Christian Perfection

Bouncing around from blog to blog I have found evidence to confirm a suspicion I have long held:  Very few Christians understand the doctrine of sanctification, and even less still, the Wesleyan understanding of Christian Perfection.    I hear time and time again that sactification is somehow tied to works (as if it is something we can just will ourselves to achieve) or that Christian perfection is all about boasting in self-righteousness.   Nothing could be further from the truth.     While I do not claim to understand this beautiful and hopeful call to perfection perfectly I hope the following will at least dispell some of the misinformation that is out there as well as encourage all of us to embrace this awe-filled process of sanctification. 

Below is part of a sermon series I did at my last church.  

Christian Perfection

At annual conference this year I got to see my first ordination ceremony.  It was something special.  While watching this very regal and historic ceremony unfold I have to say I imagined taking part in this myself in a few years.  There comes a time during the commencement that all those being ordained kneel and answer a slew of questions the bishop asks, the same questions John Wesley asked the first Methodist preachers in the 1700’s.  Towards the end of this long list of questions which have to do with faith and being faithful ministers of God’s Word, a question gets asked that seems almost out of place.  “Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?”  Huh? What does that mean?  This has to be a trick question, right? 

This is a question that I will one day have to give answer to and it is my opinion that every one of us here tonight ought to be able to give an answer to as well.  Much ink has been spilt on this subject since Wesley’s life, and we will not get through it all this evening, but we are going to embark on a journey that will seek to understand what Wesley meant by asking this question and how it can apply to your life and mine today. 

For the next many weeks and months the theme I will be operating out of is the Sanctified Life.  The word “sanctified” or “sanctification” is not a word you hear much today, which is a shame.  It might be a word that you have come to associate some peculiar meanings with- like pious, sober-minded, devout, sinless, perfect, or maybe even boring.   When I was a young kid in church I remember a grey haired woman who walked around church like she was General Patton in WWII with a face dipped in prune juice and always telling me and the other kids where and how we were messing up our lives.  One of the kids, when asked what was up with her, responded, “Oh, she’s just sanctified.”   When ideas about sanctification like this one are flying around, it is no wonder it gets swept under the rug.  But we will learn tonight and in the upcoming weeks that sanctification is not something to be feared but embraced, not a soured army general to run from but a loving, gracious God to run to. 

So for those of us here tonight who have never heard of sanctification or those who have but hoped to never hear of it again, how can we talk about this theme that as we shall see runs throughout the entire Bible?   What is sanctification? 

As I reflect back on my life I recall many moments where I felt in harmony with God, as if my heart’s longings were being met and fulfilled at its deepest and intimate places and joy filled my soul.  When I was a teen at youth camp and gave my life to Christ that was one.   Another was when I later accepted the call to be a pastor.  When I got to witness my mom and dad being remarried after being divorced 3 years, I knew God was very real and very close.  Just before getting married, when my best friend who I roomed with in the Navy and who at that time was an atheist but is now a missionary layed hands on me to pray for me, I sensed God’s presence in a profound way.   Holding Maddox in my arms for the first time was another moment where I felt especially close to God.  Those are what I would call holy moments.  They are moments where the “more” that my heart longs for were filled with God.  They are moments that are sanctified. 

 Perhaps you too have moments like this in your life.  Perhaps you, like me, long for a deeper intimacy with not only God but with humankind.   This is an innate desire placed in us by God that Friar Adrian van Kaam calls the “transcendence dynamic” meaning that the human spirit is always seeking to move the human heart to the “more than” of God through an innate longing to experience a deeper peace and fulfillment than what is currently known.   We are all restless for some greater reality than what currently defines our present existence.   This is the heart hungry for sanctification. 

This longing for more of God is initiated by God and has an end in view – to make us more like him, to make us true children of God.  The OT has a word for this, it is kadash.  Kadash means to be made holy, or sanctified.  The first time we see it is in Gen. 2:3, when God blesses and sanctifies the seventh day and rests.    Sanctification has with it the idea that we are so connected to God that we become transformed into the nature of the Trinity. 

Turn with me now to Rom 8:29.  The NT has a wonderful word here, it is symmorphos.  It means to take the shape of or conformed to.  You can hear our English words in this, sym, meaning like, and to morph, or change.   Paul says: For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.

Dr. Martyn at Asbury says that sanctification is an awe-filled event and process of becoming like or taking on the same form of Jesus.   This will be the working definition of sanctification for us over the course of this series and will be what we seek to have happen in our own lives.   An awe-filled event and process where we become more like Jesus Christ.  That doesn’t sound boring to anyone, does it?  That’s something I can get excited about.      

I think that as Methodists we all ought to be able to talk about one of the most distinctive doctrines we have, which is entire sanctification or Christian perfection.  I say it is distinctive but I did not say unique.  Many think that this is something Wesley himself came up with, but this is not true.  There is an abundance of ancient church tradition and teaching on entire sanctification, and we will get into that another time.   I have to say that studying this so that I can share it with you all has further confirmed my decision to be in the United Methodist church and has given me a new sense of excitement and wonder about my own life with God.   I pray that in talking about this very important doctrine the same will happen to you. 

John Wesley was convinced that the Holy Spirit’s purpose was to transform and shape our lives as followers of Christ, both inside and out and not partially but completely.  In fact, Methodism arose because the traditions of that day were not emphasizing enough the power of God to transform people’s lives.   

Speaking of this, I want to believe in a God who is in the business of life transformation, don’t you?  I need a God who not only saves me but redeems my brokenness as well.  I need and want the God of Romans 8:29 who is conforming me into His own image, as I was created to be.  Don’t you? 

Some objected in his day to this idea, saying that he was exalting human capacity and making it sound like we could earn our way into this state of perfection.  Wesley countered saying that it was only by God’s grace that we can move toward Him. It is by grace that the human will, the part of us that always chooses wrongly, is being replaced by His will.  God moves in us and we yield to his moving.  Others argued that we are too far fallen as humans to ever reach perfection.   Wesley agreed that we are profoundly fallen and in a state of sin, but we are not so far gone that God’s grace cannot perfectly and fully reach us and reclaim us.  To say again, if our God is powerful enough to save us, is He not powerful enough to transform us? 

I have used the word perfect a few times and perhaps now is as good a time as any to define what Wesley means when he uses the word “perfection.”   You may have someone ask you one day, when they hear you are a Methodist, to describe what Christian Perfection is.   After tonight you will be able to tell them. 

Col. 3:14 and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.

Heb. 6:1 Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection;

What is this perfection?  To begin, I need to point out to you the differences in language for the word perfection.  The Greek word used in these passages which has been translated “perfection” is teleiotes.   In the Latin, the word here is perfectus.  Teleiotes is very different from perfectus in that it is dynamic, always changing and always progressing forward.  It is continually in motion.  Perfectus, on the other hand, is a static state of perfection.  It is a level attained and achieved that is definable.   Now, why is this important?  Because Wesley did all his devotional reading and study out of the Greek Bible, not the Latin Vulgate that was used in his day or the KJV.  Most of our words today come from Latin rather than Greek, so when we hear the word “perfect” we think a static, motionless state of being, where Wesley thought of fluid and progressing.  So when Wesley says Christian Perfection, he is referring to the Greek sense of a perfecting (not perfected) grace that is a never ending aspiration for all of love’s fullness.  

Wesley had to answer questions all the time about this distinction, and he fashioned an answer that explained what Scripture teaches teleiotes is and is not. 

First, let’s look at what perfection is NOT. 

It is not freedom from ignorance.  And all the women say, “of course a man would have to say that.”    We are limited in this body and in this lifetime to what we can know.   Because we are not infinite like God, we do not know all things like God.  So perfection does not mean we know everything of this world.

Second, it is not freedom from mistakes.   Mistakes are unavoidable in this life since we are limited in knowledge.  Wesley said, “Everyone of us may make mistakes as long as we live…the most perfect have continual need of the mercies of Christ, even for their actual transgressions.” 

Third, it is not freedom from infirmities.   By infirmities Wesley points to slowness of understanding, poor memory, dull apprehension or flawed speech.   There is hope for me yet. 

Lastly, perfecting grace does not deliver us from temptation.  Jesus himself was tempted, and we will be also.  But no matter what temptations come, there will always be the grace and the means to deflect it.  Wesley believed that the trials that come our way may be means by which we can grow in grace and increase in faith, patience and submission to God.  A person never gets to a point where it is impossible for him or her to sin. 

Now, what is perfection?  What does it mean to be perfected by grace?

First, we must recognize that in Christ we are new creatures.  2 Cor. 5:17 reads: So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We have been given a new heart, a new nature and are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Wesley contends that we have no ground to stand on as far as scripture goes to legitimize continued sin in the life of a believer.  If it is impossible to live a life fully sustained by the grace of God and dependent on faith than scriptures call to holiness and sanctification would be absurd. 

Wesley taught that how we mirror God, or reflect His image, is often done in stages.  Like the diagram I drew a few weeks ago, sanctification is a process, a process of development through life’s stages.  At each stage in life there is a level of perfection applicable to that stage.  For instance, no one expects a born again Christian to be as mature in the faith as one who has been following Christ for decades.  But there is still a level of maturity as it pertains to being a child just as there is a level of maturity acceptable for an adolescent, and a different one for an adult. 

Do you see the dynamics at work here?  All of this should show that we have an idea of perfection that is truly in motion, not a static state like the Latin word perfectus.  Rather, this is continuing process of growth from grace to grace where we have multiple moments of completion and fulfillment.   Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit.

I want to be in movement from glory to glory, grace to grace, strength to strength throughout the rest of my life, don’ you?  It is my hearts desire and my pray for not only myself but for all of you that we will actively engage our entire heart, mind and soul to the purpose of sanctification, that we will all be able to declare that we are on our way to perfection.   We have only just begun to scratch the surface of this awe-filled event and process of becoming more like Jesus, and I hope you’ll join me next week as we plow ahead.  Amen.