Not only is Christ perfect, the expectation is for us to be perfect as well.
Christ is the road to perfection, to be without sin and the sin penalty, that dooms us to oblivion. Where we miss the mark and have no inheritance in Christ. Truthfully does the Bible tell us of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that comes with that loss, at least while we exist, until all existence ends. So the question is, how do we touch the hem of God's robe and gain the prize of eternity?
The Bible tells us to �be still and know that I am God��
We must learn to think (and meditate) upon the Lord and His Word, to talk with Him, and actively love and serve Him. In other words, build a relationship with Him. How can we know Him, instead of just knowing ABOUT Him, if we are caught up in this world? Work, family, friends, entertainment, business, making money, TV and etc.
We have to STOP, be still, and KNOW that He is God�and all that means.
The concerns of the world are for the world. And this world will pass away. The things of God are for our relationship to Him, and with Him, and are eternal�like He is. They will never pass away, those things of God, because they are for our lives with Him and are OF Him. They teach us, build us up, change and sanctify our character in Christ, bring us to holiness and give the gift of ETERNAL life!
God loves us, and this is not a passive love, it is real and tangible in our lives. That is why He tells us of Himself, and gives to us everlasting Covenants with Him, to give us the tools to get back home. And how to establish a relationship with Him, that gives us the means to travel the road to heaven. He gave us His only begotten Son to die for us, that we might be saved first, and then follow Him.
Are we doing the same, are we denying ourselves in a living sacrifice as Christ did? Is our love just as real and tangible, that we can overcome the enticements and sin of the world? Or are we practicing a conceptualization, a philosophical exercise that, does nothing to build, establish and sustain our Walk Of Faith? Where we think of God as some big being in the sky, rather than what He is�our Father!
So what are we striving for in being like Christ? Namely sinless perfection, being really like Christ and claiming our inheritance of righteousness. This is what it means to be a disciple, and this is the only way to claim our inheritance, it must be in righteousness, which is being without sin. As we know the Bible tells us the �carnal� man is the enemy of God. God�s enemies have no claim on the throne, or the kingdom, or sonship through and of Christ, nor can they.
But perfection is a difficult principle for many Christians.
More and more Christians are struggling with this concept of �perfection� or �sinlessness�. When you consider this only places us back in the Garden before the fall, why do we balk at a truth that simply states �start over�? It is amazing how many people, including Christian leaders, that will come against this. How many that have bought into that worldly concept that �nobody�s perfect�?
Christians should not even hold this concept, as God tells us over and over again to BE �perfect�. In Genesis God tells Abram (before he was Abraham) to walk before Him and be perfect. Again Jesus tells those listening to His �Sermon On The Mount� to be perfect as our Father, which is in heaven (which He also tells us is within us) is perfect. So we ALREADY carrying this perfection within us.
And Jesus Christ is the key to bring that which is inside, to be the outward expression in all that we say, do, think and feel. Our Walk Of Faith (discipleship in Christ) makes it real.
So first you have to dissect the world�s concept of perfection from the godly one. The world sees perfection as some kind of error-free application to whatever the subject is about. For instance, a baseball player that never strikes out, a basketball player that never misses a shot, or a beauty queen without any flaw in her appearance. These are the world�s viewpoints. We will find God has a differing criteria that He gives us, to be successful in this Walk Of Faith.
We just are not to sin. God gives us a means to overcome ALL sin; I Corinthians 10:13 (New King James Version) �No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.� We need to remember that sinning is of Satan, so that every time we sin we are declaring that he is our master, instead of Jesus Christ, and that we follow him instead. That is why sin is a separation from God. Remember you can not serve two masters. And following OUR Master, Jesus Christ, is a process, not a one time act of piety.
When the Bible speaks of being without spot or blemish, this means without the marring of character that comes through, and with, sinning. We disfigure our lives, our spirits, our minds and our hearts in the commission of sin in our lives. God expects us to choose Him at all times, in that way He provides the means to meet the trials, tests and temptations the world is constantly throwing our way.
I John 3: 9 tells us: �Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.� or in the Amplified: �No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God's nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.�
Read that part of �begotten� in the previous? Being born of God comes through discipleship in Christ.
Again, our discipleship in and through Christ, who is the begotten Son of God, gives us the relationship necessary to overcome sin. Hold that precept in your mind, in it is life eternal. And that is the all important aspect of our Walk Of Faith, to overcome sin, or as the Bible puts it, �to overcome the world (of perdition).� And as we see here, it is done by being like Jesus Christ, acquiring the benefits of being a begotten son or daughter of God, and then being without sin. Which is the expected character of being a child of God. In that we become like our Father.
Let's look at the definition of perdition:
per�di�tion
Pronunciation: (pur-dish'un), [key]
�n.
1. a state of final spiritual ruin; loss of the soul; damnation.
2. the future state of the wicked.
3. hell (def. 1).
4. utter destruction or ruin.
5. Obs.loss
6. Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a
future state; future misery or eternal death.
Discipleship in Christ, our Walk Of Faith, is the power to becoming a begotten child of God. As Psalms 82:6 tells us: �I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.� and again in John 10:34 �Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?�
We must understand the meanings of what Christ�s parables meant, and one of the most important is the parable of the Prodigal Son. We are the prodigal sons and daughters of God, and we do recognize that, but we lose the power of that relationship with God when we view that relationship out of context. It is when we deny the power of that relationship, by not walking in discipleship to gain the promises inherent in that walk.
But we live at a time in history where �For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].� (Amplified) II Timothy 3:5.
Many times I have mentioned here, and elsewhere, the phrase �Our Walk Of Faith�. It�s meaning is simply the journey of life we are on, when we are true Christians and disciples in Christ. To the wise it is returning �home� and encompasses all that the parable of the Prodigal Son is, in that we are striving to regain our inheritance, and sonship, to our Holy Father God. And that we are striving for adoption, through Jesus Christ, to a lost blessing of the Edenic Estate (the original condition of man within the Garden of Eden).
It is in understanding that Eden was for mankind, and what it means to our Walk Of Faith.
