Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary
principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection.
Heb 6.1
With so many content to remain as babes in ‘ need (of) milk and not solid food’ (5.12), this plea to go past the elementary truths of the gospel into the land of full maturity (perfection) is even more applicable for believers today. This reluctance to grow up has caused enough damage and it is clear the Spirit of God is calling the church to now become spiritual adults.
When ‘worms’ (Joel 1.4) ate away at the pristine glory of the early church (cf. Prov.22.28), sacred ‘landmarks’ were lost.
Yes, some of these have been recovered: by nailing his thesis to the cathedral door, Luther helped restore justification by faith and the ‘born again’ experience for the repentant soul—
thus recovering personal fulfillment of the ‘Feast of Passover’.
Personal fulfillment of the ‘Feast of Pentecost’—the second installment of salvation—was not fully restored until recovery of the ‘Baptism with the Holy Spirit’ early in the 20th century.
Believers must wait for personal fulfillment of the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’ until they gain entrance into the ‘land’ of perfection and divine rest.
This begs the question of why believers have not progressed in salvation beyond the fulfillment of the first two
‘feasts’. Do we blame it on wanting to camp around what has already been recovered, i.e., we are comfortable with what already has been restored? It seems to answer why so many still choose to describe themselves as ‘Lutherans’, ‘Baptists’,
‘Presbyterians’, ‘Evangelicals’, ‘Pentecostals’, etc.—names associated with past recoveries. However, the reason for this lack of progress is more likely to be the caveat attached to this
divine appeal, the words, ‘ this we will do if God permits’ (6.3).
In other words, we have not reached maturity because the
‘permit’ has not been issued. Progress beyond the church’s current state is on pause because Heaven has judged the
‘foundation’ is still not sufficiently reinforced. The permit to build the superstructure of a new dwelling is not issued until the foundation is assessed to be strong enough for additional construction. Considering the current health of ‘the body of Christ’, a judgment by Heaven I think most will agree with.
Even after following the Lord for years, too many believers remain as spiritual ‘babies’, not even having progressed to become ‘young children’ or ‘adolescents’ in the faith. A sorry state, due mainly in my judgment to the large number of converts being ‘still born’ or ‘premature’ at the beginning of their walk of faith—their ‘new birth’ was deficient. (For further thoughts on this, read my eBook ‘The Keys to Living in the Kingdom’. Email me for a free copy.)
Of course, many are mere ‘adherents’ to the faith, showing clear signs the basics of repentance and dedication to a life of discipleship are missing. With others, the deficiency almost certainly lies in not being water baptized and/or experiencing the pentecostal ‘gift of the Spirit’ (cf. Acts 2.38)—two pillars of a solid spiritual foundation—and, hence, the striving to maintain a holy life and enjoy genuine ‘Kingdom Living’. But also of concern, the ‘houses of worship’ where many gather as these also often lack a solid foundation laid down by apostles and prophets (Eph 2.20). It seems clear to me, then, Heaven will only issue the permit to go on to maturity after these missing underpinnings (personal and corporate) are in place.
Thankfully, the last century has seen the recovery of the ministry of prophets and prophecy; not fully, but enough to recognize it is the ongoing realization of the ‘Blowing of Trumpets’. As to the other elements in this last feast, who knows if the current generation will see their fulfillment; what
is certain is the imperative to have ‘ears to hear’ what genuine prophets ‘trumpet’ currently to prepare the church for what is ahead. Many such ‘voices’ have already been heard, but more anointed vessels must declare what the church needs to hear so the fulfillment of the ‘Day of Atonement’ is finalized, and after that, the ‘Feast of Ingathering’ (Ex 34.22).
Israel’s arrival at their inheritance after forty years of wandering in the wilderness was a momentous juncture in the life of the nation. Far-reaching, as it meant the nation had to decide whether to enter this promised land or remain safe from the fighting it would take to possess it. As the fulfillment draws closer of the final elements in this Feast of Tabernacles, this same decision confronts the church today; the choice between possessing the inheritance of ‘perfection’ or remaining immature and largely ineffective. A decision sure to elicit deep searching within many hearts.
The church has also wandered in a wilderness for too long without entering its inheritance; not for forty years, but for
‘forty jubilees’ (40 x 50 years). Fortunately, leaders like Joshua are being raised up to ‘take us in’ to what is promised; apostles, prophets, and other ‘five-fold’ ministries with the courage and vision to possess ‘the land’ of perfection. Yet, not only they need to be ‘ strong and very courageous’ (Josh 1.7); every believer also needs these traits if they are to defeat the ‘giants’
stopping possession. Traits also necessary to heed the words of
‘exhortation, edification, and comfort’ (1Cor 14.3) these ministries will herald; making urgent the need to shake off unbelief, cowardice, rebellion, and hardness of heart, traits opposed to being ‘strong and courageous’.
Does anyone not believe it is time the church grew up and stopped being an eternal infant? I hope not, for this exact sentiment was expressed more than fifty years ago by the famous Argentinian pastor Juan Ortiz—he also said, “living selfish, self-satisfied lives has gone on too long”. Now, it
seems this reluctance to grow up may have another factor feeding it, the subconscious fear about the responsibilities maturity will bring; if so, this must be discarded as it is self-defeating. So is our childish dependence on substitutes for true maturity, and by this I mean basking vicariously in the spirituality of celebrity ministers of God, the very ones appointed to bring us to maturity so we don’t need to rely on them. (Cf Judges 17.12,13) How can we grow up when they do the praying, seeking the Lord, or our other responsibilities?
This sorry state also is not helped when the ‘status quo’ has many running constantly to these ‘great ones’ for the laying on of hands for healing, a blessing, or a word of prophecy. When they also change their ‘diapers’ and ‘spoon-feed’ the Word of God to them it is especially hard to get away from the fact we are still immature. If this is not holding back the church, then it is the over-dependence on proxies for the renewal of spiritual life—iPods, internet religious sites, and TV preachers. Or, then again, the satisfaction with the status quo because we get to play with new spiritual ‘toys’ that entertain and distract—novel doctrines, spiritual techniques, or ecstatic experiences. All this has to end if we are to grow up, along with ‘spitting the dummy’ like babies to move on to another church if the current one doesn't pander to our needs. When we have all this plus the huge number still unable to carry their burdens, let alone those of others (Cf. Gal 6.2-5), no wonder maturity eludes.
Paul says we also are immature if there is ‘ envy, strife and divisions’ (1Cor 3.3) or when ‘selfish ambition or conceit’
motivates rather than ‘in lowliness of mind…(we) esteem others better than’ (Phil 2.3) ourselves. If we are honest, the ‘stinking thinking’ on display in the lives of too many believers—even those who have been ‘in the way’ (pun intended) for many years. Or, if it's not that, it is the lack of generosity and reticence to sacrifice for the common good, immature conduct also. To see juvenile or adolescent behavior like this
characterize the church when it should be much further along the path to maturity is more than sad.
I trust you agree, it is long past time for the church to 'grow up' (5.14) and display the maturity evidenced by the quality of love shown (Matt 5.48), the unity in doctrine (faith) and spirit with fellow believers it enjoys (Eph 4.13), in not being tossed by ‘winds’ of false doctrine (Eph 4.11-14), and in stopping
‘wolves’ from ravaging God’s flock (Acts 20.29). All factors in failing to reach maturity and stopping the divine purposes for the church from being realized in this age. A tragedy when this seriously impacts Heaven’s plan for the ‘heathen’ to have their final witness to the gospel; crucial to this are mature manifestations of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit.
MATURITY AND THE KINGDOM
Paul reminds us (Gal 4.1ff) how children are kept under guardians until mature enough to handle their inheritance.
Immaturity with a substantial inheritance is a recipe for disaster; an important axiom in natural life and for the church about to inherit greatly magnified authority and power. It is why only mature ‘sons’ (this includes daughters) will be entrusted with the ‘ riches of the kingdom’ (Esth 1.4), the ones Paul identifies as having received their ‘adoption' (Rom 8.23).
Not what modern gentiles understand by the term, but the Jewish practice defined by the Greek word ‘huiothesia’
(Str 5206 -‘ huios’, son, and ‘ thesis’, placing). (See Gal 4.5).
Vines Expository Dictionary, says this about it, ‘Adoption involves the dignity of the relationship believers have as sons; that is, it is not a putting into the family by spiritual birth, but a putting them into the position of sons’. Gentiles know only the Roman practice of taking into the family one born outside of it whereas Jewish ‘adoption’ is the placement of a natural-born son as an adult within the family, i.e., they are no longer regarded as immature—equivalent to their Bar Mitzvah today.
Only after their ‘adoption’ and ‘placement’ will Heaven have the mature sons and daughters it can trust with managing the inheritance due them. Maturity so they are worthy to
‘receive the kingdom’ (12.28) in its fullness and be continually
‘led by the Spirit’ (Rom 8.14) of God. A maturity also with the discernment and wisdom to steward the unmatched power and authority in fulfilling their responsibilities as co-rulers with Christ. Immaturity rules out such a role as it not only means they suffer loss personally but also those dependent on them.
Heaven’s plan, then, is not only for the ‘ONE’ (Christ) son already made perfect but for many ‘sons’ to share in the
‘family business’ of ruling creation. Heaven, therefore, will continue to work to conform a company to the image of His perfect Son (Rom 8.29), and why the Godhead is grieved when believers refuse to ‘put away childish things’ (1Cor 13.11). Of course, believers often insist they are already mature; not only a delusion, but it derails this divine call to pursue perfection.
A NEW FRAMEWORK
Growth in the knowledge of Christ, to a large extent, is determined by the ‘framework’ or mindset a believer works within. For most, a ‘framework’ highly conscious of sin and the need for its expiation, but often also fixated on escaping divine judgment even with trivial failures in righteousness.
Peace with God and a life free of guilt are what matter most.
Many of these same believers also lament over how unworthy and weak a sinner they are; not a very edifying mindset for those destined to attain ‘perfection’ and inherit the Kingdom.
Now, though the goal of ‘perfection’ depends on total victory over sin, obsessing over the failure to meet certain (often self-imposed) standards doesn't help in progressing towards it.
Rather than the focus being on the salvation received already, it should be on where a believer hopes to arrive, and this agonizing over sin, its propitiation, and forgiveness only
keeps them from seeing this glorious future. Yes, a believer must never forget the cost of redemption from sin—the sacrifice of the Son of God no less—but what is past is past and the future beckons us on. By continuing to look backward, the children of Israel failed to appreciate the divine goal of their deliverance from Egypt, this blindness as to why Heaven had freed them from bondage meant they had little to spur them on. Making their ‘crash’ in the wilderness almost inevitable. If the church is to possess its promised ‘land of plenty’, the motivation and sense of direction obtained from focusing on the future will be crucial. Yes, never forgetting the Cross and redemption from sin, yet looking to what it secured and Christ paid for far more than a 'fire-escape' from hell.
Believers in the endtime are to ‘lift up their head’ (Lk 21.28), looking to the return of the ‘bridegroom’ and what it means in reaching the goal of full maturity. That is to say, focus on when the church will be, ‘ children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked…generation’ (Phil 2.15). With this hope as their focus, they can appreciate tribulations are the training ordered by Heaven to mature faith. That is, it allows them to accept with patience the times of trial and anguish, even the shame when failing to be victorious in them, especially if the result is sin.
COMPLETE REDEMPTION
In the endtime, believers need their ‘ complete redemption’
(9.12 AMB) in Christ as the ‘frame of reference’. That is, what the Cross secured and it was far more than merely a remedy for the penalty (guilt) of sin. Calvary also secured deliverance from its power, thus (potentially) rectifying every consequence of the original ‘fall’ into sin. Now, the human spirit of a believer enjoys this liberty already, likewise, their soul as it becomes progressively sanctified. But when the blood of the Cross also secured the same liberty for the human body they
are entitled to look for release from all sickness and disease.
(Cf. Is 53.4,5 HCSB) Even emancipation from death once the
‘law of sin and death’ (Rom 8.2) no longer holds sway; a hope of deliverance for body, soul, and spirit they are to rejoice in.
Now, you may object to the hope of freedom from death and decay in the human body before reaching heaven, saying such an outcome from the atonement of calvary is fantasy, even delusion. But this forgets the patriarchs of old (mainly before the flood) lived far longer than we do now, some almost to a thousand years; the mortal body, then, does not sentence us to a mere ‘three score and ten’. When Paul said, ‘He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you’ (Rom 8.11), it is mainly a reference to the resurrection, yet there is every reason to believe these words promise the overcoming of death’s sway even before then. If you believe full victory over ‘sin and (therefore) death’ can only be enjoyed in the next age, you may be in for a surprise. (If you believe this is due to the ‘fallen nature’, I address this later.)
Surely it is not difficult to accept God wants to be glorified in the human body in a greater way (1Cor 6.20), and while a righteous life brings Him the most glory, it is not unreasonable to accept the defeat of bodily decay and death in this age (even if the outcome is only the healing of disease and infirmity) also brings Him glory. When the typology of the ‘Scapegoat’ taking away sin from the ‘camp’ on the ‘Day of Atonement’ is to be fulfilled before this age ends, believers are on solid ground to expect Christ’s secret return will see sin removed from those Heaven is keeping in a safe ‘place’. If sin loses its hold, then so must its ‘sting’ of death (1Cor 15.55,56). We can, therefore, look forward to the Spirit of God so quickening the ‘mortal coil’ it will escape its ‘appointment with death’ (Ps 102.20 ).
Though believers can rightly testify, ‘ old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new’ (2Cor 5.17),
as yet, this ‘newness’ (mainly in the physical body) is not fully manifest; most, therefore, put its full realization off into the millennium or beyond. What is also done with these words of Paul, ‘ when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away’ (1Cor 13.10). But when Heaven's plan is for the ‘perfect’ to be manifest in this current age (minus the bodily resurrection), it means both texts are misinterpreted. When the divine intention is also for believers to ‘shine as the sun’ (Matt 13.43) as a final witness to the gospel in a world deeply darkened by sin, this perfection includes the defeat of death, our ‘last enemy’ (1Cor 15.26). A testimony possible only when the ‘fruits’ and the ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit manifest perfectly; unless the ‘perfect has come’, the ungodly will never be ‘amazed’ (Cf Lk 5.26) and (even begrudgingly) ‘ glorify (the) Father in heaven’ (Matt 5.16) TRIALS AND SUFFERING
‘Consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so…you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ (Jam 1.2-4 NIV).
To make real sense of trials requires understanding the vital role they play in reaching this maturity James says is ‘lacking nothing’. Though we quote, ‘many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all’ (Ps 34.19), such words cannot override the positive outcomes from those trials Heaven allows. By seeking to escape them we thwart the divine intention especially for ‘faith and patience’ (6.12) to increase, two traits critical to enduring the turmoil and inheriting the promises. As Hebrews reminds us, traits often forged only in the heat of trials and suffering. Even if hard to comprehend, ‘rejoice in all (y)our tribulations’ (Rom 5.3 NAS) as their outcome is an ‘ eternal weight of glory’ ( 2Cor 4.17), not the outcome you often fear.