The Ladder of Perfection

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

We read this verse of scripture but do we really believe it?  How can anybody be perfect but God?  Perfection is high idealism and can not be achieved in this life.  And then there are the Bible commentators that go to great lengths to show that the Greek word for perfect really does not mean perfect, it means something else.  It means spiritual growth which is attainable even if it is un-measurable.  Or how about your life is complete in Christ?  Christ is perfect and your not.  Or Christ has done it all so we don't have to strive for perfection? 

The problem is we dumb down the hard sayings of the Bible to where the Bible loses both its power and its influence.  Either we are to aim for perfection or we don't.  We either settle for the sinful life or we aim high for the perfected life.  Since living a perfect life is impossible in the flesh, the only way this can be accomplished is by the Spirit of God.  Only God can give us the power to walk a life of perfect obedience and love.

To put it another way, God wants us to live as citizens of heaven on earth.  We are to be heavenly men and women here on planet earth.  The only way this can happen is by God giving us his Holy Spirit every day in such an abundance that we begin to live and breath in the kingdom of God even when we live in enemy territory.  I am currently reading a great classic by Saint John Climacus called The Ladder of Divine Ascent.  I have just read the first three steps of thirty steps and I can not even learn much less get the first three steps.  I am like a new born baby that has to learn how to walk by Daddy God's help all over again because I have let so many people of the world influence my walk for Christ.

The First step is renunciation of the world.  Most Christians will give up on step one because they think this is an impossible task.  No one can do this and they are right.  No one can do it without God's help but unless we humble ourselves once again and come to God as helpless children, the kingdom of God may be farther away than we think.  I have to die to self, crucify my flesh and worldly desires, and be totally devoted to Christ.  Only God can give us the power to do this.  Only Christ's Spirit can form us into perfect humans as Christ was the only perfect man who ever walked this earth.

Many years ago I had a dream.  In this dream I was climbing a high mountain hanging onto a rope where there were people in front of me and behind me.  As far as I could see, the rope went into the sky and disappeared in the clouds.  I heard a voice from heaven say, "cut the rope."  I thought this was crazy.  If I cut the rope, every one below me will die including myself.  The voice said again, "cut the rope."  I finally resigned myself although I did not understand, that I was going to die along with every one else behind me.  When I cut the rope, I found myself crying over the Scriptures.  I read these verses in the Bible, "always carrying about in the body the death of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

And then I understood, it is only by dying to self and pride that we can truly live the God empowered life by God's Spirit.  It is only by carrying Jesus death inside us that we can give Jesus life to others.  My flesh could not understood that but my spirit now finally does.