Excerpt From God’s Gift of Perfection Series
Chapter 21—Part 2
The Law demands; the Law calls to effort; the Law means self. The Law demands that self do its utmost. But it makes nothing perfect, neither the conscience nor the worshiper. This is what Christ came to bring. The very perfection which the law could not give He does give. The Epistle tells us that He was made a Priest (not as Aaron, after the law and in connection with the service of a carnal commandment, which had to be disannulled because of its weakness and unprofitableness), but after the power of an endless life. What Christ, as Priest, has worked and now works, is all in the power of an inward birth, of a new life, of the eternal life. What is born unto me—what is as a spirit and life within me—has its own power of growth and action. Christ’s being made perfect Himself through suffering and obedience—His having perfected us by that same sacrifice—and His communication of that perfection to us, is all in the power of an endless life. It works in us as a life power; in no other way could we become partakers of it.
Perfection is not through the law; let us listen to the blessed lesson. Let us take the warning. The law is so closely connected with perfection—was so long its only representative and forerunner—that we can hardly realize: the law makes nothing perfect. Let us take the encouragement: What the law could not do, God, sending His Son, has done (Hebrews 10:1). The Son, perfected for evermore, has perfected us for ever. It is in Jesus we have our perfection. It is in living union with Him, it is when He is within us, not only as a seed or a little child, but formed within us, dwelling within us, that we will know how far He can make us perfect. It is faith that leads us in the path of perfection. It is the faith that sees, that receives, that lives in Jesus the Perfect One, that will lead us on to the perfection God would have.
Previously No Perfection By The Law—Part 1
