Perfecting part 1
I preach this all the time, because I think it's so very important to understand: We ARE complete in Christ. It's not a junior Jesus living in us. He is complete in us. Speaking of Jesus, Colossians 2:9 says, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And He lives in us. So in US dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in a body. Our body. Both corporately and individually. Let me say it another way, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3). In other words, He did it all so we could get it all. And the "all" that He did was to give His life for us, and to us. And the "all" that we have is... Him. So what, then, does the idea of "perfecting" have to do with anything? For example, Ephesians 4:12, speaking of the five-fold ministry: "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Well, in order to understand that we need to look at some different pictures in the Bible. And the first one is the picture of a house. (There is a picture of a garden that I like a lot, and I think we'll get to that. And also a picture of a baby. But for today...) The house of the Lord. And I'll just give the ending away first: The house... is you. Jesus was a carpenter, right? A builder. And what better thing to build than a house for Him to live in. You, in other words. Us. We. 2 Samuel 7:27, "For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house..." And I can see that God was saying, "I will build a house FOR you." But I can also see that He was saying, "I will build a house out of YOU!" I think the cross is a pretty good picture of this too. The Old Man died--the old house was knocked down--and the New Man rose again. A new house was built. But here's the thing about moving, and if you've ever done it you know what I'm talking about; sometimes when you move you find that you don't have room for all the stuff you let pile up. And, I mean, it CAN happen where you move into an even bigger place. But there's still a cleaning process that goes on where you get rid of the junk you don't need. THAT'S the process of perfecting that we go through! The word itself, "perfecting" in Ephesians 4:12 is number 2677 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "complete furnishing." Basically... the master of the house (Jesus. It's HIS house. He built it.) choosing what belongs and what doesn't. That's what it means to be changed FROM glory TO glory. We start at glory. We start at complete. We start at perfect. How much more perfect could you be than to have the Perfect One living in you, and through you, and as you? It's not about getting MORE perfect. It's about getting rid of some stuff in order for our perfection to be REVEALED. It's like when you move into that house, and rip up the nasty carpet, and there's beautiful hardwood floor underneath. It was there all the time, just hidden. It was a mystery. And the mystery has been revealed! Christ in you, the hope of glory. God getting rid of some stuff that doesn't fit anymore. Stuff that never REALLY fit in the first place, but it was all you thought you could get so you settled for it. Well... out with the old and in with GOD! Out with works and labor, and in with rest! Out with looking for love in all the wrong places, and in with receiving and releasing the love of God!