<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Perfection: We can be perfect and complete in Christ

 THE JOURNEY
 TO BRIDESHIP

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
      

MOVING AHEAD
THE WORD
CHURCH IDENTIFIED

  

Born-again
We all have a new heritage in Christ.


Three Little Words
and I knew the truth.

           

back to sanctified intro

FUNDAMENTALS OF CHRIST
1) Repent from dead works
2) Faith towards God
3) Laying on of hands
4) Doctrine of baptisms
5) Eternal judgment
6) Resurrection of the dead


   


     1. WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
       1) Believing
       2) Yielding
       3) Trusting
       4) Obeying
       5) Standing
       6) Living
       7) Walking

DIVINE NATURE
ADD TO YOUR FAITH:
       1) Virtue
       2) Knowledge
       3) Patience
       4) Temperance
       5) Godliness
       6) Brotherly Kindness
       7) Love

THE BRIDE
 1.) Intro Prepared Perfect
     
The Reward for picking up
our cross.    The BIG DAY:
THE RAPTURE

on to more
Crucified with Christ


PAUL CONSIDERED IT HIS OBLIGATION AS A PASTOR TO STRIVE TO BRING EVERY PERSON IN HIS CARE TO PERFECTION.

HE TOLD THE SAINTS OF COLOSSE:
"we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."


Scriptural Context Follows -

COLOSSIANS CHAPTER 1:

21 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 in his sight:

23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of 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:

29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.







Text Box: Jesus said, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' (Matt. 5:48)








EQUIPPING US COMPLETELY
Three Baptisms to
make us whole in Christ
!

 

1) Repentance

The Father draws us to Jesus (John 6.44; "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.") He does this that we might partake of the baptism of repentance, leading us to being born again, by showing us we need a Savior - Jesus. Jesus also set the example by partaking of John's baptism in obedience to the Father, even though He did not need to repent, but we do. "John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." (Mark 1.4). Other citations are; Luke 3.3, Acts 13.24, Acts 19.4. When Jesus, in obedience to the Father, was baptized by John, they saw "the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

2) Water Baptism

When we choose to yield and be water baptized in the name of Jesus, we are testifying publicly to our desire to die to self and become more and more like Him. Once more we see Jesus as the central figure. By being baptized in His name and after His example of death and resurrection we have completed the three parts of that one baptism mentioned in Ephesians 4.5 "One Lord (Jesus) one faith (in Jesus), one baptism (3 parts, but all depend on Jesus)", making it one, in the sense that He makes it all possible, for without Him none of the three parts can happen. Completion in Christ takes place by being immersed or baptized in the Father's baptism of repentance, by being baptized in the name of Jesus and into a complete death and life in Him, and by being immersed in the Holy Ghost by Jesus. Again, I say completely furnished and able to go on unto perfection.

 

3) Baptism in the Holy Ghost

Jesus offers to baptize us in the Holy Ghost for He is the baptizer as John the Baptist announced in Matthew 3.2. He warned; "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He also prophesied in verse II; "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, ... He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." As we call on the Holy Ghost to possess us, or engulf us in God's very Spirit, we can be sure that God's Love, which is embodied in Jesus, will be faithful to baptize us. Mark 1.8/Luke 3.16/John 1.32-34 "And when the day of pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place... And they all were all filled (whelmed) with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2.1 & 4

 

We Can Be Perfect and
Complete in Christ
                                                                           by T Myers Smith

      In the final chapter of Colossians the apostle Paul eludes to a man named Epaphras who had a zealous desire that the believers within his locality would be ''perfect and complete in all the will of God". It says that this Epaphras labored fervently in prayer hoping that full maturity would become a reality in the lives of those beloved brethren of Colosse, Laodicea and surrounding cities and towns.
     We have this same “hope of Epaphras" for our readers. To grow into a ''perfect'' and "complete" person in Christ is a wonderful ambition for any believer and its understanding, in purely spiritual terms, is not as difficult as people usually make it out to be. Epaphras worked in behalf of the believers who lived in Colosse, a fellowship of dedicated, earnest Christians, and for those who lived in Laodicea, a gathering which Christ scolded in Revelation for being "lukewarm” to the Truth, indifferent to spiritual perfection, happy with thinking they knew everything and were in need of nothing. They were over-confident, arrogant and prideful in their spiritual condition. It is no coincidence that this Epaphras had hope for a wide range of believers because that is the way of the Holy Ghost in the Church. Epaphras and the Spirit issue the invitation to be ''perfect'' and ''complete'' to any and all, in any part or church of the greater Church; to any who can hear the call.
      As Epaphras was led of the Spirit to issue the call, so we also are led to issue the same challenge. The following section in the journey to Brideship states the case for the necessity of perfection in Christ if a saint is to be reckoned as the espoused bride of Christ and positioned to be accounted worthy to escape all those things that will befall the earth and be raptured into the waiting arms of Jesus. The sum of this section amounts to an exhortation to believe in the possibility of spiritual perfection and a fervent invitation to strive for it in one’s personal walk with the Lord.
       
Why is it so hard for the faithful to believe that the power of Jesus Christ can transform them into perfect and complete Christians? Most Christians remain snagged in erroneous worldly notions of perfection and conclude, almost by default, that the one and only thing which is impossible for God is the perfecting and completion of his disciples.
       
Certainly poor teaching is a major reason for the brethren's shallow, limited idea about God's means of perfecting and completing the saints, but in the end each person will shoulder the responsibility for their own walk of faith, and everything hinges around a personal relationship with the Lord and how carefully it has been nurtured and preserved. As we shall see completion is a matter of yielding to the Trinity and abiding in God's love and perfection is a matter of our close and communicative personal relationship with him. True, God is perfect and Man is very, very far from it - But... when man becomes born-again he gets a new nature, the old heart of stone, deaf to God's voice, is replaced by a heart of flesh. No longer is he a mere mortal, but God, and eternal life, is now dwelling in him and he has entered a brilliant new realm brimming with the promise of living a life that can be pleasing to God.  

Hear God's Word And Do It
     Since God dwells in the born-again heart, that heart has something perfect in it - which is "Christ in us". And that, brothers and sisters, is the key to the mystery of being perfect before God. To want this indwelling of God to OVERTAKE US AND GROW TO PERFECTION is to desire to be perfect as a Christian. We find it by dying to ourselves and letting the Holy Ghost form Christ in us. Perfection in Christ is really just that simple. We must shed our preoccupation with natural notions of perfection; they mean nothing in the spiritual realm. Perfect before God has nothing to do with our limitations, poor judgement, assessments, or decisions. Perfection before God has to do with our willingness to hear God's word and do it.
     
The Christian who would be perfect must learn to recede in ego and will, and let the influence of God's Spirit increase and swell. He must learn the sound of God's voice in his heart and seek to be obedient to that voice. Remember when Jesus was informed that his mother and brethren waited outside to see him he turned to his disciples and said, "My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it."Jesus repeatedly testified that he came not to do his own will, but the will of his Father in heaven which sent him. That testimony is Christ's perfection, and is his disciples’ perfection - we hear God and obey. Let's not make it more complicated than it is. Seek to hear his voice. Be obedient. 

How Do I Know God's Will?
       So then the inevitable questions rise to the surface. How can I hear God's voice? How can I know his will? Where do I get the power to resist temptation, be freed of myself and become obedient to God's desires? I know my flesh is weak. 

That is where being complete comes in

      We must be willing to throw off the presumptions of our family traditions and religious stereotyping and get fully equipped for the work of "perfection". Our completion in Christ has three major facets, just as God is three persons.

1.) We must be born-again: that means we must repent, accept Christ as Lord and Savior, and be fitted with a new heart, one with spiritual eyes and ears so we can see and hear Christ.
2.) We must be baptized in the Holy Ghost: like a new born babe we can see and hear, but we can not comprehend the meaning of anything. Just as maturity and experience is needed until a baby can understand the will of those who communicate with it, so the new babe in Christ must be equipped with the means and power to communicate and comprehend what God is saying to him or her. To help us in our new world, God has sent the Holy Spirit to minister all sorts of power and gifts. We need to be empowered, showered and baptized with the Holy Ghost by Jesus.
3.) Water baptized: We have to get ourselves out of the way. For that God has provided the spectacle of water baptism which is a symbolic action of dying to ourselves so that Christ may be raised up in us. This is a public profession of our desire to have God's desires and hopes rule our lives as if we were "dead"
.
      These three acts: 1) accepting Christ, which is being made a new creature; 2) being imbued with the power of the Holy Ghost; and 3) water baptism, which is the acting out of desire to die to self so Christ may fully live in us; gives us a kind of completion that will enable us to go on to the sort of perfection that is not of the flesh, but is of the spirit. Ultimately, we grow into a faithful servant of God "complete" and "perfect". We are able to put on the full armor of God wherewith the complete Christian, as a spiritual soldier in Christ, fights the battles of faith. Three baptisms

 

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God ... having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..."
Ephesians 6:13-18

Unfortunately, most Christians never tap into the blessings of living "perfect" and "complete" before God and never become righteous soldiers in the Lord. For a variety of reasons; lack of faith, personal fears, resistance to the Holy Ghost, to name a few, the Christian remains imperfect and incomplete in his faith. Many, if not most, believers let themselves believe their imperfect walk with the Lord is the best that can be had. On the threshold of freedom and holiness, they stop, see that the price they must pay is yielding and dying to self, and never enter into that close relationship which leads to discipleship. Call me cynical but the prevailing resistance to the notion of a perfect and complete Christian is not from Scriptural influences, to the contrary, Scripture exhorts us to be perfect, full, victorious and complete, no, the prevailing attitude is because the Church desires to excuse its imperfections, tries to cover its blemishes, tries to rationalize its marriage with the world, tries to conceal its weakness to temptation by doing penance. The Church is too quick to excuse its selfish will with a shrug, and a quizzical "after all we're only human."
      It has to be either one of two things: 1.) To accept an imperfect life in Christ is to ignore Christ's call to spiritual fitness and perfection or, 2.) Christ, and the Scriptures, are laying an unbelievable guilt trip on his friends and believers. Which is it? We the Church can not have it both ways.
     
The Bible says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."(Matt. 5:48) Be Holy as your father in Heaven is Holy.”And, “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
(Heb. 12:14)

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