John had it when he said, "Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatever we ask we
receive, because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are
pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3: 21, 22). If we are to have perfect peace and
confidence, if we are to walk in the holy boldness and the blessed glorying
of which Scripture speaks, we must know that our heart is perfect with God.
Hezekiah's prayer suggests a second lesson that the consciousness of a
perfect heart gives wonderful power in prayer. Read over again the words of
his prayer, and notice how distinctly this walk with a perfect heart is his plea.
Read over again the words just quoted from John, and see how clearly he says
that "because we keep His commandments we receive what we ask." It is a
heart that does not condemn us, that knows that it is perfect toward God, that
gives us boldness.
There is most probably not a single reader of these lines who cannot testify
how painfully at some time or other the consciousness of the heart not being
perfect with God has hindered confidence and prayer. And mistaken views
as to what the perfect heart means, and as to the danger of selfrighteousness
in praying Hezekiah's prayer, have in very many cases banished all idea of
its ever being possible to attain to that boldness and confident assurance of
an answer to prayer which John connects with a heart that does not condemn
us. Oh! that we would give up all our prejudices, and learn to take God's Word
as it stands as the only rule of our faith, the only measure of our expectations.
Our daily prayers would be a new reminder that God asks the perfect heart;
a new occasion of childlike confession as to our walking or not walking with
a perfect heart before God; a new motive to make nothing less the standard
of our intercourse with our Father in heaven. How our boldness in God's
presence would be ever clearer; how our consciousness of His acceptance
would be brighter; how the humbling thought of our nothingness would be
quickened, and our assurance of His strength in our weakness, and His answer
to our prayer, become the joy of our life.
Oh! the comfort, amid all consciousness of imperfection of attainment, of
being able to say, in childlike simplicity, "Remember, O Lord, how I have
walked before You with a perfect heart."
Day 5
LORD, GIVE A PERFECT HEART
"Give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep Your commandments,
Your testimonies, and Your statutes." 1Chron. 29: 19.
"Let my heart be perfect in Your testimonies." Ps. 119: 80.
In his parting commission to Solomon, David had laid it upon him to serve
God with a perfect heart, because He is God who searches the hearts. It is
nothing less than the heart, the whole heart, a perfect heart, that God wants.
Very shortly afterwards, in his dedication prayer after the giving of all the
material for the temple, he turns again to this as the one thing needful, and
asks it for his son as a gift from God. "Give my son Solomon a perfect heart."
The perfect heart is a gift from God, given and received under the laws which
rule all His giving, as a hidden seed to be accepted and acted on in faith. The
command, "Be perfect," comes and claims immediate and full submission.
Where this submission is yielded, the need of a Divine power to make the
heart fit for perfection becomes the motive for urgent and earnest prayer. The
word of command, received and hid in a good. and honest heart, becomes
itself the seed of a Divine power. God works His grace in us by stirring us to
work. So the desire to listen to God's command, and to serve Him with a
perfect heart, is a beginning that God looks to, and that He will Himself
strengthen and perfect. The gift of a perfect heart is thus obtained in the way
of the obedience of faith. Begin at once to serve God with a perfect heart, and
the perfect heart will be given to you.
The perfect heart is a gift from God, to be asked for, to be obtained by
prayer. No one will pray for it earnestly, perseveringly, believingly, until he
accepts God's word fully that it is a positive command and an immediate duty
to be perfect. Where this has been done, the consciousness will soon grow
strong of the utter impossibility of attempting obedience in human strength.
And the faith will grow that the word of command was simply meant to draw
the soul to Him who gives what He asks.
The perfect heart is a gift to be obtained in prayer. David asked the Lord
to give it to his son Solomon, even as he had prayed for himself long before,
"Let my heart be perfect in Your testimonies." Let all of us who desire for
this blessing follow his example: let us make it a matter of definite, earnest
prayer. Let each son and daughter of God say to the Father: "Give Your child
a perfect heart." Let us in the course of our meditations in this little book turn
each word of command, or teaching, or promise into prayer pointed,
personal prayer that asks and claims, that accepts and proves the gift of a
perfect heart. And when the seed begins to strike root, and the spirit gives the
consciousness that the first beginnings of the perfect heart have been bestowed
in the wholehearted purpose to live for God alone, let us hold on in prayer
for the perfect heart in all its completeness. A heart perfect in its purpose
towards God this is only the initial stage. Then there comes the putting on
of one grace after another the going, from strength to strength, on to
perfection the putting on, in evergrowing distinctness of likeness, the Lord
Jesus, with every trait of His holy image. All this is to be sought and found
in prayer too. It is just he who knows most of what it is to be perfect in purpose
who will pray most to be perfect in practice too.
In the words of Hezekiah, we see that there are two elements in the perfect
heart: the relation to God, and to His commandments. "I have walked before
You with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight."
David speaks of the second of these in his prayer, "a perfect heart to keep
Your commandments." The two always go together: walking before God, in
the awareness of His presence, will ensure walking in His commandments.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes from the
Father of lights," the gift of a perfect heart too. "But let us ask in faith, nothing
wavering." Let us be sure that in the believing, adoring worship of God there
will be given to the soul that is set upon having it, nothing less than what God
Himself means with a perfect heart. Let us pray the prayer boldly, "Lord, give
Your child a perfect heart. Let my heart be perfect in Your testimonies."
Day 6
GOD'S STRENGTH FOR THE PERFECT IN
HEART
"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host? Yet, because you
relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the
Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in
behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16: 8, 9.
We have here the same three thoughts we had in God's words to Abraham.
There, it was the command to be perfect in connection with the faith in God's
power and a walk in His Presence. Here, we have the perfect heart spoken of
as the condition of the experience of God's power, and as that which His eyes
seek and approve in those who walk in His presence. The words teach us the
great lesson of the value of the perfect heart in His sight. It is the one thing
He desires. "His eyes run to and fro through the whole earth" to find such.
The Father seeks such to worship Him. And when He finds them, then He
shows Himself strong in their behalf. It is the one thing that marks the soul
as having the capacity of receiving, and showing God's glory, His strength.
The context proves that the chief mark of the perfect heart is trust in God.
"Because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the
eyes of the Lord run to and fro to show Himself strong in behalf of them
whose heart is perfect toward Him." The essence of faith is this, that it gives
God His place and glory as God; it allows Him free scope to work, relying
on Him alone; it lets God be God. In such faith or reliance the heart proves
itself perfect toward God; with no other object of confidence or desire, it
depends upon none but Him. As the eyes of God go to and fro throughout the
world, wherever He discovers such a man, He delights to prove Himself strong
to him, to work for him or in him, as the case may be, according to the riches
of the glory of His power.
What precious lessons these words teach us for the Christian's life. To
have God reveal His strength in us, to have Him make us strong for life or
work, for doing or for suffering, our heart must be perfect with Him. Let us
not shrink from accepting the truth. Let no preconceived opinion as to the
impossibility of perfection keep us from allowing the Word of God to have
its fulleffect upon us. He shows Himself strong to those whose heart is perfect
towards Him. Before we attempt to define exactly, let us first receive the truth
that there is such a thing as what God calls a perfect heart, and say it shall be
ours. Let us rest contented with nothing short of knowing that the eyes of the
Lord have seen that we are wholehearted with Him. Let us not be afraid to
say, "With my whole heart, I have sought Thee."
We saw how the chief mark of this perfect heart is reliance upon God.
God looks for men who trust Him fully; in them He will show His power.
God is a Being of Infinite and Incomprehensible Glory and Power. Our mind
can form no right conception of what He can do for us. Even when we have
His word and promises, our human thoughts of what He means are always
defective. By nothing do we dishonor God more than by limiting Him. By
nothing do we limit Him more than by allowing our human ideas of what He
purposes to be the measure of our expectations. The reliance of a heart perfect
towards Him is simply this: it yields to Him as God, it rests upon Him, it
allows Him, as God, to do in His own way what He has promised. The heart
is perfect towards Him in meeting Him with a perfect faith for all that He is
and does as God. Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.
The Father seeks such. Oh! with what joy He finds them. How He delights
in them as His eyes, running to and fro throughout the world, rests upon them
to show Himself their strong and mighty Helper! Let us walk before this God
with a perfect heart, relying upon Him yet to work in us above all that we can
ask or think. The one great need of the spiritual life is to know how entirely
it is dependent upon God working in us, and what the exceeding greatness of
His power is in us who believe. As the soul knows this, and with a perfect
heart yields to this Almighty God to let Him do His work within, oh! how
strong He will show Himself in its behalf.
Day 7
WITH THE PERFECT GOD SHOWS HIMSELF PERFECT
"I was also perfect with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity."
"To the perfect man, You will show Yourself perfect."
"As for God, His way is perfect."
"He is a shield to them that trust Him."
"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect."
"As for God, His way is perfect." Ps. 18: 23, 25, 30, 32.
In all He does, and all He is God is the
perfection of goodness and beauty. In nature and grace, in heaven and on
earth, in the greatest and the least, everything that is in God and of God, down
to the very hem of His garment, is infinite perfection. If men who study and
admire the perfection of His works, if saints who love and seek the perfection
of His service and fellowship, but understood it, they would see that here
alone perfection can be truly known and found in
God Himself. As for God this
is the highest we can say of Him, though we can comprehend but little
of it As for God, His way is perfect.
"He makes my way perfect." Of God's perfection this is the chief
excellence that He does not keep it for Himself: heaven and earth are full
of His glory. God is Love; who lives, not for Himself, but in the energy of
an infinite life, makes His creatures, as far as they can possibly receive it,
partakers of His perfection. It is His delight to perfect all around Him. And
especially the soul of man that rises up to Him. Between His servant and
Himself, God would have perfect harmony. The Father wants the child to be
like Himself. The more I learn in adoring worship to say, "As for God, His
way is perfect," the sooner I will have faith and grace with the Psalmist to
say, "He makes my way perfect."
As we believe this, that is, receive the heavenly truth in these words into
our inmost being and assimilate it, we shall not wonder that the same man
also said, "I was also perfect with Him, and kept myself from my iniquity."
"The God that arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect," His alone
is the power and the honor and the glory of what He has created. This makes
the confession, "I was also perfect with Him," so far from being presumption
or selfrighteousness, nothing but an ascription of praise to Him to whom it
is due.
And then follow the words in which the perfection of God and that of man
are seen in their wonderful relationship and harmony: "With the perfect man,
You will show Yourself perfect." As little as there can be a ray of the light
of day, however dull and clouded it be, but what speaks of the sun, so little
can there be any perfection but what is of God. In its feeblest beginnings in
a soul, in its darkest and almost hopeless strugglings, it is all God's perfection
wrestling with man to break through and get possession. As long as man
refuses to consent, God cannot make His perfection known, for God must be
to us what we are to Him: "With the warped, You show Yourself twisted."
But where man's will consents, and his heart chooses this perfection and this
perfect God as its portion, God meets the soul with ever larger manifestation
of how perfect He is towards His own. "With the perfect man You will show
Yourself perfect."
Christian! walk before God with a perfect heart, and you will experience
how perfect the heart, and the love, and the will of God to bless, is towards
you. Of a heart perfectly yielded to Him, God will take perfect possession.
Walk before God in a perfect way it is God who makes my way perfect and
your eyes and heart will be opened to see, in adoring wonder, how perfect
God's way is with you and for you. Do take mightily hold of this word as the
law of God's revelation of Himself: "With the perfect man, You will show
Yourself perfect." To a soul perfectly devoted to Him, God will wonderfully
reveal Himself. Turn with your whole heart and life, your whole trust and
obedience, towards God walk before Him with a perfect heart and
He will show Himself perfect to you, the God whose way is perfect and makes
your way perfect, the God who perfects you in every good thing. Meet God
with your, "With my whole heart I have sought You"; He will answer you
with His, "Yes, I will rejoice over you to do you good, with my whole heart
and with my whole soul." Oh! say it in faith, and hope, and joy, "With the
perfect man You will show Yourself perfect."
Day 8
PERFECT IN HEART LEADS TO PERFECT IN
THE WAY
"Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of the
Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, that seek Him with the
whole heart." Ps. 119: 1, 2.
"Let my heart be perfect in Thy testimonies." Ps. 119: 80.
"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. Oh! when will You come to
me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." Ps. 101: 2.
We have seen what Scripture says of the perfect heart: here it speaks of the
perfect walk. "Blessed are the perfect in the way, who walk in the law of the
Lord." These are the opening words of the beautiful psalm, in which there is
given to us the picture, from the witness of personal experience, of the
wonderful blessedness of a life in the law and the will of God. As he looks
back upon the past, the Psalmist does not hesitate to claim that he has kept
that law: "I have kept Your testimonies;" " I have conformed to Your law;"
"I did not desert Your standards ;" "I have not strayed from Your judgments;"
"I have done judgment and justice;" "I have not swerved from Your
testimonies;" "I have done Your commandments;" "My soul has conformed
to Your declarations." Of a truth may the man who can look up to God and,
in simplicity of soul, speak thus, say, "How blessed are the perfect in the
way!"
What is meant by this being "perfect in the way" becomes plain as we
study the psalm. Perfection includes two elements. The one is the perfection
of heart, the earnestness of purpose, with which a man gives himself up to
seek God and His will. The other, the perfection of obedience, in which a
man seeks, not only to do some, but all the commandments of his God, and
rests content with nothing less than the New Testament privilege of "standing
perfect in all the will of God." Of both, the Psalmist speaks with great
confidence. Hear how he testifies of the former in words such as these:
"Blessed are they that seek Him with the whole heart ;" "With my whole heart
I have sought You;" "With my whole heart, I will conform to Your law;" "I
will keep Your standards with my whole heart;" "Your standards are my
delight;" "O, how I love Your standards!" "Consider how I love Your
standards;" "I love them exceedingly." This is indeed the perfect heart of
which we have already heard. The whole psalm is a prayer, and an appeal to
God Himself to consider and see how His servant in wholehearted simplicity
has chosen God and His standard as his only portion.
We have more than once said that in this wholeheartedness, in the perfect
heart, we have the root of all perfection.
But it is only the root and beginning: there is another element that may
not be lacking. God is to be found in His will; he who would truly find and
fully enjoy God, must meet Him in all His will. This is not always understood.
A man may have his heart intent on serving God perfectly, and yet may be
unconscious how very imperfect his knowledge of God's will is. The very
earnestness of his purpose, and his consciousness of integrity towards God,
may deceive him. As far as he knows, he does God's will. But he forgets how
much there is of that blessed will that he does not yet know. He can learn a
very blessed lesson from the writer of our psalm.
Hear how he speaks: "I have refrained my feet from every evil way;" "I
hate every false way;" "I esteem all Your standards concerning all things to
be right." It is this surrender to a life of entire and perfect obedience that
explains at once the need he felt of Divine teaching, and the confidence with
which he pleaded for it and expected it: "Let my heart be perfect in Your
testimonies." The soul that longs for nothing less than to be perfect in the
way, and in deep consciousness of its need of a Divine teaching pleads for it,
will not be disappointed.
In our next meditation we pass on to the New Testament. In the Old we
have the time of preparation, the awakening of the spirit of holy expectancy,
waiting God's fulfilment of His promises. In the Old the perfect heart was the
receptacle, emptied and cleansed for God's filling. In the New we will find
Christ perfected forevermore, perfecting us, and fitting us to walk perfect in
Him. In the New the word that looks at the human side, perfect in heart,
disappears, to give place to that which reveals the Divine filling that awaits
the prepared vessel: Perfect Love; God's love perfected in us.
"Blessed are the perfect in the way!" We have heard the testimony of an
Old Testament saint, and is it not written of New Testament times, "He that
is feeble shall be as David"? Surely now, in the fulness of time, when Jesus
our High Priest in the power of an endless life saves completely, and the Holy
Spirit has come out of God's heaven to dwell within us and be our life, surely
now there need not be one word of the psalm that is not meant to be literal
truth in the mouth of every believer. Let us read it once more. Speaking it
word for word before God, as its writer did, we too shall begin to sing,
"Blessed are the perfect in the way, that seek Him with their whole heart."
"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. Oh! when will You come
to me! I will walk within my house with a perfect heart."
Day 9
PERFECT AS THE FATHER
"For this reason you will be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."Matt. 5: 48.
Perfect before God, perfect with God, perfect towards God: these are the
expressions we find in the Old Testament. They all indicate a relationship:
the choice or purpose of the heart set upon God, the wholehearted desire to
trust and obey Him. The first word of the New Testament at once lifts us to
a very different level, and opens to us what Christ has brought for us. Not
only perfect towards God, but perfect as God; this is the wonderful prospect
it holds out to us. It reveals the infinite fulness of meaning the word perfect
has in God's mind. It gives us at once the only standard we are to aim at and
to judge by. It casts down all hopes of perfection as a human attainment; but
awakens hope in Him who, as God, has the power, as Father has the will, to
make us like Himself.
A young child may be the perfect image of his father. There may be a great
difference in age, in stature, in power, and yet the resemblance may be so
striking that every one notices it. And so a child of God, though infinitely
less, may yet bear the image of the Father so markedly, may have such a
striking likeness to his Father, that in his creaturely life he will be perfect ,as
the Father is in His Divine life. This is possible. It is what Jesus here
commands. It is what each one should aim at. "Perfect as your Father in
heaven is perfect," must become one of the first articles of our creed, one of
the guiding lights of our Christian life.
Wherein this perfection of the Father consists is evident from the context: "Love your enemies, that you may be sons of your Father which is in heaven;
for He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good: Be therefore perfect,
as your Father in heaven is perfect." Or as it is in Luke 6: 36: "Be merciful,
even as your Father is merciful."
The perfection of God is His love; His will
to communicate His own blessedness to all around Him. His compassion and
mercy are the glory of His being. He created us in His image and after His
likeness, to find our glory in a life of love and mercy and beneficence. It is
in love we are to be perfect, even as our Father is perfect.
The thought that comes up at once, and that ever returns again, is this: But
is it possible? And if so, how? Certainly not as a fruit of man's efforts. But
the words themselves contain the answer: "perfect as your Father is perfect."
It is because the little child has received his life from his father, and because
the father watches over his training and development, that there can be such
a striking and everincreasing resemblance between him in his feebleness and
his father in his strength. It is because the sons of God are partakers of the
Divine nature, have God's life, and spirit, and love within them, that the
command is reasonable, and its obedience in everincreasing measure
possible: Be perfect, as your Father is. The perfection is our Father's: we have
its seed in us; He delights to give the increase. The words that first appear to
cast us down in utter helplessness now become our hope and strength. Be
perfect, as your Father is perfect. Claim your child's heritage; give up yourself
to be wholly a son of God; yield yourself to the Father to do in you all He is
able.
And then, remember too, who it is gives this message from the Father. It
is the Son, who Himself was, by the Father, perfected through suffering; who
learned obedience and was made perfect; and who has perfected us forever.
The message, "Be perfect," comes to us from Him, our elder Brother, as a
promise of infinite hope. What Jesus asks of us, the Father gives. What Jesus
speaks, He does. To "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," is the one
aim of Christ and His gospel. Let us accept the command from Him; in
yielding ourselves to obey it, let us yield ourselves to Him: let our expectation
be from Him in whom we have been perfected. Through faith in Him we
receive the Holy Ghost, by whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
Through faith in Him, that love becomes in us a fountain of love springing
up without ceasing. In union with Him, the love of God is perfected in us,
and we are perfected in love. Let us not fear to accept and obey the command,
"Be perfect, as your Father is perfect."
Day 10
PERFECTED AS THE MASTER
"Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful . . . . The disciple is
not above his master: but every one who is perfected will be as his master."Lk. 6: 36, 40.
In his report of part of the Sermon on the Mount, Luke records that Jesus
says, not: "Be perfect," but, "Be merciful," as your Father is. He then
introduces the word perfect immediately after; not, however, in connection
with the Father, but the Son, as the Master of His disciples. The change is
most instructive; it leads us to look to Jesus, as He dwelt in the flesh, as our
model. It might be said that our circumstances and powers are so different
from those of God that it is impossible to apply the standard of His infinite
perfection in our little world. But here comes the Son, in the likeness of sinful
flesh, tempted in all things like as we are, and offers Himself as our Master
and Leader. He lives with us that we may live with Him; He lives like us that
we may live like Him.
The Divine standard is embodied and made visible, is brought within our
reach, in the human model. Growing into His likeness, who is the image of
the Father, we shall bear the likeness of the Father too: becoming like Him,
the firstborn among many brethren, we shall become perfect as the Father is.
"The disciple is not above his Master: but every one who is perfected shall
be as his Master."
"The disciple is not above his Master." The thought of the disciple being
as the Master sometimes has reference to outward humiliation: like the Master
he will be despised and persecuted (Matt. 10: 24, 25; John 15: 20). And
sometimes to inward humility, the willingness to be a servant (Luke 22: 27;
John 13: 16). Both in his external life and his inner disposition the perfected
disciple knows nothing higher than to be as his Master.
To take Jesus as Master, with the distinct desire and aim to be and live
and act like Him this is true Christianity. This is something far more than
accepting Him as a Savior and Helper. Far more even than acknowledging
Him as Lord and Master.
A servant may obey the commands of his master most faithfully, while
he has little thought of through them rising up into the master's likeness and
spirit. This alone is full discipleship, to long in everything to be as like the
Master as possible, to count His life as the true expression of all that is perfect,
and to aim at nothing less than the perfection of being perfect as He was.
"Everyone who is perfected shall be as his Master."
The words suggest to us very distinctly that in discipleship there is more
than one stage. Just as in the Old Testament it is said only of some that they
served the Lord with a perfect heart, while of others we read that their heart
was not perfect with the Lord (1 Kings 11: 4, 15: 3; 2 Chron. 25: 2), so even
now there are great differences between disciples. Some there are to whom
the thought of aiming at the perfect likeness of the Master has never come:
they only look to Christ as a Savior. And some there are whose heart indeed
longs for full conformity to their Lord, "to be as the Master," but who have
never understood, though they have read the words, that there is such a thing
as "a perfect heart" and a life "perfected in love."
But there are those, too, to whom it has been given to accept these words
in their Divine meaning and truth, and who do know in blessed experience
what it is to say with Hezekiah, "I have walked before Thee with a perfect
heart," and with John, "as He is, even so are we in this world."
As we go on in our study of what Scripture says of perfection, let us hold
fast the principle we have learnt here. Likeness to Jesus in His humiliation
and humility: the choice, like Him, of the form of a servant, the spirit that
does not exercise lordship and would not be ministered unto, but girds itself
to minister and to give its life for others, this is the secret of true perfection.
"The disciple is not above his Master, but every one who is perfected shall
be as his Master." With the perfect love of God as our standard, with that love
revealed in Christ's humanity and humility as our model and guide, with the
Holy Spirit to strengthen us with might, that this Christ may live in us, we
shall learn to know what it is that every one who is perfected shall be as his
Master.
Day 11
THE PERFECT SELLING ALL TO FOLLOW
CHRIST
"Jesus said unto him, 'If you desire to be perfect, go sell everything, and
give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow
Me.'" Matt. 19: 21.
To the rich young ruler poverty was to be the path to perfection. "The disciple
is not above his Master, but every one who is perfected shall be as his Master."
Poverty was part of the Master's perfection, part of that mysterious discipline
of selfdenial and suffering through which it became God to perfect Him:
while He was on earth, poverty was to be the mark of all those who would
be always with, and wholly as, the Master.
What does this mean? Jesus was Lord of all. He might have lived here on
earth in circumstances of comfort and with moderate possessions. He might
have taught us how to own, and to use, and to sanctify property. He might in
this have become like us, walking in the path in which most men have to
walk. But He chose poverty. Its life of selfsacrifice and direct dependence
on God, its humiliation, its trials and temptations, were to be elements of that
highest perfection He was to exhibit.
In the disciples whom He chose to be with Him, poverty was to be the
mark of their fellowship with Him, the training school for perfect conformity
to His image, the secret of power for victory over the world, for the full
possession of the heavenly treasure, and the full exhibition of the heavenly
spirit. And even in him, who, when the humiliation was past, had his calling
from the throne, in Paul, poverty was still the chosen and muchprized
vehicle of perfect fellowship with his Lord.
What does this mean? The command, "Be perfect," comes to the rich as
well as the poor. Scripture has nowhere spoken of the possession of property
as a sin. While it warns against the danger riches bring, and denounces their
abuse, it has nowhere promulgated a law forbidding riches. And yet it speaks
of poverty as having a very high place in the life of perfection.
To understand this we must remember that perfection is a relative term.
We are not under a law, with its external commands as to duty and conduct,
that takes no account of diversity of character or circumstance. In the perfect
law of liberty in which we are called to live, there is room for infinite variety
in the manifestation of our devotion to God and Christ. According to the
diversity of gifts, and circumstances, and calling, the same spirit may be seen
in apparently conflicting paths of life. There is a perfection which is sought
in the right possession and use of earthly goods as the Master's steward; there
is also a perfection which seeks even in external things to be as the Master
Himself was, and in poverty to bear its witness to the reality and sufficiency
of heavenly things.
In the early ages of the Church this truth, that poverty is for some the path
of perfection, exercised a mighty and a blessed influence. Men felt that
poverty, as one of the traits of the holy life of Jesus and His apostles, was
sacred and blessed. As the inner life of the Church grew feeble, the spiritual
truth was lost in external observances, and the fellowship of the poverty of
Jesus was scarce to be seen. In its protest against the selfrighteousness
and the superficiality of the Romish system, the Protestant Church has not yet
been able to give to poverty the place it ought to have either in the portraiture
of the Master's image or the disciple's study of perfect conformity to Him.
And yet it is a truth many are seeking after. If our Lord found poverty the
best school for His own strengthening in the art of perfection, and the surest
way to rise above the world and win men's hearts for the Unseen, it surely
need not surprise us if those who feel drawn to seek the closest possible
conformity to their Lord even in external things, and who long for the highest
possible power in witnessing for the Invisible, should be irresistibly drawn
to count this word as spoken to them too: "If you desire to be perfect, sell
everything, and follow Me."
When this call is not felt, there is a larger lesson of universal application:
No perfection without the sacrifice of all. To be perfected here on earth Christ
gave up all: to become like Him, to be perfected as the Master, means giving
up all. The world and self must be renounced. "If you desire to be perfect,
sell all, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me."
Day 12
THE PERFECT MAN A SPIRITUAL MAN
"Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect." 1 Cor: 2: 6.
"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as
to babes in Christ. For whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are
you not yet carnal?" 1 Cor. 3: 1, 3.
Among the Corinthians there were mighty and abundant operations of the
Holy Spirit. Paul could say to them (1: 5), "In everything you were enriched
in Christ, so that you come behind in no gift." And yet in the sanctifying grace
of the Holy Spirit there was much that was wanting. He had to say, "There
are contentions among you; I beseech you that there be no divisions among
you, but that you may be perfected together in the same mind." The spirit of
humility, and gentleness, and unity was wanting; without these they could
not be perfected, either individually or as a body. They needed the injunction,
"Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness."
The Corinthians were as yet carnal; the gifts of the Spirit were among
them in power; but His grace, renewing, sweetening, sanctifying every temper
into the likeness of Jesus, in this they were lacking much. The wisdom Paul
preached was a heavenly, spiritual wisdom, God's wisdom in a mystery, even
the hidden wisdom, which needed a spiritual, heavenly mind to apprehend it.
"We speak wisdom among the perfect ;" he could not speak to them "as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal." Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned;
the wisdom among the perfect could only be received by those who were not
carnal, but spiritual. The perfect of whom Paul speaks are the spiritual.
And who are the spiritual? Those in whom not only the gifts, but the graces
of the Spirit have obtained supremacy and are made manifest. God's love is
His perfection (Matt. 5: 4046); Christ's humility is His perfection. The
selfsacrificing love of Christ, His humility, and meekness, and gentleness,
manifested in daily life, are the most perfect fruit of the Spirit, the true proof
that a man is spiritual. A man may have great zeal in God's service, he may
be used to influence many for good, and yet, when weighed in the balance of
love, be found sadly wanting. In the heat of controversy, or under unjust
criticism, haste of temper, slowness to forgive and forget, quick words and
sharp judgments, often reveal an easily wounded sensitiveness, which proves
how little the Spirit of Christ has full possession or real mastery. The spiritual
man is the man who is clothed with the spirit of the suffering, crucified Jesus.
And it is only the spiritual man who can understand "the wisdom among
the perfect," "even the mystery which now has been manifested to the holy
ones, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you." A Christian teacher may be a
man of wonderful sagacity and insight, may have the power of opening the
truth, of mightily stimulating and helping others, and may yet have so much
of the carnal that the deeper mystery of Christ in us remains hidden. It is only
as we yield ourselves wholly to the power of God's Holy Spirit, as the question
of being made free from all that is carnal, of attaining the utmost possible
likeness to Jesus in His humiliation, of being filled with the Spirit, rules heart
and life, that the Christian, be he scholar or teacher, can fully enter into the
wisdom among the perfect.
To know the mind of God we must have the mind of Christ. And the mind
of Christ is this, that He emptied and humbled Himself, and became obedient
to death. This His humility was His capacity, His fitness for rising to the
throne of God. This mind must be in us if the hidden wisdom of God is to be
revealed to us in its power. It is this that is the mark of the spiritual, the perfect
man.
May God increase the number of the perfect. And to that end the number
of those who know to speak wisdom among the perfect, even God's wisdom
in a mystery. As the distinction between the carnal and the spiritual, the babes
and the perfect, comes to recognition in the Church, the connection between
a spiritual life and spiritual insight will become clearer, and the call to
perfection will gain new force and meaning. And it will once again be counted
just cause of reproof and of shame not to be among the perfect.
Day 13
PERFECTING HOLINESS
"Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2
Cor. 7: 1.
These words give us an insight into one of the chief aspects of perfection,
and an answer to the question: Wherein is it we are to be perfect? We must
be perfect in holiness. We must be perfectly holy. Such is the exposition of
the Father's message, Be perfect.
We know what holiness is. God alone is holy, and holiness is that which
God communicates of Himself. Separation and cleansing and consecration
are not holiness, but only the preliminary steps on the way to it. The temple
was holy because God dwelt in it. Not that which is given to God is holy, but
that which God accepts and appropriates, that which He takes possession of,
takes up into His own fellowship and use that
is holy. "I am the Lord who
makes you holy," was God's promise to His people of old, on which the
command was based, "Be holy." God's taking them for His own made them
a holy people; their entering into this holiness of God, yielding themselves
to His will, and fellowship, and service, was what the command, "Be holy,"
called them to.
Even so it is with us Christians. We are made holy in Christ; we are saints
or holy ones. The call comes to us to follow after holiness, to perfect holiness,
to yield ourselves to the God who is ready to sanctify us wholly. It is the
knowledge of what God has done in making us His holy ones, and has
promised to do in sanctifying us wholly, that will give us courage to perfect
holiness.
"Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us perfect holiness." Which
promises? They had just been mentioned: "I will dwell in them; I will be their
God; I will receive you; I will be to you a Father." It was God's accepting the
temple, and dwelling there Himself, that made it holy. It is God's dwelling in
us that makes us holy; that gives us not only the motive, but the courage and
the power to perfect holiness, to yield ourselves for Him to possess perfectly
and entirely. It is God's being a Father to us, begetting His own life, His own
Son within us, forming Christ in us, until the Son and the Father make their
abode in us, that will give us confidence to believe that it is possible to perfect
holiness, and will reveal to us the secret of its attainment. "Having therefore
these promises, beloved," that is, knowing them, living on them, claiming
and obtaining them, let us "perfect holiness."
This faith is the secret power of the growth of the inner life of perfect
holiness. But there are hindrances that check and prevent this growth. These
must be watched against and removed. "Having these promises, let us cleanse
ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of the Lord." Every defilement, outward or inward, in conduct or
inclination, in the physical or the spiritual life, must be cleansed and cast
away. Cleansing in the blood, cleansing by the word, cleansing by the pruning
knife or the fire in any way or by any means but we must be cleansed.
In the fear of the Lord every sin must be cut off and cast out; everything
doubtful or defiling must be put away; soul and body and spirit must be
preserved entire and blameless. Thus cleansing ourselves from all defilement
we will perfect holiness: the spirit of holiness will fill God's temple with His
holy presence and power.
Beloved, having these promises, let us perfect holiness. Perfectly holy!
perfect in holiness let us yield ourselves to these thoughts, to these wishes,
to these promises, of our God. Beginning with the perfect childlike heart,
pressing on in the perfect way, clinging to a perfect Savior, living in
fellowship with a God whose way and work is perfect, let us not be afraid to
come to God with His own command as our prayer: Perfect holiness, O my
Lord! He knows what He means by it, and we will know if we follow on to
know. Lord, I am called to perfect holiness: I come to You for it; make me
as perfectly holy as a redeemed sinner can be on earth.
Let this be the spirit of our daily prayer. I would walk before God with a
perfect heart: perfect in Christ Jesus; in the path of perfect holiness. I would
this day come as near perfection as grace can make it possible for me.
"Perfecting holiness" shall, in the power of His Spirit, be my aim.
Day 14
WE PRAY FOR YOUR PERFECTING: BE
PERFECTED
"This we also pray for, even your perfecting. . . . Finally, brethren, farewell.
Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace; and the
God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Cor. 13: 9, 11.
The word here translated "perfect" means to bring a thing into its right
condition, so that it is as it should be. It is used of mending nets, restoring
them to their right state, or of equipping a ship: fitting it out with all it should
have. It implies thus two things: the removal of all that is still wrong; the
supply of all that is still lacking.
Within two verses Paul uses the word twice. First, as the expression of the
one thing which he asks of God for them, the summary of all grace and
blessing: "This we pray for, even your perfecting." That you be perfectly free
from all that is wrong and carnal, and that you should perfectly possess and
exhibit all that God would have you be: we pray for your perfecting. Next as
the summing up in a farewell word of what He would have them aim at.
"Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfected." And then follow three other verbs,
which show how this one, which takes the lead, has reference to the Christian's
daily life, and is meant to point to what is to be his daily aim and experience.
"Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace." Just as the
comfort of the Spirit, and the unity of love, and the life of peace are, if the
God of love and peace is to be with us, our duty and our privilege every hour,
so, too, the being perfected. The close of the two Epistles gathers up all its
teaching in this one injunction: Farewell, Be Perfected.
The two texts together show us what the prayer and the preaching of every
minister of the gospel ought to be; what his heart, above everything, ought
to be set on. We justly look upon Paul as a model whom every minister ought
to copy let every Gospel minister copy him in this, so that his people may
know as he goes in and out among them that his heart breathes heavenward
for them this one wish: Your perfecting! and may feel that all his teaching
has this one aim: Be perfected!
If ministers are to seek this above everything in their charge of the Church
of God, they need themselves to feel deeply and to expose faithfully the low
standard that prevails in the Church. Some have said that they have seen
Perfectionism slay its thousands. All must admit that Imperfectionism has
slain its tens of thousands. Multitudes are soothing themselves in a life of
worldliness and sin with the thought that as no one is perfect, imperfection
cannot be so dangerous. Numbers of true Christians are making no progress
because they have never known that we can serve God with a perfect heart,
that the perfect heart is the secret of a perfect way, of a work going on unto
perfection. God's call to us to be perfect, to perfect holiness in His fear, to
live perfect in Christ Jesus, to stand perfect in all the will of God, must be
preached, until the faith begins to live again in the Church that all teaching
is to be summed up in the words, and each day of our life to be spent under
their inspiration: Be Perfected!
When once ministers know themselves and are known as the messengers
of this Godwilled perfection, they will feel the need of nothing less than the
teaching of the Holy Spirit to guide men in this path. They will see and preach
that religion must indeed be a surrender of all to God. Becoming as conformed
to His will, living as entirely to His glory, being as perfectly devoted to His
service, as grace can enable us to be, and no less, will be the only rule of duty
and measure of expectation. The message, Be Perfected! will demand the
whole heart, the whole life, the whole strength. As the soul learns each day
to say, "Father! I desire to be perfect in heart with You today, I desire to walk
before You and be perfect," the need and the meaning of abiding in Christ
will be better understood, Christ Himself with His power and love will have
new preciousness, and God will prove what He can do for souls, for a Church
wholly given up to Him.
O you ministers of Christ, you messengers of His salvation, say to the
Churches over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers: This also we
pray for even your perfecting! Finally, brethren, Be perfected!
Day 15
NOT PERFECTED, YET PERFECT
"Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected; but I press on. .
. . One thing I do, I press on towards the goal. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded." Phil.3: 1215.
In perfection there are degrees. We have perfect, more perfect, most perfect.
We have perfect, waiting to be perfected. So it was with our Lord Jesus. In
Hebrews we read thrice of Him that He was perfected or made perfect. Of
sinful imperfection there was not the faintest shadow in Him. At each moment
of His life He was perfect just what He should be. And yet He needed, and
it became God to perfect Him through suffering and the obedience He learned
in it. As He conquered temptation, and maintained His allegiance to God, and
amid strong crying and tears gave up His will to God's will, His human nature
was perfected, and He became High Priest, "the Son perfected forevermore."
Jesus during His life on earth was perfect, but not yet perfected.
The perfected disciple shall be as his Master. What is true of Him is true,
in our measure, of us too. Paul wrote to the Corinthians of speaking wisdom
among the perfect, a wisdom carnal Christians could not understand. Here in
our text he classes himself with the perfect, and expects and enjoins them to
be of the same mind with himself. He sees no difficulty either in speaking of
himself and others as perfect, or in regarding the perfect as needing to be yet
further and fully perfected.
And what is now this perfection which has yet to be perfected? And who
are these perfect ones? The man who has made the highest perfection his
choice, and who has given his whole heart and life to attain to it, is counted
by God a perfect man. "The kingdom of heaven is like a seed." Where God
sees in the heart the single purpose to be all that God wills, He sees the divine
seed of all perfection. And as He counts faith for righteousness, so He counts
this wholehearted purpose to be perfect as incipient perfection. The man with
a perfect heart is accepted by God, amid all imperfection of attainment, as a
perfect man. Paul could look upon the Church and unhesitatingly say, "As
many of us as be perfect, let us be thus minded."
We know how among the Corinthians he describes two classes. The one,
the large majority, carnal and content to live in strife; the other, the spiritual,
the perfect. In the Church of our day it is to be feared that the great majority
of believers have no conception of their calling to be perfect. They have not
the slightest idea that it is their duty not only to be religious, but to be as
eminently religious, as full of grace and holiness, as it is possible for God to
make them. Even where there is some measure of earnest purpose in the
pursuit of holiness, there is such a want of faith in the earnestness of God's
purpose when He speaks: "Be perfect," and in the sufficiency of His grace to
meet the demand, that the appeal meets with no response. In no real sense do
they understand or accept Paul's invitation: "Let us, as many as be perfect,
be thus minded."
But, thank God! it is not so with all. There is an everincreasing
number who cannot forget that God means what He says when He speaks: "Be
perfect," and who regard themselves as under the most solemn obligation to
obey the command. The words of Christ: "Be perfect," are to them a revelation
of what Christ is come to give and to work, a promise of the blessing to which
His teaching and leading will bring them. They have joined the band of
likeminded ones whom Paul would associate with himself; they seek God
with their whole heart; they serve Him with a perfect heart; their one aim in
life is to be made perfect, even as the Master.
My reader! as in the presence of God, who has said to you: "Be perfect!"
and of Christ Jesus, who gave Himself that you might obey this command of
your God, I charge you that you do not refuse the call of God's servant, but
enrol yourself among those who accept it: "Let us, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded." Fear not to take your place before God with Paul among the
perfect in heart. So far will it be from causing selfcomplacency,
that you will learn from him how the perfect has yet to be perfected, and how the one mark
of the perfect is that he counts all things loss as he presses on unto the prize
of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.
Day 16
PERFECT, AND YET TO BE PERFECTED
"Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected, but I press on. .
. . One thing I do, I press on toward the goal. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded. Brethren, be ye imitators together of me." Phil.3:12,17.
The mark of the perfect, as set before us in Paul and all who are thus minded,
is the passionate desire to be yet made perfect. This looks like a paradox. And
yet what we see in our Master proves the truth of what we say: the
consciousness of being perfect is in entire harmony with the readiness to
sacrifice life itself for the sake of being yet made perfect. It was thus with
Christ. It was thus with Paul. It will be thus with us, as we open our hearts
fully and give God's words room and time to do their work. Many think that
the more imperfect one is the more he will feel his need of perfection. All
experience, in every department of life, teaches us the very opposite. It is
those who are nearest perfection who most know their need of being yet
perfected, and are most ready to make any sacrifice to attain to it. To count
everything loss for perfection in practice, is the surest proof that perfection
in principle has possession of the heart. The more honestly and earnestly the
believer claims that he seeks God with a perfect heart, the more ready will
he be with Paul to say: "Not that I have already obtained, or am already
perfected."
And wherein was it now that Paul longed to be made perfect? Read the
wonderful passage with care, and without prejudice or preconceived ideas,
and I think you will see that he gives here no indication of its being sin or
sinful imperfection from which he was seeking to be perfectly free. Whatever
his writings teach elsewhere, the thought is not in his mind here. The perfected
disciple is as his Master. Paul is speaking here of his life and lifework, and
feels that it is not perfected until he has reached the goal and obtained the
prize. To this he is pressing on. He that runs in a race may, as far as he has
gone, have done everything perfectly; all may pronounce his course perfect
as far as it has gone. Still it has to be perfected. The contrast is not with failure
or shortcoming, but with what is as yet unfinished, and waiting for its full
end. And so Paul uses expressions which all tell us how what he already had
of Christ was but a part. He did know Christ, he had gained Christ, he was
found in Him, he had apprehended in wonderful measure that for which Christ
had apprehended him. And yet of all these things of knowing Christ, of
gaining Him, of being found in Him, of apprehending that for which he was
apprehended he speaks as of what he was striving after with all his might:
"If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead;" "I press on to
the goal, unto the prize."' It is of all this he says: "Not that I am already made
perfect. Let as many as are perfect be thus minded."
Paul had known Christ for many years, but he knew there were in Him
riches and treasures greater than he had known yet, and nothing could satisfy
him but the full and final and eternal possession of what the resurrection
would bring him. For this he counted all things but loss; for this he forgot the
things that were behind; for this he pressed on to the goal, unto the prize. He
teaches us the spirit of true perfection. A man who knows he is perfect with
God; a man who knows he must yet be perfected; a man who knows that he
has counted all things loss to attain this final perfection; such is the perfect
man.
Christian, learn here the price of perfection, as well as the mark of the
perfect ones. The Master gave His life to be made perfect forever. Paul did
the same. It is a solemn thing to profess the pursuit of perfection. The price
of the "pearl of great price" is high: all things must be counted loss. I have
urged you to put down your names in the classlist of the perfect; to ask the
Master to put it down and give you the blessed witness of the Spirit to a perfect
heart. I urge you now, if, like Paul, you claim to be perfect, single and
wholehearted in your surrender to God, to live the life of the perfect, with all
things loss for Jesus as its watchword and its strength, and its one desire to
possess Him wholly, to be possessed of Him, and to be made perfect even as
He was.
O our Father! be pleased to open the eyes of Your children, that they may
see what the perfection of heart is that You now ask of them, and what the
perfection in Christ is that You desire for them to seek at any cost.
Day 17
PERFECT IN CHRIST
"Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we proclaim, admonishing every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every
man perfect in Christ: whereunto I labor also, striving according to His
working which works in me mightily." Col. 1:27,29.
Perfect in Christ: in our inquiry into the teaching of the Word as to perfection,
we have here a new word opening up to us the hope, giving us the assurance,
of what we have seen to be our duty. It links all that we have seen of God's
call and claim, with all that we know of Christ in His grace and power. Perfect
in Christ: here is the open gateway into the perfect life. He to whom it is given
to see fully what it means, finds through it an abundant entrance into the life
of Christian perfectness.
There are three aspects in which we need to look at the truth of our being
perfect in Christ. There is, first, our perfectness in Christ, as it is prepared for
us in Him, our Head. As the second Adam, Christ came and wrought out a
new nature for all the members of His body. This nature is His own life,
perfected through suffering and obedience. In thus being perfected Himself,
He perfected forever them that are sanctified. His perfection, His perfect life,
is ours. And that not only judicially, or by imputation, but as an actual spiritual
reality, in virtue of our real and living union with Him. Paul says in the same
Epistle, "You are complete, made full in Him"; all that you are to be is already
fulfilled, and so you are fulfilled in Him: circumcised in Him, buried with
Him, raised with Him, quickened together with Him. All Christ's members
are in Him, fulfilled in Him.
Then there is our perfection in Christ, as imparted to us by the Holy Spirit
in uniting us to Him. The life which is implanted in us at the new birth, planted
into the midst of a mass of sin and flesh, is a perfect life. As the seed contains
in itself the whole life of the tree, so the seed of God within us is the perfect
life of Christ, with its power to grow, and fill our life, and bring forth fruit to
perfection.
And then there is also our perfection in Christ, as wrought in us by the
Holy Spirit, appropriated by us in the obedience of faith, and made manifest
in our life and conduct. As our faith grasps and feeds upon the truth in the
two former aspects, and yields itself to God to have that perfect life master
and pervade the whole of our daily life in its ordinary actions; perfect in Christ
will become each moment a present practical reality and experience. All that
the Word has taught of the perfect heart, and the perfect way, of being perfect
as the Father, and perfect as the Master, shines with new meaning and with
the light of a new life. Christ, the living Christ, is our Perfection; He, Himself,
lives each day and hour to impart it. The measureless love of Jesus, and the
power of the endless life in which His life works, become the measure of our
expectation. In the life in which we now live in the flesh, with its daily duties
in relationship with men and money, with care and temptation, we are to give
the proof that Perfect in Christ is no mere ideal, but in the power of Almighty
God, simple and literal truth.
It is in the last of these three aspects that Paul has used the expression in
our text. He speaks of admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in
all wisdom, that he may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. It is to the
perfectness in daily life and walk that the admonishing and teaching have
reference. In principle, Christians were perfect in Christ: in practice they were
to become perfect. The aim of the Gospel Ministry among believers was to
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, to teach men how they might put
on the Lord Jesus, have His life cover them and have His life in them.
What a task! What a hopeless task to the minister, as he looks upon the
state of the Church! What a task of infinite hopefulness, if he does his work
as Paul did, "Whereunto," nothing less than presenting every man perfect in
Christ: "Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working which
works in me mightily." The aim is high, but the power is Divine. Let the
minister, in full purpose of heart, make Paul's aim his own: to present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. He may count upon Paul's strength: "His working
which works in me mightily."
Day 18
PERFECT IN ALL THE WILL OF GOD
"Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Jesus Christ, salutes you, always
striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured
in all the will of God." Col. 4: 12.
In this, as in some of the other Epistles, there is set before us the life of the
believer as he lives it in heaven in Christ, and then as he lives it here on earth
with men. The teaching of Scripture is intensely spiritual and supernatural,
but, at the same time, intensely human and practical. This comes out very
beautifully in the two expressions of our Epistle. Paul had told the Colossians
what he labored for; he now tells them what another minister, Epaphras,
prayed on their behalf. Paul's striving was in his labor that they might be
perfect in Christ Jesus. The striving of Epaphras was in the prayer that they
might be perfect in all the will of God.
First we have "Perfect in Christ Jesus." The thought is so unearthly and
Divine, that its full meaning eludes our grasp. It lifts up to life in Christ and
heaven. Then we have "Perfect in all the will of God." This word brings us
down to earth and daily life, placing all under the rule of God's will, and
calling us in every action and disposition to live in the will of God.
"That you may stand perfect in all the will of God." "The perfection of the
creature consists in nothing but willing the will of the Creator." The will of
God is the expression of the Divine perfection. Nature has its beauty and glory
in being the expression of the Divine will. The angels have their place and
bliss in heaven in doing God's will. The Son of God was perfected in learning
obedience, in giving Himself up unto the will of God. His redemption has
but one object, to bring man into that only place of rest and blessedness the
will of God. The prayer of Epaphras shows how truly he had entered into the
spirit of his Master. He prays for his people, that they may stand in the will
of God; and that in all the will of God nothing in their life excepted, in
which they were not in God's will. And that again, perfect in all the will of
God; at each moment, with a perfect heart walking in a perfect way. Perfect
in all the will of God, is ever his one thought of what ought to be asked and
could be found in prayer.
Paul prayed for the Colossians, "that they might be filled with the
knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." These
two servants of God were of one mind, that young converts must be reminded
that their knowledge of God's will is very defective, that they need to pray
for a Divine teaching to know that Will, and that their one aim should be to
stand perfect in all that will.
Let all seekers after perfection, let all who would be likeminded with
Paul, note well the lesson. In the joy of a consecration sealed by the Holy
Spirit, in the consciousness of a wholehearted purpose, and of serving God
with a perfectheart, the believer is often tempted to forget how much there
may be in which he does not yet see God's will. There may be grave defects
in his character, serious shortcomings from the law of perfect love in his
conduct, which others can observe. The consciousness of acting up to the full
light of what we know to be right is a most blessed thing, one of the marks
of the perfect heart. But it must ever be accompanied with the remembrance
of how much there may be that has not yet been revealed to us. This sense of
ignorance as to much of God's will, this conviction that there is still much in
us that needs to be changed, and sanctified, and perfected, will make us very
humble and tender, very watchful and hopeful in prayer. So far from
interfering with our consciousness that we serve God with a perfect heart, it
will give it new strength, while it cultivates that humility which is the greatest
beauty of perfection. Without it, the appeal to the consciousness of our
uprightness becomes superficial and dangerous, and the doctrine of perfection
a stumblingblock
and a snare.
Perfect in all the will of God. Let this be our unceasing aim and prayer.
Striking its roots deep in the humility which comes from the conviction of
how much there is yet to be revealed to us; strengthened by the consciousness
that we have given ourselves to serve Him with a perfect heart; full of the
glad purpose to be content with nothing less than standing perfect in all the
will of God; rejoicing in the confidence of what God will do for those who
are before Him perfect in Christ Jesus: let our faith claim the full blessing.
God will reveal to us how perfect in Christ Jesus, and perfect in all the will
of God, are one in His thought, and may be so in our experience.
Paul prayed for the Colossians "without ceasing," that they might be filled
with the knowledge of God's will. Epaphras was "always striving in his
prayers" for them, that they might stand perfect in all the will of God. It is by
prayer, by unceasing striving in prayer, that this grace must be sought for the
Church. It is before the throne, it is in the presence of God, that the life of
perfection must be found and lived. It is by the operation of the mighty
quickening power of God Himself, waited for and received in prayer, that
believers can indeed stand perfect in all the will of God. God give us grace
so to seek and so to find it.
Day 19
CHRIST MADE PERFECT THROUGH
SUFFERING
"It became Him to make the Leader of their salvation perfect through
sufferings." Heb. 2: 10. "Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered; and having been perfected, He became,
for all them that obey Him, the Author of eternal salvation." Heb. 5: 8, 9.
"But the word of the oath appointeth a Son, perfected forevermore." Heb.7: 28.
We have here three passages in which we are taught that Jesus Christ Himself,
though He was the Son of God, had to be perfected. The first tells us that it
was as the Leader of our salvation that He was perfected; that it was God's
work to perfect Him; that there was a needbe for it; "it became God" to do
it; and that it was through suffering the work was accomplished. The second,
what the power of suffering to perfect was, that in it He learned obedience to
God's will; and that, being thus perfected, He became the Author of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him. The third, that it is as the Son perfected for
evermore that He is appointed High Priest in the heavens.
The words open to us the inmost secret of Christian perfection. The
Christian has no other perfection than the perfection of Christ. The deeper
his insight into the character of his Lord, as having been made perfect by
being brought into perfect union with God's will through suffering and
obedience, the more clearly will he apprehend wherein that redemption which
Christ came to bring really consists, and what the path is to its full enjoyment.
In Christ there was nothing of sinful defect or shortcoming. He was from
His birth the perfect One. And yet He needed to be perfected. There was
something in His human nature which needed to grow, to be strengthened
and developed, and which could only thus be perfected. He had to follow on,
as, step by step, the will of God opened up to Him, and in the midst of
temptation and suffering to learn and prove what it was at any cost to do that
will alone. It is this Christ who is our Leader and Forerunner, our High Priest
and Redeemer.
And it is as this perfection of His, this being made perfect through
obedience to God's will, is revealed to us, that we will know fully what the
redemption is that He brings.
We learn to take Him as our example. Like Him we say, "I am come, not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me." We accept the will of
God as the one thing we have to live for and to live in. In every circumstance
and trial we see and bow to the will of God. We meet every providential
appointment, in every ordinary duty of daily life, as God's will. We pray to
be filled with the knowledge of His will, that we may enter into it in its fulness,
that we may stand complete in all the will of God. Whether we suffer or obey
God's will, we seek to be perfected as the Master was.
We not only take Christ as our example and law in the path of perfection,
but as the promise and pledge of what we are to be. All that Christ was and
did as Substitute, Representative, Head and Savior, is for us. All He does is
in the power of the endless life. This perfection of His is the perfection of His
life, His way of living; this life of His, perfected in obedience, is now ours.
He gives us His own Spirit to breathe, to work it in us. He is the Vine; we are
the branches; the very mind and disposition that was in Him on earth is
communicated to us.
Yes, more; it is not only Christ in heaven who imparts to us somewhat of
His Spirit; Christ Himself comes to dwell in our heart: the Christ who was
made perfect through learning obedience. It is in this character that He reigns
in heaven: "He became obedient unto death; therefore God highly exalted
Him." It is in this character that He dwells and rules in the heart. The real
character, the essential attribute of the life Christ lived on earth, and which
He maintains in us, is this: a will perfect with God, and ready at any cost to
be perfected in all His will. It is this character He imparts to His own: the
perfection with which He was perfected in learning obedience. As those who
are perfect in Christ, who are perfect of heart towards God, and are pressing
on to be made perfect, let us live in the will of God, our one desire to be even
as He was, to do God's will, to stand perfect in all the will of God.
Day 20
LET US PRESS ON TO PERFECTION
"But solid food is for the perfect, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern goad and evil. For this reason, let us cease
to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection." Heb.5:14; 6:1.
The writer had criticized the Hebrews for being dull of hearing; for having
made no progress in the Christian life; for still being as little children who
needed milk. They could not bear solid food, the deeper and more spiritual
teaching in regard to the heavenly state of life into which Christ had entered,
and into which He gives admission to those who are ready for it. Such our
writer calls the perfect, mature or fullgrown men of the house of God. We
must not connect the idea of mature or fullgrown with time. In the Christian
life it is not as in nature: a believer of three years old may be counted among
the mature or perfect, while one of twenty years' standing may be but a babe,
unskilled in the word of righteousness. Nor must we connect it with power
of intellect or maturity of judgment. These may be found without that insight
into spiritual truth, and that longing after the highest attainable perfection in
character and fellowship with God, of which the writer is speaking.
We are told what the distinguishing characteristic of the perfect is: "even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and
evil"' It is the desire after holiness, the tender conscience that longs above
everything to discern good and evil, the heart that seeks only, and always,
and fully to know and do the will of God, that marks the perfect. The man
who has set his heart upon being holy, and in the pursuit after the highest
moral and spiritual perfection exercises his senses in everything to discern
good and evil, is counted the perfect man.
The Epistle has spoken of the two stages of the Christian life. It now calls
upon the Hebrews to be no longer babes, no longer to remain content with
the first principles, the mere elements of the doctrine of Christ. With the
exhortation, "Let us press on to perfection"; it invites them to come and learn
how Jesus is a Priest in the power of an endless life, who can save completely;
how He is the Mediator of a better covenant, lifting us into a better life by
writing the law in our heart; how the Holiest of all has been set open for us
to enter in, and there to serve the living God. "Let us go on to perfection" is
the landmark pointing all to that heavenly life in God's presence which can
be lived even here on earth, to which the full knowledge of Jesus as our
heavenly High Priest leads us.
"Let us press on to Perfection." It is not the first time we have the word
in the Epistle. We read of God's perfecting Christ through suffering.
Perfection is that perfect union with God's will, that blessed meekness and
surrender to God's will, which the Father wrought in Christ through His
suffering. We read of Christ's learning obedience, and so being made perfect.
This is the true maturity or perfection, the true wisdom among the perfect,
the knowing and doing God's will. We read of strong food for the perfect,
who by reason of practice, have their senses exercised to discern good and
evil. Here again perfection is, even as with Christ, the disposition, the
character that is formed when a man makes conformity to God's will,
fellowship with God in His holiness, the one aim of His life, to which
everything else, even life itself, is to be sacrificed.
It is to this that Jesus, our High Priest, and the further teaching of the
Epistle, would lead us on. The knowledge of the mysteries of God, of the
highest spiritual truth, cannot profit us, because we have no inward capacity
for receiving them, unless our inmost life is given up to receive as ours the
perfection with which Jesus was perfected. When this disposition is found,
the Holy Spirit will reveal to us how Christ has perfected forever, in the power
of an endless life, those who are sanctified. He has prepared a life, a
disposition, with which He clothes them. And we will understand that, "Let
us go on to perfection," just means this, "Let us go on to know Christ perfectly,
to live entirely by His heavenly life now that He is perfected, to follow wholly
His earthly life, and the path in which He reached perfection." Union with
Christ in heaven will mean likeness to Christ on earth in that lamblike
meekness and humility in which He suffered, in that Sonlike
obedience through which He entered into glory.
Brethren, leaving the first principles, let us go on to Perfection.
Day 21
NO PERFECTION BY THE LAW
"Now, if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it
the people had received the law), what further need that another priest
should arise after the order of Melchisedek? . . . who has been made, not
after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life . . . . For there is a disannulling of a former commandment, because of
its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect." Heb.7:11,19.
Gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot, as touching the
conscience, make the worshiper perfect." Heb. 9: 9.
"For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, can never make perfect them that draw
nigh." Heb. 10: 1.
"That apart from us they should not be made perfect." Heb. 11: 40.
Of the Epistles of the New Testament there is none in which the word
"Perfect" is used so often as that to the Hebrews. There is none that will help
us more to see what Christian perfection is, and the way to its attainment. The
word is used thrice of our Lord Jesus, and His being made perfect Himself.
Twice of our subjective perfection. Five times of the perfection of which the
law was the shadow, but which could not be until Jesus came. Thrice of
Christ's work in perfecting us. And once of the work of God in perfecting us.
These five thoughts will each give us a subject of meditation. Of the first two
we have spoken already.
A careful perusal of the verses placed above, will show that the writer
thought it of great importance to make it clear that the law could perfect no
person or thing. It was all the more of consequence to press this, both because
of the close connection in which the law stood to the true perfection, as its
promise and preparation, and of the natural tendency of the human heart to
seek perfection by the law. It was not only the Hebrews who greatly needed
this teaching: among Christians in our days the greatest hindrance in accepting
the perfection the gospel asks and offers, is that they make the law its standard,
and then our impotence to fulfil the law, the excuse for not attaining, for not
even seeking it. They have never understood that the law is but a preparation
for something better; and that when that which is perfect is come, that which
is in part is done away.
The Law demands; the Law calls to effort; the Law means self. It puts self
upon doing its utmost. But it makes nothing perfect, neither the conscience
nor the worshiper. This is what Christ came to bring. The very perfection
which the law could not give He does give. The Epistle tells us that He was
made a Priest, not as Aaron, after the law and in connection with the service
of a carnal commandment, which had to be disannulled because of its
weakness and unprofitableness, but after the power of an endless life. What
Christ, as Priest, has wrought and now works, is all in the power of an inward
birth, of a new life, of the eternal life. What is born into me, what is as a spirit
and life within me, has its own power of growth and action. Christ's being
made perfect Himself through suffering and obedience; His having perfected
us by that sacrifice by which He was perfected Himself; and His
communication of that perfection to us, is all in the power of an endless life.
It works in us as a life power; in no other way could we become partakers of
it.
Perfection is not through the law; let us listen to the blessed lesson. Let
us take the warning. The law is so closely connected with perfection, was so
long its only representative and forerunner, that we can hardly realize: the
law makes nothing perfect. Let us take the encouragement: What the law
could not do, God, sending His Son, has done. The Son, perfected for
evermore, has perfected us for ever. It is in Jesus we have our perfection. It
is in living union with Him, it is when He is within us, not only as a seed or
a little child, but formed within us, dwelling within us, that we shall know
how far He can make us perfect. It is faith that leads us in the path of
perfection. It is the faith that sees, that receives, that lives in Jesus the Perfect
One, that will bear us on to the perfection God would have.
Day 22
CHRIST HAS PERFECTED US
"But Christ, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, through His
own blood, entered once for all into the holy place." Heb. 9: 11, 12.
"By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified." Heb.10: 14.
In Christ's work, as set before us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, there are two
parts. In contrast with the worldly sanctuary, He is the minister of the true
tabernacle. The Holiest of all is now open to us: Christ has opened the way
through a more perfect tabernacle into the presence of God. He has prepared
and opened up for us a place of perfect fellowship with God, of access, in a
life of faith, which means a life in full union with Christ, into God's immediate
presence.
There must be harmony between the place of worship and the worshiper.
As He has prepared the perfect sanctuary, the Holiest of all, for us, He has
prepared us for it too. "By one offering He has perfected forever them that
are sanctified." For the sanctuary the sanctified ones; for the Holiest of all a
holy priesthood; for the perfect tabernacle the perfected worshiper.
"By one sacrifice He has perfected forever them that are sanctified." The
word perfected cannot mean here anything different from what it meant in
the three passages where it has been previously used of Him (Heb. 2: 11, 5:9, 7: 28).
They all point to that which constituted the real value, the innermost
nature, of His sacrifice. He was Himself perfected for our sakes, so that He
might perfect us with the same perfection with which God had perfected Him.
What is this perfection with which God perfected Him through suffering, in
which He was perfected through obedience, in which as the Son, perfected
forevermore, He was made our High Priest?
The answer is to be found in what the object was of Christ's redeeming
work. The perfection of man as created consisted in this, that he had a will
with power to will as God willed, and so to enter into inner union with the
Divine life and holiness and glory. His fall was a turning from the will of God
to do the will of self. And so this self and selfwill became the source and the
curse of sin. The work of Christ was to bring man back to that will of God in
which alone is life and blessedness. Therefore it became God, it was proper
and needful if He was to be the Leader of our salvation, that God should make
Him perfect through suffering. In His own person He was to conquer sin, to
develop and bring to perfection a real human life, sacrificing everything that
men hold dear, willing to give up even life itself, in surrender to God's will;
proving that it is the meat, the very life of man's
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