61 ) About Christian Perfection (translate from French – With French version of the Bible)
Study carried out between 1990 and 2014 (Version N°22 approximately)
Christian perfection
A jewel stemming from the Cross, often buried nowadays
(Perfection: a term used by God's Word to qualify the Life which CHRIST
Passed on to us during our regeneration, a consequence of our life In CHRIST)
First of all
Sounding: what qualifier is best convenient for you? Would you say that you are perfect or whom you are imperfect? ….
I am not perfect
“I am not perfect, the perfection is not from here below, nobody is perfect "... Here are many common assertions which we also hear within the people of God.
But what God's Word says to us concerning perfection?
Do we want to listen to God's Word, to receive it, to feed us with it our thoughts, to proclaim it, to conform us to it...?
Introduction
I shall allow to show here:
- 1) That God put us in a status of perfection: in his Son Jesus Christ. We shall then see some well known passages but regrettably badly translated by Louis Segond
- 2) That this state is not an abstract spiritual reality, without strength, quasi-useless for usual life in daytime, but God's reality, vivifying and regenerative.
- 3) What we must do to live in this reality.
- 4) The devil’s work is to make us doubt about our new "humanity" in Christ or rather "divinity”, because born from God and not from flesh and blood only; and that the devil’s purpose also is to accuse us about our old sins.
- 5) We shall see by opposition the role of construction of the Holy Spirit.
- 6) The main objections of the opponents and our answers to these objections.
- 7) What this reality: the Christian perfection implies and pulls concretely for our lives.
- 8) The consequences of the carelessness or the incomprehension of this doctrine.
- 9) How this reality was discovered and lived by Hudson Taylor, founder of The Mission in the Internal of China in the last century.
- 10) Annex:
- How this reality was discovered and lived by our fathers in the faith
- Diverse remarks and … Advices
Note about translation
Each time it was necessary to return to Greek to help understanding of the original thought, we put in brackets the word for word translation of Greek according to the Greek / French Interlinear New Testament
1God blessed us
Ephesians 1-3 and 4 "Blessed is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us of all kinds of spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ! In him God elected us before the foundation of the world, so that we are holy and irreprehensible in front of him. "
When shall we be irreprehensible with God's eyes or when are we irreprehensible with God's eyes? Shall we be in the sky, or are we just right now?
Hebrew 10-1 The law can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect (Lead to the fulfilment - completion).
On the other hand what the law was not able to make, Christ made it possible.
Hebrew 10-14 For by one offering he has perfected (Lead to the fulfilment) for ever them that are sanctified.
Colossians 1-21to23 and you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable (irreprehensible) in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
We are irreprehensible if we remain grounded and settled in the faith
Colossians 1-27, 28 the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus
1 Coranthians 2-6 we speak wisdom among them that are perfect...
1 John 5-20 …and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ
If it is true that our God is perfect, and that we are in Him, because being in his Son Jesus Christ, then we can conclude that we participate in His Perfection.
Matthieu 5-48 Be ye therefore perfect (becoming perfect), even as Your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
“Becoming perfect “Not as making quite our efforts for becoming perfect, but as shaping to us to the truth (as conforming our mind to the truth)
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Can God engender anything imperfect? If during the first creation He was able to qualify as "good" his creation, his second creation is qualified as “master-work or crowning achievement " according to Ephesians 2:10
Colossians 4-12 ... that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. French is: «afin que parfaits et pleinement persuadés (parfaits et ayant été accomplis), vous persistiez dans une entière soumission à la volonté de Dieu. »
Epaphras wished that every Christian is completely persuaded that the whole submission to God had for source only the perfection.
Frédéric Godet, a protestant theologian said: "Reason says: Become holy to be. Faith says, You are; become it then. You are in Christ; become it in your person".
Let us approach now some biblical passages which can carry to the controversy: (The translation is sometimes indistinct or unfaithful by Louis Segond)
Philippians 3-12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reach perfection.
We will see later, through a little parable how we must understand this achievement. Please note that some words later in this same epistle Paul writes: Philippians 3-15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things.
1 Thessaloniciens 5-23 Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
We are blameless in God sight after having confessed and abandoned our sins, and day after days, hour after hours, He makes us grown in holiness through our obedience to his word.
2 Corinthians 13-9 We pray that you will become mature, this is my continual prayer, the perfecting of your characters. (That you may be made complete. Your achievement, completion)
2 Corinthians 13-11 ...Dear brothers and sisters… be joyful, grow to maturity
Let us understand again here that we must conformed us to the truth proclaimed through the Word of God.
Philippians 2:12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the result of your salvation (litteraly: Let your salvation works in you) obeying God with deep reverence and fear; 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing.
1 Corinthians 11:17 By giving this warning, what I do not praise is that you come together, not to be better, but to become worse. (... I praise the fact that not for the better but for the worse you meet) or as another translation says: I can not congratulate you, because your meetings produce in you more harm than good. There is no mention in the original of an expected improvement of the person. How to improve what is already perfect. We must rather manifest it, or else conform ourselves to what we have received in Christ. Christ in us is this precious treasure carried in earthen vessels (which will always remain of earth) that we must show. Let us not try to make the vase shine.
(God chose things without birth of the world and things that have been despised, not existing, so that the existing He abolishes, so that all flesh does not stand before God.)
Colossians 2: 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the divinity bodily. 10 You have everything in him, who is the head of all domination and authority.
David Martin translates: 9 For all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily. 10 And you are made fulfilled in him; who is the head of all principality and power; (For in Him dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily, and you are in him, having been fully filled ...)
Parable
How beautiful in spring is the apple tree in bloom, covered with a multitude of beautiful little white or pink flowers. They are all so beautiful and so perfect and however not yet apples. And then sun and nature want them to curl up, dry and leave tiny green balls appearing at the end of each stem. But let's take a closer look, everything is still perfect at this stage but we still have not enough to fill a basket of housewife. Our two sun and nature companions will work again and we will show at each stage of the evolution of "small apple" the perfect work of the divine Creator. Perfection will soon be glowing by Fulfillment and Attainment reached ...
2 The work of Christ for his people is very practical for everyday life
1 Corinthians 1-30 It is by God that you are in Jesus Christ, who by God has been made for us wisdom, justice and sanctification and redemption ...
Christ having completely satisfied the divine justice, we have been placed in the benefit of his redeeming and savior love. He became for all who obey him, the author of an eternal salvation, our only ark of salvation. God has placed us in Christ, as He had placed in Adam the whole of humanity. And as Adam has given us a natural capacity of life that can develop on its own - if of course we give it a minimum of care and learning - so God in Christ has given us new spiritual life, eternal which develops itself by the assistance of his kindness towards us.
Christ has given us wonderful gifts, and He tells us from His mouth:
Song of Songs 5-2 "Open to me, my sister, my dove, my friend, my perfect."
Psalm 50-2 Of Zion, perfect beauty, God shines.
Christ is the one who encourages the sinner and propels him by faith in His Word in a new capacity of life:
John 8-11 "Go and do not sin" (or to paraphrase: "Go and do a no-fault").
Christ here gives the adulteress woman more than a word of encouragement to try not to sin any more, or worse, he does not give him a word impossible to realize, no our Lord is not the God of no but it is YES and AMEN that are in Him. Here he communicates to this woman the new capacity of the child of God. Through His Word, which is always fulfilled for him who believes it, he gives her the capacity to live a life from now on to the glory of God without committing sin. The definition of the Christian according to the Lord seems to be: the Christian is a little Christ, "One: who sin no more."
This is what Zechariah proclaimed when he was filled with the Holy Spirit:
Luke 1: 73-75 God had sworn to Abraham to allow us to serve Him without fear, walking before Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.
Jude 24 to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy.
Our Savior has a wonderful name:
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (and especially from our hearts who believe in His Word)
Jesus will also dare to say to a man: "If you want to be perfect ..." Matthew 19-21
Yes, the Word of God is the only truth capable here of changing the heart of sinful man.
Ezekiel 36-26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put in you a new spirit.
Colossians 2-16 and 17 Let no one judge you ... for reality is in Christ.
Colossians 1-27 God wished to make known the glorious riches of this mystery, namely: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his work (literally: his masterpiece), having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we may do them.
3 Christ in you, and you in Christ
If we have been put in Christ by the will of God, and so we are in His sight in a state of perfection, it is also thanks to all His assistance that we can dwell and grow there.
Ephesians 3-17 to 19 Christ dwells in your hearts by faith ... so that you may be filled to the fullness of God.
Christ's first counsel is to dwell in Him; To remain in the state in which we were placed by God, and not to attempt to attain this state by our own efforts.
John 15: 4 Remain in me, and I will abide in you.
And if I do not stay ...
If I do not dwell in Christ, it is because I chose the way of sin. The Holy Spirit, our wonderful Counselor, is there to recapture us, correct us, and enjoin us to return as soon as possible to the Master's feet in repentance. Apart from Christ, we become an easy target for the evil one and he then has rights over us because of our rebellion against God.
On the other hand, John reminds us:
1 John 5-18 We know that whosoever is born of God does not sin; But he that is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him.
If, unfortunately, I disobey God, it is my duty then to humiliate myself immediately in sincere repentance, even if the feelings of guilt are not strong, and I must believe that God's forgiveness is then immediate. God who knows how to read the state of the heart does not take more than a thousandth of a second to forgive us and to place us in the privileged position which is ours in Christ, invulnerable and unassailable without the express will of the Father who controls all the trials to which her children are subjected.
4 The work of the devil
The work of the devil has always been to make us doubt the Word of God. Its role will still be to make us doubt of our new position in Christ, of this state of perfection.
Romans 8-32 Who will accuse the elects of God? It is God who justifies.
Numbers 23-21 God does not perceive iniquity in Jacob; He sees no iniquity in Israel.
People inspired by the enemy of the people of God have suggested and still suggest today that there were many sins among the people of Israel. To these we reply in the negative, for God had instituted and acknowledged the value of the expiatory sacrifices which foreshadowed the value of the Blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2-10 We are his work (his masterpiece).
Watchman Nee said: "The Church is what God can produce better ... Where will the Church come from? ... She has arrived, Heaven is not her destination, but her origin and His dwelling ... We are from heaven and in heaven. "
Was not, the repeated temptation of Christ in the desert by the evil one, intended to make him doubt his filiation. If the evil one had made him doubt his status as the Son of God, he would easily have destabilized Christ in his struggle and won this war of cosmic scope.
Matthew 4-3-6 If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become loaves ... If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down...
Christ, fully man, had then clothed the weakness of our nature, and by faith had to overcome temptation. It is because he has clothed our humanity that by his example of obedience to the Father he has been able, by faith, to become the Savior of the men we are. A God could never have delivered us, as men, by asking us a perfect obedience to His Word if He had not become perfectly man. Glory to God forever, for Christ came into the flesh, and conquered in perfect obedience. But what we are discussing here is so precious to our practical Christian life that we shall be obliged to devote a whole forthcoming study to it.
Let us therefore understand well the role of the evil one and his favorite weapons against the "Little Christ" that we are IN CHRIST. He will always seek to make us doubt our state of perfection in Christ. He will try to tell us: you are only a poor sinner, see how you disobey, you are imperfect, you will never be able to satisfy your God ... He will always generalize on our old sinfulness, better to hide our new true identity.
5 The work of the Holy Spirit
On the contrary, the role of the Holy Spirit in dealing with our sin will always be to show us precisely the particular sin that we have committed. Let us refer to the letters to the 5/7 churches of the Apocalypse. The reproaches of the Lord to his people are always precise.
Ephesians 4-30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which you were sealed for the day of the Redemption.
Glory to God the Holy Spirit is a seal on our hearts and He knows how to educate us.
1 John 1-7 and 8 If we walk in the light, as He is Himself in the light, we are in fellowship, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Understand here that we do not keep any sin that attaches itself to us, not the Spirit of Truth unveils sin, helps us vomit it and turn away from it.
1 John 3: 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin (do not practice sin); Whoever sins did not see him and did not know him.
6 The main objections
Someone will say,
1- Everybody can not understand Christian perfection without making confusion or living in a state of self-sufficiency and believing themselves superior. One must be truly spiritual in order not to fall into spiritual pride by knowing oneself perfect in Christ.
We will respond with a remark made by Paul concerning his ministry.
Ephesians 3: 8 For me, being the least of all the saints, this grace has been granted to proclaim to the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from all time in God. ..
Thus Paul announced to the Gentiles these mysteries, trusting in the Holy Spirit to make this precious and powerful seed grow in the right way.
Romans 8-30 ... those whom he justified, He also glorified them.
God is not afraid to glorify us, He is proud of our faith in His Son.
2 - James 3-2 If anyone does not flinch in words, he is a perfect man, able to hold his whole body in bridle.
The apostle does not want to show here a level of life impossible to attain, but on the contrary the standard of life that Christ transmits to us.
3- In the Word of God there is no example of a man who has made a perfect faultless throughout his life with God.
Of course all have sinned, but this is ignoring the power of our God who changes hearts and knows how to make them so beautiful. There are two examples of life, detailed in details in the biblical account in which God does not address any reproach to his child and where there is no discouragement in the heart of the person despite long trials ...
Let's meditate the life of ... Ruth and the one of ... Daniel ... and find the secret of such a success. But here too we find ourselves obliged to devote a whole forthcoming study to it.
If we look at Christ, our perfection, we will conform to Him and become like Him. If we look at our successive failures (after confessing them), and we lament our fate, we will stagnate and no longer progress in our new life on the way of salvation.
To confess our imperfection or our sinfulness state, it is already to contest the Word of God, who affirms that everything is possible to him who believes, it is already excusing the weaknesses of the flesh and trying to justify himself before God. It is to make God a liar, for He would ask us for an obedience impossible to realize.
Paul will teach Christians to consider themselves dead with Christ and to fully realize the life of Christ in them (Colossians 3: 3). He wanted to bring all captive thoughts to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10-5). Hebrews 12-14 will say: "Without sanctification, holiness, no one will see the Lord." And what about the "shocking" words of our Lord: renounce yourselves, carry your cross ... If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood ...
All the epistles proclaim the new nature of the Christian, and address themselves to his regenerated nature; they have never been books of good conduct written for the natural man.
Yes, it is impossible for men to be saved, but not for God, for everything is possible with God ... and GOD LIVES IN US BY HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.
7 The Consequences of the Blessing of Perfection, the Life of Christ in Us by the Holy Spirit
We have new life skills. Let us not try by ourself to please our God, He is fully satisfied with our lives of faith in His Son. The only work He wants us to practice and from which all our lives must flow is, "The work of God is that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6-29).
Let us live 1 Corinthians 13 not as beggars who try to live the love-agape Christian but realize that Christ gives us the full capacity by the powerful and abundant life He has transmitted to us. Let us say with the Lord concerning each of our lives:
James is patient, full of kindness, James is not envious, ... does not boast, ... does not swell with pride, ... does nothing dishonest, ... Does not seek his interest, ... is not angry, ... does not suspect evil, ... does not rejoice in injustice, James rejoices in the truth, ... excuses everything, ... Believes everything, ... hopes everything, James supports everything. James will live forever. They are the 16 caracteristics of James’new live IN CHRIST.
2Peter 1: 3 As his divine power has given us all that contributes to life and piety, by means of the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and his virtue,
Literally: Indeed, his divine power having given us everything for life and piety, by the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue,
D. Martin translates 2 Peter 1: 3 Since his divine power has given us all that belongs to life and piety, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his glory and by his virtue. 4 By which are given to us the great and precious promises, that through them you may be made partakers of the divine nature, being escaped from the corruption that reigns In the world by covetousness; 5 You therefore also give all your care to it (Osterwald translated: bringing all your zeal to it and Darby: bringing it with all eagerness, add your strength) add virtue to your faith; To virtue, science; 6 To science, temperance; To temperance, patience; To patience, piety; 7 To piety, brotherly love; And to brotherly love, charity.
2Peter 1: 8 For if these things are in you, and abound therein, they will not leave you idle and unfruitful for the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Literally: These things, being at your disposal, and being abundant, will not leave you inactive and sterile for the knowledge of our Jesus Christ.
2Peter 1:10 Wherefore, brethren, be more firm in your vocation and election; For in doing so you will never fail.
Translation of the Sower : Therefore, brethren, since God has called you and chosen, redouble your efforts to experience in all their strength the effects of this call and choice ...
We have received a Spirit of strength, love and wisdom.
Philippians 4-13 I can do everything through Christ, who strengthens me.
Colossians 3-15 If, then, you have been risen with Christ, seek the things above, and make the members that are on the earth die.
This is the normal Christian life!
Colossians 3-11 Christ is all and in all.
Colossians 2-6 Therefore, as you have received the Lord, walk in Him, being rooted and founded in Him, and established by faith.
John 1: 12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name: 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
If the first man Adam, because of his sin, could only engender sinners, as dog can only engender dogs, the second Adam, Christ, by his obedience does not engender by his seed which is the Word of God received with faith, so does not engender only obedient men who have all his capacity for obedience, sanctity, perfection, those men who are call “do not sin any more”.
8 The consequences of the negligence or the misunderstanding of this doctrine
1 Timothy 6: 3 If anyone teaches false doctrines, and does not cling to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to piety, 4 he is swollen with pride, he knows nothing, and he has a sickness of idle questions and disputes of words, from which arise envy, quarrels, calumnies, evil suspicions, the vain discussions of corrupt men of understanding, deprived of the truth , and believing that piety is a source of gain.
Galatians 1: 6 I am astonished that you should turn away so quickly from him who called you by the grace of Christ to another Gospel. 7 Not that there is another gospel, but there are people who trouble you, and want to overthrow the gospel of Christ. 8 But when we ourselves, when an angel of heaven announces another gospel than the one we have preached to you, let him be anathema!
Galatians 2:18 For if I rebuild the things which I have destroyed, I am a transgressor myself; 19 for by the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. 20 I was crucified with Christ; And if I live, it is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me; If I now live in the flesh, I live in faith to the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not reject the grace of God; For if righteousness is obtained by the law, then Christ died in vain.
Galatians 3: 1 O Galatians, devoid of sense! Who fascinated you, in whose eyes Jesus Christ was painted as crucified? 2 This is only what I want to learn from you: Was it by the works of the law that you received the Spirit, or by the preaching of faith? 3 Are you so devoid of sense? After having begun with the Spirit, will you now end by the flesh?
Isaiah 42: 8 I am the LORD, that is my name; And I will not give my glory to another, nor my honor to idols.
Hebrews 2: 3 how shall we escape by neglecting such a great salvation, which, first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard it, 4 God supporting their testimony by signs, prodigies, and Various miracles, and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Deuteronomy 32: 3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Give glory to our God! 4 He is the rock; His works are perfect, for all his ways are righteous; He is a faithful God and without iniquity, He is righteous and upright. 5 If they have corrupted themselves, it is not His fault; Shame is on his children, false and perverse race. 6 Is it the LORD that you will blame, they are foolish and not wise people? Is He not your father, your creator? Is He not He who has formed you, and who has strengthened you?
If Christ has given us the power to become children of God, and if the consequences are definitely beyond a non regenerated thought, will we prostrate ourselves in gratitude and adoration or will we still enslave the people who believe to our thoughts not subject to the Holy Spirit.
Let us not seek to embellish what God has done so perfectly in Jesus Christ for each of those who believe in Him. But let us say as Paul: Christ in us the hope of glory! I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me ...
9 Hudson Taylor
15 years after his arrival in China, when this great missionary goes through a period of great internal struggles, when almost desperate he finds that the face of his Master is veiled to him again, his life will suddenly be transformed ...
He will then tell his sister:
"For six months or eight months I felt the need for more holiness, more life, more power for myself and for our Mission, especially for myself, and I understood ingratitude, danger, the sin of not living closer to God, I prayed, struggled, fasted, moaned, resolved, read the Word of God more diligently, put more time apart for meditation. I knew that if I could simply remain in Christ, everything would be fine, but I could not, and every day brought his procession of falls and falls, the will was in me, but I could not find the strength to accomplish it.
Then I asked myself, "Is there not a remedy?" Will it be this way until the end: incessant conflicts, too often resulting not in victory but in defeat, how to preach to others a deliverance that I did not get for myself? ... "I hated myself, I hated my sin and I was powerless to defeat it. I knew myself a child of God, but I was utterly powerless to rise to the height of my privileges. I thought that holiness, a practical holiness, should be gradually attained by the diligent use of the means of grace. I knew that there was nothing in this world that I desire as much as that, nothing I need so much. But I was so far from reaching it. The more I struggled, the more the goal went away, so much so that I was almost desperate. I told myself that to make his heaven softer, God perhaps wanted to refuse us to enjoy it here ...
I do not mean to say that during these long months of combat, this was my continual state. No, certainly: sometimes I had times of peace, and even of joy, in the Lord. But it was an intermittent peace and joy that did not give me spiritual power. Oh, how good the Lord has been to put an end to these painful conflicts.
I knew well that in Christ was all that I needed, but how could I possess it? He was rich, me poor; He was strong, me weak. In the vine was a rich and fertile sap, but how could it be passed into the lean and scanty branch? Gradually there was a light in me. I could see that it was through faith that I could participate in the fullness of Christ, but I did not have that faith ...
The agony of my soul was at its height when God used a phrase contained in the letter of the dear McCarthy to make fall the scales of my wishes. The Holy Spirit revealed to me, as I had never understood, the great truth that we are one with Jesus. It was not a question, he said, of struggling and struggling to have faith, it is enough to rest on the One who is Faithful ...
The light suddenly burst forth before me. I looked at Jesus, and saw (and when I saw, what joy was over me!) That He said, I will not leave you. Oh! I Think, there is rest. I have tried in vain to rest in Him; I will not strive any more, for He has not promised to remain with me, never to abandon me. No, my dear, He will never do it.
But this is not half of what Christ showed me. As I meditated the parable of the vine and the branches, I saw that not only would He never abandon me, but that I was a member of his body, His flesh and his bones ...
Oh! My dear sister, what a wonderful thing to be truly one with a risen and glorious Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think of what this implies. Christ can be rich and I poor. Can your right hand be rich and the left poor? Or your head well nourished while your body dies of hunger? And think of what it entails for prayer. A bank employee cannot tell a customer: "It is only your hand that wrote this check, it is not you", or "I can not pay this sum to your hand, but only to yourself? " Therefore a prayer presented in the name of Jesus can not be rejected as long as we stand within the limits of the credit that Jesus opened to us by His Word. (This credit is fairly extensive, is it not?) If we ask for something that is not according to Scripture or which is not in accord with the will of God, Christ Himself could not accomplish it. But, "if we ask for something according to His will He hears us ... and we know that we have the things we ask of Him."
The most precious thing in these truths, all so precious, is the repose of complete identification with Christ. Nothing gives me more anxiety, for He has the power to fulfill His will, and His will is mine. What does it matter to my servant that I send him to buy for a few peny or for a large sum? He counts on me to pay, in one case as in the other. If God permits great distress, will he not give me full assistance? Difficult situations, a lot of graces? Overwhelming circumstances and hardships, great strength? No fear, its resources will be equal to needs. For all his resources are mine because he is mine, with me and in me. All this results from the union of the believer and Christ. And since Christ thus dwells in my heart by faith, how happy I am! I wish I could tell you rather than write it to you.
I am no better than before (in a sense I do not wish to be, nor strive to be), but I am dead and buried with Christ, yes, and also risen in the heavenly places, and Christ lives in me, and "the life that I live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." I believe now that I am dead to sin. God considers me as such and tells me to recognize him too ... I feel and know that the old things have passed. I am able to sin as much, but I experience the presence of Christ as never before. He can not sin, and He can preserve me from sin. I can not say (I am sad to have to confess) that I have not sinned since I understood these things; But I see that it was not necessary that it should be so. Besides, being more in the light, my consciousness was more sensible; sin was immediately recognized, confessed, forgiven; Peace and joy (with humility) have returned. One day, however, peace and joy did not return for several hours because I had not fully confessed my fault and had tried to justify myself.
Faith, I now grasp it, is the substance of the things that are hoped for, and not their shadow. It is no less than sight, but more. The sight stops at the external form of things, but faith gives its substance. You find there rest and food; Christ living in the heart by faith is truly life power. Christ and sin can not cohabit, and we can not have His presence with the love of the world ...
Now I have to finish. I did not tell you half of what I wanted to tell you. May God grant you to keep above all these precious truths. Nor do we believe that these experiences are reserved for a minority. They are for every Christian, and no one can deny it without dishonouring our Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is CHRIST. "
(Excerpt from the "Life of Hudson Taylor" by Editions TEMA p330)
Jude 25 To God alone, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory, majesty, strength and power,
from before all times, and now, and in all ages! Amen!
10 Annexes
A) Andrew Murray
Becoming aware of our own powerlessness
A superficial knowledge of God's plan suggests that while purification, grasped by faith, is the work of God, on the other hand sanctification (growth) is our work, a work that can be accomplished with the help of the Holy Spirit under the influence of the gratitude we have for the deliverance which has been granted to us. But the sincere Christian soon realizes that the power which flows from his grace is little. If he thinks that praying more will give him more power, he will find that this is not enough, however prayer is essential. Sometimes a believer sustains a desperate struggle for years until he receives the teaching of the Holy Spirit, glorifying Christ again and revealing to him that he can not appropriate Christ, Our sanctification, only by faith alone. God, who produces in us the will, is ready to give us also to do it (Philippians 2:13). Unfortunately, this is often misunderstood. Many Christians think that if they have the will, it is enough to be able to put it into execution. This is not the case. For if the new will is a permanent gift which is part of the new nature, then the power which is able to act upon it by action must be received moment after moment by the Holy Spirit. Only the man who is aware of his own helplessness as a believer will learn that he can lead a life of holiness through the Holy Spirit.
B) John Wesley
He seems to have been the one who taught Christian perfection the most, and who taught it through the entire Methodist movement ...
To understand Wesley's thinking on this point, let's examine his sermon entitled Christian Perfection. Wesley's sermons on this subject always contain an apologetic element, 35 in which he strives (with apparent success) to take up each of the objections which are opposed to him, to refute them, by his powerful reasoning, Deductive ability, and appropriate use of biblical texts. His main concern is to render full justice to the high vocation to holiness addressed by the Scripture to the believer.
Wesley begins by negatively exposing his definition of Christian perfection. There are four areas in which the Christian is not fully rehabilitated. The first is knowledge. Believers "are not perfect in this life, to the point of being free from ignorance." Christian perfection does not make the regenerate a superman, still less an angel: "... innumerable are the things they do not know." 37 This goes hand in hand with the fact that they are not free from errors. They may, of course, be deceived, even in things that are not essential to salvation, or to practice (holy life). Always having limited and imperfect knowledge, they may be totally mistaken about the character or motives of an individual, believe a sincere hypocrite, and so on. Perfection does not grant any of the properly divine attributes. This seems self-evident, but Wesley had to face, within his societies (assemblies), a few enlightened, enthusiastic people, who confused sanctification and infallibility, which is intolerable, and which risks rapidly leading to antinomianism 40. Then regeneration is not such that the body is already glorified; The infirmities which are inherent to him, because of the fall, have not disappeared. And Wesley to enumerate all the inconveniences and defects that have to do with the body, including the defects of intelligence, memory, and so on. Finally, Christians are not exempt from temptations. As Christ was tempted, so shall the believer also be, for the disciple is not more than his master (Mt 10:24). But temptation does not necessarily imply the fall.
Wesley then gives a positive definition of this Christian perfection. Wesley is careful to point out that we must not wait on this land of absolute perfection, nor any perfection of degrees, 42 which implies the cessation of growth, as we have already mentioned. For the Christian, it is a question of growing in grace, and this extends over the whole duration of his life. In a word, it is for the Christian to be like Christ: "He that is born of God does not sin." (1 Jn 3: 9) This is what he calls "the great privilege of believers " 43.
This is what characterizes Christian perfection. First, the Christian is free from evil or guilty thoughts, 44 for, Wesley points out, evil thoughts proceed from the heart (Mt 7:21); Now, that of the believer has been cleansed, so he has no more evil thoughts, for "a good tree can not produce bad fruit" (Mt 7:17, 18). His heart is made like that of Christ; He is thus freed from all evil disposition: by this he means that the commandment to love and not to resist his enemies is obeyed (Lk 6: 27-29). The believer is crucified with Christ, it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal. 2:20). For Wesley, this verse "manifestly describes a deliverance from sin both external and internal." The heart is purified by faith, as the Scripture says (1 John 3: 3; Acts 15: 9). He is purified of pride, self-will, anger, etc.
Wesley affirms that the deliverance of sin, external and internal, is assured to be carried out from here on the promises of passages such as 1 John 4:17: "Such is He, so we are in this world."
"It remains true that true Christians are delivered in this world from all sin, from all iniquity; That they are now perfect, in the sense that they do not commit sin, and are exempt from both evil thoughts and evil dispositions. "48
Wesley argues in order to bring his listener to reason theologically and logically, and not mimetically, that is, to no longer base his opinion on sanctification in terms of the examples proposed to him (even biblical), but of Christ alone.
He thus asserts that "a Christian is perfect to the point of not sinning". Even a "baby in faith" is already, at its level, perfect.
Wesley links the notion of actual sin with the consciousness of the believer at a given moment in the requirements of the divine law. Sin, or rather action, will be called sin or not according to the conscience of the law that the Christian will have at that precise moment.
In the Confession of Faith of the Church Protestant Evangelical Methodist of Narbonne we find:
Article 8 Sanctification and Christian perfection
The Bible declares and we believe that sanctification begins at the new birth and is the work of divine grace through the Word and the Spirit that purify from sin the thoughts, words and deeds of those born again, And make them able to live according to the will of God 1 and to aspire to sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 2 The whole of sanctification is a state of perfect love, justice and true holiness that every born-again believer can attain by liberation from the hold of sin, which makes him capable of loving God with all his heart, His mind and all his strength, and his neighbor as himself. 3 This gift of grace can be obtained in this life instantly. It is, however, preceded and followed by a progressive work of the Holy Spirit. The conditions for receiving it are a total consecration of the whole being to God, total death to sin, and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. 4 Every child of God should seek it seriously.
This experience of complete sanctification does not deliver weaknesses, ignorance and errors inherent in the human being, nor the possibility of continuing to sin. One is liberated in order to experience a continuous growth of divine knowledge, spiritual strength and good works to the glory of God. 5 The Christian must always guard against spiritual pride. He will seek victory over any temptation to sin. 6 A life of Christian perfection will follow, consisting of a purity such as that of Jesus, 7 resulting in the same way of thinking that he and the ability to live as he also lived.8
1 Acts 15: 8-9; Romans 6: 6; 8.1-4; 1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24
2 Hebrews 12:14
3 Matthew 22: 37-38; Galatians 5: 22-23; 1 Peter 1.22; 1 John 1.9
4 Romans 6: 1-2, 11-14; 12.1-2
5 Hebrews 12: 10-15; Philippians 2.1-5
6 1 Corinthians 10:13; Colossians 1.9-14
7 Matthew 5:48; 1 John 3: 3; Romans 8:29; Colossians 1.28; 1 Peter 5:10
8 Philippians 2.2, 5
C) Various remarks
1 Corinthians 1-30 and 31 Now it is by God that you are in Jesus Christ, who by God has been made for us: wisdom, justice and sanctification and redemption, as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord."
We readily accept as a Christian that Jesus was our redemption, but God has done just as much our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our perfection. This is what to glory ...
1 Peter 1-23 ... you have been regenerated, not by an incorruptible seed, by the living and permanent word of God.
Let us reflect for a moment on what is meant by the term regeneration according to God and not only in our own eyes ...
John 1: 11-18 ... He came to his own, and those who were his own didn't receive him. 12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name: 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about him. He cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.'" 16 From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
Romans 8: 2 - 4 The Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For which was impossible to the law, because it was weak in the flesh, God made it; Having sent his Son into a flesh like our flesh of sin, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, that walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 5-17 If by the offense of one alone death reigned by him alone, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ him alone.
(Psalms 49: 8 The redeeming of their souls is dear, and will never take place)
A man may legally pay the financial debt of another man, or several if he is rich enough. But as for the redemption of the soul? A man can pay for the moral faults of another but not for the moral faults of several.
Unless he produces a descendent that refers only to him.
Christ has paid for the sins of Adam.
The following is taken from Frédéric Godet's study of the angels.
Jesus transmits his sovereignty to redeemed humanity, his family, in whose name he has fought, obeyed, conquaired.
Such transmission is possible; For by virtue of the solidarity of the specy, which is the character of humanity and which distinguishes it from angels, humanity can be saved altogether in one. Such a mode of salvation would not be applicable to fallen angels; For they are only individuals, without collective existence.
Therefore it is said that Christ did not take the angels, but the seed of Abraham. (Hebrews 2:16)
If Adam has engendered us in a carnal humanity that is centered on itself and sin, why we who have been regenerated are still surprised us by Christ who asks us to consider the perfection of the new creation he has engendered in us. Simply because we still reason with the old man.
D) Advice, if I can
Your perfection in Christ, if you are convinced of it, will enable you to bear the "imperfections" of your neighbor, and will be an example to him, a testimony of a possible life in perfection, because in Christ.
"The accomplished disciple will be like his master. "
Some unbelieving "believers", fully convinced of their imperfection, maintain that this word is an utopia. Finally, they dare not admit it by their mouth, but their doctrine is an affront to the work of our Lord.
Listen to them (so often from the top of the platform) and you will find in their mouth what we said at the beginning:
"I am not perfect, perfection is not from here, no one is perfect" ...
But I repeat ... it would soon be time to stop writing on the subject.
And yet the whole Word is a hymn to the Creator God who transforms the imperfect into perfect. It is in the nature of God to make this possible.
Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, "It is impossible for men, but not for God: for all things are possible to God."
Luke 18:27 Jesus answered, "What is impossible to men is possible to God."
E) I Am Who I am
God through this translation seems to be a static, immutable God.
Yes He is in His essence, but He is defined here differently, a more exact translation seems to be:
I will become (in the heart of man) WHAT I AM REALLY. God is dynamic, moving, He transforms hearts and prints in this hearts His True Identity. He is so impressive, that He wants His Image in us to move as in a movie. He is the One who wants to invest in our lives.
Did Christ limit His Father, no. He fully reflected it.
Paul says: 2 Corinthians 3:18 We all, with our faces uncovered, contemplating the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit.
LOOK CONTINUALLY JESUS AND WE WILL REFLECT THE PERFECTION OF FATHER.
F) Robert MEMPIOT
(Doctor of the Word - deceased in 1993, from France ADD Church) in Opening to the inner life: Communion with Christ will allow the appearance of perfection because it will allow His life to manifest itself in us. As Paul will say, "It is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me, or else: clothe yourself with Christ." The development of the spiritual man will increase to the perfect stature of Christ.
In his study in French, available on Internet: 467-16- The Work of Christ - Rapture of the Church, he confirms the Great Sign as the sign of the Church’s rapture.
G) Have you ever met such a person among your loved ones
For my part, I can say YES.
I met a person of poor health, whom I have known for more than 15 years, and that I have never heard complaints.
She radiated the glory of her Father. When she worshiped, she knew how to bring down Father, or, rather, make the whole Church rise in a second in His Presence. At 80 she was more bubbly than a girl of 12 years. Did you recognize her - if you knew her?
His name: Germaine S.
She was a "princess" and always received you as a guest of honor. She would have preferred that I write only her initials eventually. G. S.
This is one of the reasons I sign this article: D. C. Useless servant
Glorious, Holy and Faultless Eklesia