Been perfected

The popular old hymn written by Charlotte Elliot beckons us to come to God “Just as I am.” David Crowder captured the same sentiment in his popular song, “Come as You are.” This thought lovingly pierces our hearts because of truth, that truth is God wants us to come to him exactly as we are. Regardless of our motives (many a guy went to church because a girl was there), God’s desire is for you to be in his presence.

Then we come to verses sprinkled throughout the Bible saying, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”, “be holy as I am holy”, and “be blameless”. Such phrases have created the false belief that God wants us to clean ourselves up first. Too many times the church weaponizes these phrases to keep out those who are deemed “too corrupted by society”, failing to realize by that standard they themselves should be banished from the church based on that attitude. God wants you, me, and the vilest offenders to come to him just as we are.

But those sayings in scripture, calling us to be perfect is how God created us. And the whole point of salvation is our restoration to that original design. You and I were created to be perfect. This means we come to God just as we are, and he takes us that way, but never intends for us to stay at that point. What does it mean to be perfect then?

1 John 2:5 says:

But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. (NET)

The text tells us that Christian perfection is centered on love for God. Growing up in our society, we have learned to say, “I love you.” However, life has brought experiences where those words are not matched by the speaker’s actions. The heart may believe the words, but your mind does not, and it controls your actions.

Does this mean love is dependent solely on action? Is loving God a performance? No. Christian perfection is the belief of the heart connected with the mind, coming out through action. Action and belief become the same breath. In Romans 12:2, this is why Paul writes, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The incredible work of God in your heart begins to go to work on your mind, unlearning the patterns created by living in sin in a sinful world, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the message at the core of Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount”. (see Matthew 5, 6, & 7) The Jews had an over emphasis on doing. They would strictly follow the Ten Commandments without following them. They would read “do not commit adultery” and if they did not physically cross that line, they believed there was no issue. Jesus taught “whoever looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her in his heart.” In modern terms, you may not actually be sleeping with that trafficked individual in the video, but by using their image to get your rocks off you have committed adultery. As a matter of fact, the sin was committed when you began to undress them in your mind.

But is that not a natural human response, a basic instinct embedded in my DNA? Yes, but that is exactly why we need the Savior. Our actions reflect and thoughts hold captive the attitudes of our heart. At the very center of our heart is selfishness and that stems from a DNA corrupted by sin.

In Matthew 7, Jesus talks about broad and narrow gates. “The broad gate leads to destruction, and many find it. The narrow gate leads to life and only a few find it.” This “has been perfected in love” is the narrow gate. The life for which Christ has redeemed us. Many Christians find the narrow path that leads to the gate but get stuck trying to find the gate itself. Salvation is the narrow road, and Christian perfection is the gate to “life to the fullest.”

You experience salvation with faith in Jesus that leads to repentance. Your old life washed away in his atoning blood. Grace covers you as you work out this salvation with fearing and trembling. A moment comes when you wake up to find your human heart, mind, and strength cannot live up to this new lifestyle, which is following the example of Jesus. Christian perfection (entire sanctification) is you giving God the source of your failure and defilement, your heart, in exchange for a new one through faith in Jesus. This new heart is not made of this world, but from God, programmed with the intentions of heaven. Then grace covers you as you continue to work out your salvation with a perfect heart that the Spirit empowers and enables to begin creating new pathways of the mind.

If you have been living this Christian life a minute, but are frustrated because you are getting nowhere, perhaps it is God calling you out to the deep. Holiness (Christian perfection) is the deep waters of faith, a lifestyle that seems impossible to the outside world. So impossible that some Christians dare not even attempt, knowing it requires faith that moves beyond the safety nets of human knowledge. Yet this is the Door, Jesus, opened to us and is calling out to you, “follow me.”

written by Jason Barnett. Jason is the pastor at Meadville Church of the Nazarene, in Meadville, PA. You can LISTEN to his sermons via The Dirt Path Sermon Podcast. FOLLOW him on twitter and The Dirt Path Facebook page.