One of the biggest struggles people have with the Bible is the appearance that God expects us to be perfect. The Bible is seemingly filled with commandments; 613 of them in the Old Testament and over 1,000 in the New Testament. How can anyone remember them all, let alone manage to obey them all?
Exacerbating this problem, the only real understanding that most people have of those 1,600 plus commandments is the Ten Commandments. Since those commandments are mostly about things we are not supposed to do, they assume that all the commandments in the Bible tell us not to do things. They have no idea that there are a lot of commandments that tell us to do good things, rather than telling us not to do bad ones.
Even so, it appears on the surface that the Lord expects us to be perfect, as He said so in the Sermon on the Mount.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. – Matthew 5:48 KJV
But is that really what He meant for us to understand from what He said? Does the Lord really expect us to be perfect? I thought only God was perfect.
Actually, there’s some question about exactly how that verse should be translated. The King James (quoted above) makes it a command to be perfect; but other versions don’t. We find in both the New King James Version and the Amplified version that perfection is something that comes through acting in love; as we love, like God loves, we are made perfect. It is a result of showing God’s most important attribute, not something that we are commanded to attain on our own.
Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. – Matthew 5:48
You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48 Amp
The Amplified translation of the Bible references back to a verse in the Old Testament Law, which tells the people of Israel “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). In this case, the verse doesn’t change into a command in the King James Version of the Bible, it stays the same, which sounds more like a result of something that will happen, then God telling them to be holy.
So, which is true? Are we to make ourselves holy or is holiness something that will come upon us, as God continues to work in us?
Part of our problem here is that we’re trying to understand the message of the Bible, by looking at just a few verses, while ignoring the rest of the Bible. That’s a sure recipe for misinterpretation, if ever there was one. To come up with an accurate interpretation of the Bible, we have to look at verses in their context, as well as in the context of the entire Bible.
In this particular case, something important that is left out of the equation is what the Bible says about our holiness and righteousness. The Old Testament tells us “No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none beside You” (1 Samuel 2:2) and the New Testament tells us “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). Taking those two verses and adding them to the ones above, it would seem like we have a contradiction in the Bible, at least on the surface anyway.
Actually, to say that it is a contradiction, we have to go with the understanding of the verses talking about holiness and perfection as commandments of the Lord, when we have already raised doubt about whether they are. If we go with the understanding that God will make us perfect and holy, there is no contradiction. So, what’s the truth?
The Purpose of the Law
In order to understand what God is intending in all this, we must start by understanding the purpose of the Old Testament Law. Many Christian believers think that the Jews were saved by obeying the Law, all while knowing that nobody is capable of doing that in and of themselves. In doing that, they set up a contradiction in their own minds, which they don’t have a solution for; essentially causing themselves to believe that no Jews could ever be saved.
Yet, the Bible tells us, in both the Old and New Testaments, that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3 and others). So, that’s at least one person from the Old Testament who is apparently saved. He lived before God gave the Law to Moses, so that may have something to do with it. At the same time, the fact that he believed God can be a good hint as to what the Law does for us and did for the nation of Israel.
The Law never saved anyone, as Paul made clear in his letter to the Galatians. We are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ.
We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. – Galatians 2:15-16
So, if the Law never saved anyone, what good is it? What does it do? We find the answer to that question in the next chapter of Galatians.
What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator… 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. – Galatians 3:19 & 24
While I skipped over a few verses there, it doesn’t affect what we need to see. First, Paul asked the question we’re asking, about the purpose of the Law. His answer starts out by talking about transgression; in other words, sin. We have sinned against God and the law shows that we have done so. Without the Law, we would have no standard to live by or to show when we break God’s law.
God’s first lesson to us here, through the Apostle Paul, is that we need to understand just how imperfect we are. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In other words, we’re not perfect, we’re not holy, and we’re not sinless. Yet, it appears from those earlier verses, that we are supposed to become sinless, holy and perfect.
Then Paul answers our question, telling us the purpose of the Law, saying that it is our tutor. As our tutor, it’s not teaching us the things of this world, but rather teaching us to come to Christ. Why do we need to do that? Continuing on with the verse, so “that we might be justified by faith.”
How We Are Made Perfect
Is faith alone enough to make us perfect? By no means. We can have faith in all the wrong things. Having faith in ourselves or our favorite football team isn’t going to do a thing towards getting us saved. Rather, we need to have faith in one who is perfect, Jesus Christ.
An interesting thing happens when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. An exchange takes place. He takes all our faults and sins from us and has already nailed them to the Cross, some 2,000 years ago. I know that sounds strange, that He already put our sins on the cross, before we gave them to Him; but Jesus and God are one (John 10:30), so He is able to operate outside of the limitations of time, just as His Father is. He nailed our sins to the cross before we committed them, because He knew what we would do.
With that being the case, accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior completes at least part of the process of our becoming perfect, in that it removes our sin from us. When that happens, we receive the righteousness of Christ in return for it. We are literally made righteous; we are in right standing with God.
There’s a problem though; none of us are capable of remaining righteous on our own. Left to our own devices, we all fall back into sin. So, while we have been made somewhat perfect by receiving Christ, we are still not perfected. We find ourselves in a constant struggle between our sin nature and our desire to be like Him; a struggle that continues throughout our entire lives.
The answer to this comes through repentance. When we sin, we need to go to God and repent for that sin. This means more than just asking forgiveness; true repentance is about change. John the Baptist preached repentance and so did Jesus. They were telling the people to turn away from their sinful ways and turn to God. Salvation must include repentance; not just at the time of receiving Jesus Christ, but as a part of our lives. We must turn aside from our sin, putting it behind us.
That’s Where Sanctification Comes In
The truth is, it’s not easy to turn away from sin, especially if it is a sin that we have committed for years. We can; but we can only do that with God’s help. It takes time to be transformed, so that we are no longer living a life of sin; but are living a holy life. This process of being transformed is called sanctification.
Sanctification is the process that we go though, where God’s Holy Spirit is working on us, to perfect us. He is removing our fleshly sin nature and the influence of the world’s system from us. At the same time, He is putting more of Himself, of godliness in us. It’s a slow process, because He understands that we must adapt to each step along the way, learning how to live without the things that have been removed from our lives and how to live with the things that have been added. The goal of all this is to make us more and more like Jesus Christ.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. – Romans 8:29
The word “sanctification” means three basic things. These things are what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in us, so that we can become more and more like Jesus. As we do, we are better able to represent Him, here on the earth.
- To be set apart
- To be made holy
- To be filled with the Spirit of God
Set Apart
Although we are born into this world, when we accept Christ, we are no longer supposed to be part of the world. We’re still here; but rather than being citizens of this world, we are citizens of heaven, as it says in Philippians 3:20.
One of the things that defines people as being citizens of a particular place, whether that be a city or country, is that they have common customs, culture, language and traditions. Before salvation, our customs, culture, language and traditions were defined by the place we lived or the one we grew up in. Some of us had a combination of those things, which came from the various different places that we lived throughout our lives.
As believers, we are now citizens of heaven, no longer citizens of this world. This means that we adopt the customs, culture, language and traditions of the kingdom of heaven, replacing those that we have known. When people look at us, they will notice that there is something different about us, as if we were from another place.
There’s a rather strange commandment in the Old Testament, where God told the nation of Israel that the men were not to cut the corners or sides of their beards (Leviticus 19:27). This was after their flight from Egypt and served as a physical means of setting them apart from the people of Egypt. People would know that they were not of Egypt, because they had a different style of beard.
While we are not commanded any specifics about the cutting of our beards, the way we dress or the jewelry that we wear, people should still be able to tell that we are no longer of this world, but are of a different kingdom; the one ruled by God Himself.
Made Holy
Holiness means to be set apart, specifically set apart for the purposes of God. The very act of accepting Jesus sets us apart. We are no longer “common folk” but a very special sort of people; we are Christians. As such, we are the personal property of God alone and He only shares us with His Son, Jesus.
As holy people, we should no longer be involved in what is not holy or commonplace. It is as if we took a pen and gave it in the offering at church, dedicating it to God. Once we have done that, the pen should no longer be used for common purposes, such as paying the bills or writing a shopping list. No, it is no longer a common pen; it is a holy one. Therefore, it should be used for holy purposes.
We too, have been made holy. Therefore, while we still need to pay the bills and write out our shopping list, we should refrain from common things which don’t please the Lord. As one minister put it, “If you wouldn’t be comfortable doing that with Jesus standing or sitting beside you, don’t do it.”
Filled with the Spirit
The birth of the Church happened on the day of Pentecost, 50-days after Jesus was crucified. By then, He had risen from the dead, appeared to over 500 people and had risen into heaven, telling His disciples to await the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). We find that happening in chapter 2 of the book of Acts.
The term “baptized with the Spirit” doesn’t actually appear in Acts, chapter 2, but Jesus told His disciples that was what would happen. What we see written there in chapter two is them being filled with the Spirit. That is what caused them to be baptized in the Spirit. So, why did this happen?
According to Pentecostal and Charismatic theology, the purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is to empower the believer, so that they can be used by God in the performing of the Gifts (or manifestations) of the Spirit, talked about in First Corinthians, chapter 12. But there’s more to it than that. The Holy Spirit works in us, long before He starts to work through us.
The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to be the agent that remakes us into the image of Jesus Christ. There are many things He does in this process, such as teaching us, removing those things of our flesh nature and of the world, which need to be taken out of us and putting the things of God into us, that we need to receive. At the same time, He acts as our comforter and guide, helping us navigate through the landmines of living in this world. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are transformed from being carnal beings into being spiritual ones.
Have a Perfect Heart
There is one area of perfection that we should all strive towards; and it’s something found in the Old Testament. It was spoken about by a largely unknown prophet, by the name of Hanani, who prophesied to King Asa, a godly king of Judah. Hanani gave the king some sage advice, which applies to all.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. – 2 Chronicles 16:9 KJV
A perfect heart… what a concept. Yet, we already know that no one is perfect. How then, can we aspire to have a perfect heart? Fear not! It is possible, once we understand what that verse is saying.
The word translated as “perfect” in that verse, is the Hebrew word “shalem,” the verb form of the word “shalom” which means “peace. You could say it is the action by which perfect peace comes. An easy way to understand it is in thinking about a home mortgage. The typical mortgage is 30 years, which works out to 360 payments. Month after month you have to make those payments, until you get to the 360th one. When you go to the bank and make that payment, it is called “shalem,” meaning there is nothing else to do, everything required has been completed.
This is the same word that Jesus uttered on the cross, which is commonly translated in our Bibles as “It is finished.” Once again, He was saying that everything which was required to pay the debt for our sins had been paid; there was nothing else to do.
In the context of our verse, we can see this as a heart that is totally given and committed to God. It does not mean that we are perfect or that we are without sin; just that we have given our heart fully to Him, allowing Him to do with it, as He chooses. That’s what God wants from us and He will make that heart perfect in other ways, removing sin from it and remaking it into the image of Jesus’ heart. He will also bless it, showing Himself strong on that person’s behalf.