Perfection in Christ Alone

2 Samuel 22:31: “As for God, his way is perfect”

 

John 14:6: “I am the Way.”

 

When God created all things, he said it was "good". Everything, was made exactly how he wanted it. From the giant Elephant to this tiny Chameleon. Nothing was out of place, it was in a word, Perfect. 

Then sin entered into the world, and things changed. We became far from perfect. Now, bent on sinning, we fought against the very thing that could be our help. We rebelled against God in every way imaginable. But in God's grace, he gave us his perfect Son, Jesus. 

Christ is perfect (Hebrews 5:9). As a result of this perfection, His work is also perfect (Hebrews 10:14). As, from the cross, He uttered that famous word, “Finished” (John 19:30), He declared that His redemptive work for us had been perfectly accomplished.

 

What a joy to know that Christ’s redemptive work is finished and complete.  There is nothing in it that should be out of it, and nothing out of it that should be in it.

 

Since Jesus is the perfect One (1 Peter 1:18-19), everything that He touches is coloured with His perfection.  He is the embodiment of ‘Sinless Perfection‘.  By faith, we now see Him standing between us and the Father. By faith, we see ourselves now clothed in Christ’s perfection. We no longer need to contrive ways and means by which to earn the Father’s approval.  Why scheme to obtain that which we already have?

 

Christ and His gospel are perfect! When we look at Jesus, we see perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect faith, perfect worship, perfect prayer, perfect grace, perfect truth and perfect righteousness. 

We see that this perfect Christ has forged a perfect gospel on the anvil of His own obedience.

 

Our Christian experience is not perfect, it is developing and improving.  Our Christian experience, therefore, cannot be considered as being the gospel. If we preach our experience of Christ and about how we are growing in grace, we are not preaching the gospel. We are not preaching the perfect work of God in Christ. We are not preaching that which is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). If we, on the other hand, preach Christ’s experience for us on our behalf, we are building on solid gospel ground.

 

God, in His perfection, has demanded a perfect righteousness from us. As William Cunningham said,

 

“"The righteousness of God is that righteousness which God’s righteousness requires him to require."

 

But how can we attain to such a thing?  Ah! How indeed? The answer is that Christ Himself has provided this perfect, required righteousness for us.  What the Father has demanded, He has provided in His Son. Although we hate sin, we, as gospel driven believers, will not fall for the lie that tells us that we will, in this life, attain to perfection within ourselves.  Countless numbers have already shipwrecked themselves on that perilous error. Why join them?

 

The only Christian perfection that brings us to heaven  is Christ’s. Yet there are those who insist that they have reached such a deep level of Christian experience that they, within themselves, are now sinlessly perfect.  One such man once came to the preacher, John Berridge, and began boasting about his perfectionism. The normally gracious minister treated him very rudely. The perfectionist then reacted and began to utter all manner of insulting words directed at the good preacher. Berridge said to him, “That’s not a great perfection you have, for I was able to spoil it in just a few minutes.”

 

You will always find those so-called “perfection” people far from perfect. They can’t be trusted for, ‘he that says he has no sin is a liar, and the truth of God is not in him’ (1 John 1:10). However, Christ can be trusted.  He is sinlessly perfect, and we can completely rest in His perfections before the Father.

 

To summarise; perfection is not in us but rather, perfection is in the person of Jesus Christ, alone! He is the Perfect One. Dear believer, think of this, the perfect purity of Christ’s sinless life is yours! The perfect obedience of Christ is yours, the perfect goodness of Christ is yours, the perfect holiness of Christ is yours. Everything that Christ has is yours. All that you need is in Him.