Be Perfect

Matthew 5:48

What is the Standard?

The perfect day…

Different for everyone

Perfect by comparison

The perfect life - there is a standard

Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and Scribes… you, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.

But what is meant by perfection, and how do we attain it?

Perfection

How the Scriptures use the word.

Lacking nothing, complete - James 1:4 - Let steadfastness have its full (perfect) effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing

Blameless, beyond accusation, ethically upright - Gen 17 - Abraham, walk before me and be blameless…

The offering must be perfect, without blemish (Lev 22:21).

Having attained its desired purpose, mature stature (Col 4:12) that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

How our Heavenly Father is perfect.

God is, by definition, perfect in every way:

(WLC) God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection…

God is lacking nothing and is dependent upon nothing. If God were lacking, dependent, then that which God needed would be God.

God is perfect in all His attributes:

Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Holiness, Wisdom, Truth, Power, Love - God is perfect in all of these, perfect in His dealing with man, without fault or error.

We are called to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect.

God himself is the norm, the standard for our lives.

Anger - perfect in our justice, lust - perfect in our inner man; oath taking - perfect in our integrity; retribution - perfect in our peacemaking; hating your enemy - perfect in love independent of another.

He who is perfect could not set an imperfect standard without compromising His own perfection.

Not the only place we hear this calling:

Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:15-16 “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

Lk 6:36 “Be merciful as your father is merciful”

Col 3:13 - “As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

John 13:34 “just as I have love you, you also are to love one another…”

Eph 5:1 - Be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Falling Short of Perfection

We are imperfect - we are sinners - by nature and by practice

Original Sin

Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

In Adam - all die - our very nature is corrupted in sin.

Actual Sin

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… (Rom 3:23)

We sin because we are sinners. And we owe to God a debt we cannot repay.

What hope is there?

If the gauge of righteousness is absolute perfection, what hope is there for anyone?

The Pharisees and Scribes were the experts - and they could did not qualify.

Lk 18 - The rich young man, wanting to enter the Kingdom, (the wealthy can do anything) went away from Jesus dejected, because he could not part with his wealth..

Jesus eliminated all human standards of morality and conduct - no one can earn their way into the Kingdom by their own effort

Lk 18:27 “What is impossible for man is possible with God.”

The Perfect One: Jesus Christ

His Active Obedience

Living in obedience to the command - fully for God, fully for man

He was like us in every way, but He did not sin - He loved God completely, and love his neighbor perfectly - fulfilling in his life the perfect law of God.

His Passive Obedience -

His suffering and dying in the place of sinful man

His Perfect Sacrifice

Heb 5:8–9 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Heb 9:14 Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered (not the blood of goats and bulls) himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

His perfect, complete, work of salvation

The truth of the gospel is that Christ has met this standard on our behalf

Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

He who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). Christ was treated as if he were a sinner, so that believers who have not yet been made perfect are treated as though they are. He took our sins so that we could have His righteousness.

Justified - declared righteous, perfect, in the eyes of God

By grace, through faith.

This does not mean we are without sin, but that we are counted perfect, complete, holy, because of Christ.

Sanctification - a lifelong war of the spirit against the flesh, mortifying sin, and growing in grace and holiness.

Phil 3:10-14 - Paul, not yet reached perfection, but always pressing toward the goal.

Be Perfect

The Command and the Promise

All other instructions on the law in the sermon have been present active imperatives -

Be reconciled, cut out that which causes you to stumble, let your yes be yes, love and pray for your enemies… all commands

Be perfect is a future, middle, indicative - a description - better translated - you shall be perfect, both a command we obey, and a promise of what God will surely do.

Achieving Perfection

Acknowledging God’s Standard -

It is foolishness to think that being imperfect provides us with an excuse to exempt us from God’s perfect standard.

Repent and make no excuse

Spurgeon Though you cannot be perfect, yet you must want to be perfect, and there must not be any sin which you knowingly spare. Cut them in pieces, every one of them; as soon as you know that anything is wrong, I pray you to have such a tender conscience that you will seek to escape from it; for, as long as you harbor even one of them, comfort will never come to you.

Looking to Jesus in love and gratitude

When we see our sin and imperfection, then consider the amazing love of God that gave his only son to make a sinner whole - when we consider Christ was condemned so we could be set free - that will shake us from our slumber - break the chains of complacency, and call us ever onward in righteousness

Growing in Grace

Though you may not attain it, that is no reason not to strive for it.

John MacArthur - Because God is perfect, those who are truly his children will move on in the direction of his perfect standard. f you are stalled, or if you are slipping in the opposite direction, it is right that you examine yourself. Pursuing the standard of perfection does not mean we can never fail. It means that when we fail we deal with it. Those with true faith will fail—and in some cases, fail pathetically and frequently—but a genuine believer will, as a pattern of life, be confessing sin and coming to the Father for forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Perfection is the standard. Direction is the test. If your life does not reveal growth in grace and righteousness and holiness, you need to examine the reality of your faith—even if you believe you have done great things in the name of Christ.

His word is perfect, will make you complete

Ps 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;

2 Tim 3:16–17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Rest upon the Spirit of God

Phil 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.