This is lesson 110 (Pages 460 and 461) of the Pentecostal Bible Study Course
Lesson 110 Perfection Part 2
The following illustration will help us to understand more clearly the subject of perfection.
The chief of police has called for a special meeting of certain policemen. They are to gather
at a certain hour without fail. But one of them finds himself downtown dressed in his civilian
clothes in the midst of rushing traffic. The meeting place is some distance away, and he is delayed
by the traffic. Even if he should reach the place, he could not enter without a police uniform, so
in his desperation he hails another policeman who is in uniform, just retiring from his duties of
the day. He tells him of his predicament, and the uniformed man says, “Grab hold of me and hang
on.” He lays hold of him and together they go. The shrill whistle of the policeman and the whitegloved
hand thrust up cause brakes to squeal and everything to come to a standstill. Together they
make it safely through the congested traffic. In a short time they reach the place of the meeting,
and the generous policeman steps into the side room with his man and quickly they exchange
clothing. Thus the man who was so helpless walks into the meeting on time and in the proper
clothing. He has fulfilled all the demands that were laid on him.
Can we give a clearer picture of a poor sinner than that illustrated by this man, who was wonderfully
delivered from his perplexing condition and who found himself fully qualified to hold his place in the meeting? Immortal perfection is the goal, but a sinner is helpless in his sins. Like the
stranded policeman, he looks for deliverance, and someone preaches Jesus to him. If he believes
and obeys the gospel, he will take hold of Jesus and make Him his all. His race will be through
thick traffic all right, but if he holds to his deliverer, the white-gloved hand of authority will be
held up against his enemies, and they will have to halt and step backward. And he goes on in victory,
approaching the time when the Son of God will come in power, the dead will rise, and the
living saints will be changed. Then Christ himself, the One to whom he has been holding, will give
him the robe of immortal perfection, and he will stand perfect in the holy convocation, meeting
all the demands of a holy God.
Philippians 3:12 says, “I do not say I have already won the race or have already reached perfection.
But I am pressing on, striving to lay hold on the prize for which also Christ has laid hold
of me” (Weymouth). He who said, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (
James 4:8)
will lay hold on us if we lay hold on Him. Jesus is our perfection, and He imparts His nature to
us. We ourselves must take a second place and let our new nature rule, so that we can walk in
newness of life.
Our goal is to live a victorious life over sin, but we cannot claim to attain sinless perfection in
this life. Those who think they have attained eradication of the old man and sinless perfection
must consider the following verses of Scripture and apply them to their lives.
Romans 14:23
declares, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Is every act of our lives in line with our faith, or have
some actions gone against our own convictions of what is right?
James 4:17 says, “Therefore to
him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Have we always done everything
that we know a Christian ought to do?
The perfection of the believer is not in himself; it is in Christ. The person who believes in sinless
perfection seeks perfection where it cannot be found. Failing to find it in himself, he lowers
the standard to the level of his imperfection. To admit the necessity of a perfect standard would
call for a confession of sin. Yet God demands absolute perfection, and since we cannot find it in
ourselves, we must accept what God has provided. Through the death of Jesus, the believer has
a perfection that needs no mending and that cannot be improved. It satisfies the conscience, pro-
vides a perfect standing before God, and fills us with an undisturbed and heavenly peace. “For by
one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (
Hebrews 10:14).
The believer has a new, perfect, and sinless nature. It is not the old nature purified and transformed,
but it is an entirely new nature sent down from heaven. The old nature remains, but a new
one is added. This new nature is as incapable of defilement as a sunbeam is. This new nature, also
called the “new man,” cannot sin. To be able to sin would be a transgression of the very law of
God’s nature, for the new nature is none other than God’s Spirit coming into the believer. It is
Christ within us.
The Scripture tells us to be blameless, and this no doubt is as near perfection as we will find
ourselves, for in perfection there cannot be even one fault. One can be blameless and still not be
faultless. The following story illustrates this point.
A mother, before she has finished and hung out her week’s washing, is called out on an important
errand. She leaves a note for her little daughter, so she will know her mother’s whereabouts
when she comes home from school. The child arrives home and sees neither the washing finished
nor on the line, and she decides to give her overworked mother a lift. So the child, by working
fast, has all the clothes on the line to dry when the mother returns. The mother is shocked to see
those streaked, unrinsed clothes out on the line, and she immediately begins to gather them in.
They have only been through the suds and have not been rinsed. The good mother does not speak
harshly to the child for her act but rather blesses her little heart for the work of love she has done.
The child was blameless, but she was not faultless. If the clothes had been rinsed and ready for
the line, and the streaks had been made by the child’s carelessness, then she would have been to
blame as well as at fault.
To be blameless is all that God requires of a believer. That is to know nothing against ourselves
(
I Corinthians 4:4), to have a conscience void of offense (
Acts 24:16), and to keep ourselves from
all known sin. We cannot say that we have not sinned in the past, nor that we have no sin to be
cleansed of at present (
I John 1:7). Let us remember that there is only one sinless, perfect man—
Christ Jesus.
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