Читать книгу Kingdom Perspective: Odds and Ends - Kenneth B. Alexander Alexander - Страница 6

One statement by Christ during His dissertation to the multitudes, which has come to be known as “The Sermon on the Mount” stands out and is worth analyzing. It is: “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Preceding this statement are scriptures which may be read as leading up to or relating directly to this statement but a close reading and understanding of the scriptures reveals that this statement stands on its own as a proclamation of God’s will for His Sons.

Therefore, and after a reading of the following, there can be no doubt that it is God’s will that His Sons be perfect like He is. If it is God’s will that we be perfect, like He is, how do we come to that place of perfection? Is it by doing good works meant to please God? Is it by trying to follow His will to the best of our human ability? Is there any way we can meet the standards set out by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount when even our thoughts can be a sin against God, rendering us imperfect? Christ said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Although we are to attain this perfection, there is little doubt that we can never accomplish this by our own efforts. Is God requiring something of us that we can never hope to accomplish, or is being just a little less than perfect all right with Him since we have Christ’s grace to cover whatever sins we may commit? Scripture is clear that we are to be perfect. John said: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). Being like Christ means being perfect like He is. Paul said: “For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). And: “Now we know in part, and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away” (I Corinthians 13:9–10).

Hebrews points out that God is bringing many Sons to glory, Sons perfect like Christ: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). Hebrews mentions sufferings as an agent of perfection. Paul said: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17).

Although you may consider this heresy, Christ was not born perfect. He became perfect just as we are to become perfect. Scripture says: “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been MADE PERFECT, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,” (Hebrews 5:8-9). Christ, born of woman and the Holy Spirit, had to be made perfect so He could turn and make us, who are also Sons, perfect like He became. If Christ was born perfect, how could He relate to us who are in the same process of becoming perfect? He had to take the same road to perfection as we do. Isaiah 53:2 references this growing up Christ had to do just like us: “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him”.

When we begin to talk about perfection we must at once talk about love. God is love. That is the sum total of His nature. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Love is the perfect thing. In the verses immediately preceding Christ’s admonition that we be perfect, He references how we are to love in order to be perfect: “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:43-47)

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul explains the path we follow to perfect love. He explains all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in detail including the gifts of wisdom, faith, knowledge, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. These are all gifts that can be exercised by the body of Christ as it grows into perfection. However being able to exercise these great gifts is not love. He goes on to explain that the gifts are only partial perfection and are not the perfect thing God wants. “…but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:8-11).

So what remains when the partial is taken away? “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians13:1-4).

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Therefore through all the stages we go through in our walk to perfection (gifts, faith and then hope) we finally arrive at perfection-love. When we love as God loves we are perfect. We become love, as God is love.

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:15-19).

Now that we know where we are headed, that is to “be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect” how do we get there from here? A great obstacle in our attaining to this perfect love is a spirit we struggle against what is called condemnation. Condemnation is the sense of failure we feel when we think we can never measure up to what God wants in our lives. Condemnation results from knowing about the sin we can never ever get rid of-once for all and finally. Condemnation is our feelings about ourselves that we are never really accepted; that we are never really loved or appreciated by God or those around us. It manifests as a continual deep sense of failure that we carry with us that, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. It affects every aspect of our lives and our ability to fully accept the love and joy God is continually beaming at us. As men of the flesh we look at what God requires of us, realize how far we fall short, and condemn ourselves for not being able to attain it. Believe it or not condemnation is perhaps the greatest obstacle we face as we strive for perfect love.

One example of the spirit of condemnation is: “One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He [Jesus] had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31). The obvious dilemma is how can you love your brother if you don’t love yourself? Condemnation, which in modern terms may be called insecurity, keeps us from fully loving ourselves and thus fully loving God and our brother, which is perfection.

We have been saddled with this condemnation from the beginning. From the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, mankind was cursed or condemned by God. The Lord cursed man, woman, the ground and the serpent with the same ferocity (Genesis 3:14-19). “A curse is evil or misfortune that comes as if in response to imprecation or as retribution; a cause of great harm or misfortune” (Merriam-Webster 11th Ed.). As Paul said: “For the creation was subjected [cursed] to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21).

But this curse was not inflicted without hope, or permanently. God provided a manner by which the curse could be removed. In Genesis 3 God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field… And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise [crush] you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel” (Genesis 3:14-15). This meant that the seed of the woman (Jesus Christ) would crush the head of the serpent (Satan) although, in his battle for survival, Satan would bruise the man-child’s heel. Since the serpent (Satan, the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, Revelation 20:2) is the original and continuing cause of all condemnation, Christ defeating him on the cross (crushing his head) took care of the problem once and for all.

The definition of condemnation is the same as you would expect in a court of law. The Hebrew word "rasha" means to be wicked, act wickedly and as a result to be found guilty and to have final judgment and punishment inflicted (New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionary). In the Garden, God turned His back on humanity, cursing and condemning him at the same time. However in His mercy He left man an open door (Christ) to be perfect.

The Apostle Paul struggled with condemnation as he walked with God and tried to do the right thing. In Romans chapter 7 he recounts his battle: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:14-24).

What Paul is saying here is that even though he knows the right thing to do he is unable to do it due to the condemned man within him which won’t allow it. He distinguishes between the two natures at war within him but finds no way out of the situation in himself. This is where many of us live. Although we may know the will of God, that is that we be perfect in all our ways, we find we cannot execute that perfection due our nature from which God separated Himself so long ago. However, Paul comes to the only solution possible for the self condemnation that dogs his life. We must walk completely in the new nature provided by Christ and very much alive in the believer.

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). When Christ died on the cross and was resurrected he accomplished two things with respect to sin. First of all He forgave sin, all the sin which had been committed by man and the sin he may commit in the future. The second thing He did was the most important: He removed all sin from man so that man never really had to sin again since the act of removal made him completely clean and unable to sin.

However Christ did one more thing on the cross which is important to this process. By removing the sin and guilt from mankind the only one left to carry the sin and guilt was Satan. Whereas the condemnation had been upon mankind, when it was removed, Satan retained the condemnation (guilty verdict and punishment). However what the Father did with Christ in actually removing or transferring the sin away from mankind was a miracle. Satan saw this miracle and realized that he could take the condemnation now upon him and transfer it back to mankind, if they were willing to accept it. Satan, even in his condemned state, remained the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), giving him latitude to carry on spreading evil until his sentence was actually executed. So to this day mankind has been released from the curse or condemnation laid upon it by God in the Garden but Satan, the enemy, continually tries to convince man to reaccept what is not applicable to him anymore.

That is the dual nature that Paul was describing in Romans 7. However he came to the conclusion that Christ’s gift of grace resulting from His act on the cross really did release man from any condemnation. He saw the fulfillment of God’s promise in the Garden that the offspring of the woman (Christ) had crushed the serpent’s (Satan’s) head on the cross. Therefore he came to the conclusion that he expresses in Romans 8:1: “Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We can no longer be condemned or blamed for sin because Christ took care of the problem once and for all. This is significant because who are there among us who does not blame him/her self for mistakes we make? Who does not condemn themselves for saying or doing the wrong thing time after time? In God’s eyes all our sin is forgotten or made of no effect in our lives.

Does that mean then that we are free to commit sin now that we know it has been forgiven? Paul says a resounding NO: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4). The newness of life Paul is referring to is the perfection of God who knows no sin and walks only in love. When we walk in that newness of life we have become perfect (sinless) like the Father.

A perfect example of how this righteousness comes about is found in Zechariah chapter 3:1-7. That scripture says: “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him”. Here Joshua, a high priest of the Lord, standing before the Lord. Joshua’s name in Hebrew is Yehotsadaq which means “the LORD is righteous,” His name is cross referenced in Hebrew to Strong’s number 3068 which defines it as “the proper name of the God of Israel”. The angel of the Lord is Malek in Hebrew meaning a direct messenger from God the Father (New American Standard Hebrew Dictionary). So here we have a righteous man standing before the Lord.

There was one problem: “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel”. Joshua was a righteous man but he was clothed with filthy garments of sin. And Satan was standing before him and the Lord accusing Joshua for appearing before the Lord in such a condition. But the Lord (messenger) said to Satan: “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” The Lord saw Joshua for what he was- a righteous man who had gone through the fiery testings of the Lord. He saw that the filthy clothes were not his but the result of Satanic input by the accuser.

Joshua was standing before the Lord clothed in filthy garments [he was covered in sin] and Satan was standing with them accusing him of appearing before the Lord in filthy garments. Satan is known as the accuser, who accuses the righteous day and night. “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10). The Lord did not accept what the accuser had to say here and ordered the filthy garments to be removed. These were not his filthy garments; they had been put upon him by Satan. The Lord simply rebuked Satan, who no longer had the power to effectively accuse, and clothed the man in festal robes and a clean turban.

It was as we have said. Satan, even after being a defeated foe due to Christ’s sacrifice, can still make the righteous look bad by transferring his filthiness on us. We simply need to have the filthiness removed, because it no longer belongs to us and thus be perfect (righteous) as is the Father.

The bottom line is that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross not only forgave our sin but gave us the ability to be made perfect like the Father by removing all our sin and sending it to whom it belonged-Satan. He remains the evil one, the condemned one, and will be for eternity. We must refuse his attempt to transfer his filthiness and unrighteous evil onto us. After Christ we have literally been made perfect, like the Father.