Search
Search

Seeking Our Perfection

LISTEN NOW!

We ended last time with the question, What was the matter with all this? Why do these thought movements lift people up and then let them down? The answer is simple: when you say, “I am perfect” you are in yourself. It makes you the center of your salvation, makes you, for all intents and purposes, God. It is self-salvation by self-assertion: “I am perfect.” Anything that leaves you at the center is off-center. The universe won’t back our being God, so the facts close in and disillusionment results.

The “consider” passage is quite different: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). Note the “in Christ Jesus”—not in yourself, but in Him. When you are in Christ Jesus by surrender, faith, and obedience, then you have a right to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. You actually are as long as you stay in Christ Jesus. The moment you step out of Him into yourself and begin to assert your perfection, then you are not perfect, for any self that is centered in itself, however religious that self may be, is an inherently imperfect self by its very self-preoccupation.

Being in Christ, the Perfect One, however, you partake of His perfection by association, by assimilation. You are dead to sin to the degree you are alive to God. That is the positive element—alive to God. As long as I am alive to God—alive to His suggestions, His urges, His leadings, His love—I am by that very expulsive fact dead to sin. The higher expels the lower. I don’t fight sin. I expel it by preoccupation with the Higher. Looking at Him I am spoiled for anything less.

THE PRAYER

O God, the God I see in the face of Jesus Christ my Lord, I look at Thee and I am forever dissatisfied with anything other than Thee. Sin loses its charm, and its beauty is only ugliness. It is so simple—and so profound. I thank Thee. Amen.

AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY

I am dead to sin when I am alive to Him.

Get your copy of In Christ: Devotions for Every Day of the Year from our store here.

Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.

Share today's Wake-Up Call!

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *