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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

What is Biblical Perfection

Individuals that are in elementary school, and in 2015, the youngest person participating in the spelling bee was 9 years of age and in the third grade.

And I looked at the top 10 most difficult words that were used in that spelling bee.

I wish I had it here on the screen because most of them I cannot pronounce.

And there's only 2 of them that I can even spell and know the definition of, and they are antediluvian, Adventist background, we know that, right?

Those were the top 10 most difficult words for the annual spelling bee.

Now, there are multiples or many different challenging words in the English language, and the 1 that we want to focus on today is not difficult to spell, but it's many times difficult to accept and process, and it's the word perfect.

What a controversial word, especially in Adventism.

And I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Matthew 5, verse 48.

As we look at the words of Jesus, we read it in our Scripture reading this morning.

Matthew 5, verse 48, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount makes this stunning statement that is very challenging.

Tina, that was the right 1 right there on the screen.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 48, these challenging words from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

He says, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus not only says that we should be perfect, but in addition to that, he says, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.

That is such a challenging statement from Jesus.

And we're going to try to unpack that this morning.

First, there's a statement from John Wesley.

He says, there is scarce any expression in holy writ which has given more offense than this.

The word perfect is what many cannot bear.

The sound of it is an abomination to them." George Knight in his book called I Used to be Perfect says this, the paradox of my perfection was that the more I thought about my perfection, the more self-centered I became.

Not only did I become more self-centered, but the more I strove and the more I tried, the more judgmental I became toward those who had not achieved my high level.

Not only was I judgmental, but the more perfect I became, the harsher I was with others who had not equaled my superior status.

And the more negative I became about the church and others who were not as pure or dedicated as I.

In short, the harder I tried, the worse I got.

Backing up, those are some of the words that are from the spelling bee.

So there is a challenge in some circles in regards to this notion of perfection and George Knight illustrates it biographically in his own experience in regards to this perfectionism that is in many circles of, I would say, even the Seventh-day Adventist church.

And I've been across the spectrum in different camps, And I have been in certain camps where individuals are very focused on being, quote, perfect.

And I find it ironic because many times, not all the time, but they don't seem to be very happy.

Go around like they're baptized in lemon juice, kind of sour a little bit.

I found in my own experience, much like George Knight's, that when you make perfection your focus, it is a miserable existence.

Now, I want to back up a little bit and talk about the plan of salvation because back in Eden, before sin, Adam and Eve were perfect, right?

After the fall, sin crept in, and through the plan of redemption, a plan was put into place.

Book of Education describes this, page 15.

It says, by infinite love and mercy, the plan of salvation had been devised and the life of probation granted.

To restore in man the image of his maker, to bring him, what?

Back to the perfection in which he was created.

To promote the development of body, mind, and soul that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized.

The plan of redemption is to bring us back to the state of Adam before the fall Eden lost Eden restored and this is God's work to bring us all the way back.

When we get to heaven, we're going to have a perfect body.

Perfect character, perfect past, and this is a process of restoration to bring us all the way back.

So right now we're in the big parentheses between Genesis and Revelation, between Eden lost and Eden restored, and it is God's work to bring us back, according to this, to the perfection in which we were originally intended to be created.

Now God does this in 3 distinct processes, 3 distinct stages, I should say.

And in the sanctuary, it's illustrated through the courtyard, through the holy place and the most holy place.

We can have an entire sermon along these lines, but you can see here that justification, you have a perfect past.

Your sins are removed, and when God looks at you, He doesn't see you, He sees the righteousness of Christ and justification takes place instantaneously.

Come to Jesus, say, Lord, I want to accept you as Savior of my life and instantly you are justified.

You have a perfect past because of the righteousness of Jesus.

Then you go through a process which is a lifelong process of character Perfection.

Got up 1 day and said, Lord, give me patience.

And I was wondering why everyone was getting on my nerves that day.

You only develop patience by stretching that patient's muscle.

Now, the beauty of this is it doesn't matter where you are in the sanctification process.

As long as you're in the process, you're saved.

And you can die at any point in the process, and you will be in the kingdom by God's grace.

And then we have glorification, which is also instantaneous.

When Jesus comes in the clouds of glory, and we are all caught up with Him.

All of us are going to get a dramatic upgrade.

Beautiful face, hair for some of us, beautiful body.

This is going to be glorification and it's going to happen instantaneously.

Now when we talk about perfection in the Bible, The part that is controversial and the part that gives many people heartburn is the second stage of this, and it's the notion of character perfection.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about perfection, and this is 1 of them.

Character perfection is a point that 1 finally arrives at.

This is a misconception that many people have.

That character perfection is a point that you can finally arrive at and say I am perfect right now.

It's not a biblical view of character perfection.

Character perfection is not a status that we arrive at.

In Mark 4, verse 28, Jesus makes this statement, the soil produces a crop by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the ripe grain in the head.

Jesus is saying that the Christian life, in terms of growth, is like the growth of a plant.

Now I've noticed that in Alaska, especially during the summertime, my lawn needs to be mowed every 3 to 4 days.

When we were gone for 2 plus weeks, I came back, it was like a jungle in my yard.

I had to restart the lawnmower multiple times.

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What is Biblical Perfection

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