Chapter 1
PERFECTION AMONG BIBLICAL EXPRESSIONS
... God ... Make You Perfect . . .
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
"Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom 6e
glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Heb. 13:20, 21.)
The word Perfection is frequently used in the Bible concerning man
and his character; it is used as not only necessary and essential in order
for future blessedness but necessary and essential in order for heart satisfaction,
for the highest Christian ethical living, and for the carrying out of the
great commission. "A vast evangelistic advance," says Dr. R. Newton Flew,
in discussing Perfection, "can only be sustained if Christian ideal for
this life is steadily set forth in all its beauty and its fullness as being
by the grace of God something not impossible of attainment. If this principle
be valid, it is likely that the ignoring of it will bring impoverishment
and arrest." [1]
"Perfection," says S. T Coleridge, "is one of those terms which, however
they may have been perverted to the purpose of fanaticism, are not only Scriptural,
but of too frequent occurrence in Scripture to be overlooked by silence."
[2]
"A relative perfection is possible to mortals in this life. We are
living below the level the New Testament teaches as normal. Saints could
be as common as now they are rare." [3]
"No word has been the occasion of so much stumbling and controversy
among Christians," says Dr. Thomas Cook, "as this word 'perfect.' But the
term is a spiritual one and is used more frequently in the Bible than any
other single term to set forth Christian experience. It occurs one hundred
and thirty-eight times in the Scriptures, and in more than fifty of these
instances it refers to human character under the operation of grace. . .
. Forty-five times the Israelites are commanded to bring sacrifices without
blemish, and every time the word should have been translated perfect. By
such impressive symbols God would teach that the heart of the offerer must
be perfect before Him.
"Opening the New Testament we find the word 'perfect' dropping from
the lips of Christ, and from the pen of Paul, seventeen times as descriptive
of fitness for the kingdom of God; while the cognate noun 'perfect' is twice
used, and the verb 'to perfect' fourteen times. Instead of finding fault with
a word which the Spirit of inspiration sees fit to use with such persistency
from Genesis to the Epistle of John, should we not rather endeavor to arrive
at its true Scriptural meaning." [4]
