Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2581
“Perfect in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 1:28.
Perfection in Jesus Christ! What effect ought it to have upon our hearts if it really is ours? Perfection! What do we know of it from Scripture? We know that it is a word so large that while it takes us little time to say it, yet it comprehends all words within its meaning. There is no good word of any description which can be applied to any creature but this word, perfection, takes it in. And though it is easy to utter it with our lips, I question whether there is any mortal mind capable of grasping the idea of perfection any more than it can grasp the idea of eternity! When we begin to think of eternity—without beginning, without end—we are lost in trying to comprehend it because we are finite. And when we once endeavor to conceive perfection—without fault, without flaw—we are lost because we are imperfect! And therefore we cannot understand perfection any more than the finite can grasp the infinite! Perfection, indeed, seems to be the sole prerogative of God. He is perfect in everything. In all His attributes there is no lack. From whatever point of view we regard Him, He is without blot or blemish. And no man, speaking truthfully of God, can say that there is anything of imperfection in Him. If we speak of majesty, His Glory is unsurpassed. If we talk of power, His is Omnipotence and that, indeed, is infinite power! If we speak of wisdom, His is the wisdom of the Godhead—He knows all things, from the most minute to the most immense. He comprehends all secrets and grasps all knowledge in His mighty mind.
It does seem, at first sight, as if perfection could belong only to the Creator. But we remember that the works of God are also perfect and so are all His ways. When He made the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, He looked upon them and said, “They are very good.” Written on the face of Nature, there was then this one word, Perfection! All God’s works were perfect, without a flaw—the great Artificer completed all His workmanship and left nothing undone. There was no rough and crude matter which He had not formed—there was no substance He touched which He did not turn into the gold of perfectness. All things were good, yes, very good—all were perfect!
There is one thing on earth, even now, which is perfect. Albeit that perfection was blasted by the Fall and ever since the Garden of Eden was devastated by the sin of man, perfection has gone, yet there is one thing on earth which we possess which is perfect. You all know what that is—it is the perfect will of God contained in the Sacred Scriptures. He who would be able to spell perfection in mortal language must read the Bible through, for he will find it perfect in all its parts—perfectly true, perfectly free from all error, perfect in everything that is necessary for man to know, perfect in all that can guide us to bliss, perfect in all that can warn us of dangers on the road. There is still something of perfection left here, but when we come to look within, where is perfection then, Beloved?
I shall not stop to prove the depravity of mankind, I will not talk much about the fall of Adam, how it injured us and destroyed the perfection of our nature, but I would ask this simple question of you—Do you not feel in your own souls that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? And though there are times when you are striving to be like Christ and seeking to serve Him, yet in the very striving and seeking you forget that you must live wholly on Christ, that you must trust Him as well in your duties to sanctify them as in your sins to forgive them! And then you begin to set up a perfection of your own, although you have so often had a view of your own heart that you ought not, for a moment, dream of any perfection there! Without making it a doctrine, I simply state it as a fact which you will not deny—that in you, that is, in your flesh—there is not only imperfection—but there dwells no good thing. Honestly, from the depths of your soul, you must confess that whether Adam lost perfection or not, whether you ever had perfection when you were born or not—it is not to be found in you—not in your conduct, conversation, or life! You only wish it were there. Daily experience makes you bemoan the lack of it. Every tear that trickles from your eyes say, “Imperfection.” Every sigh which comes from your heart says, “Imperfection.” Every harsh word which proceeds from your lips says, “Imperfection.” And every duty which is not done with the most holy, strict and rigid observance of God’s Law cries out, “Imperfection!” You sit down, like the captive daughter of Zion, and confess that the crown of perfection is gone from your head and departed from your heart. Guilty you must lie before God, for perfection is not in you.
But, then, while speaking of the Doctrine of Perfection, we must remember that, according to the sacred oracles, perfection is absolutely necessary for all who hope to enter Heaven! We may have lost perfection, but that does not alter God’s demand for it. It may be impossible that we should ever be perfect in ourselves, but God demands that we should be perfect. The holy Law was given by God and if we wish to be saved by it, we must keep it perfectly—no man who is not perfect can ever hope to enter Heaven! Unless he can find perfection somewhere—in another, if not in himself—He must be irretrievably ruined and driven from God’s Presence. No man under the sun can ever walk the starry plains of Heaven, or tread the golden streets of bliss until he gets perfection somehow or other! Let me tell you why.