Born Again: Another Look
To have, or to Take
With Christ in control of our lives we have complete victory over the law of sin and death. We can live for God and we can truly keep His Word and do what He wants us to do. When we are born again, it is more than just a change in attitude. Not only does Christ free us from condemnation of death, but He delivers us from the law of sin and death, and adopts us as His children. He clothes us with “rich robes
” and we stand just in the presence of God (Zech. 3.) Yet it is even more than that. When we are born again God gives us the gift of perfection, which is the gift of Jesus Christ.
There are some believers who feel that it is blasphemy to say it is possible to live perfect while here on earth. There are others who believe that perfection is the goal to be reached, but that we cannot ever hope to obtain it while we still have sinful flesh. Before we get into that discussion, we must first make a clear distinction between two concepts of what it means for us to have perfection.
It is critical that we understand the difference between inherent ownership and obtained ownership. Let us turn to an illustration. Picture a man who is born with a bad heart condition, and whose life is full of frequent trips to the hospital and a myriad of medication, pills, and therapy. This man manages to etch out a decent life for himself, however, and he is able to start a family and obtain a career working as a middle class office worker. Eventually, though, this man's weak heart reaches its limit, and he is put on the list for a heart transplant. Sitting in the hospital bed, wondering if he will live or die, this man begins to look back on his life and all of the hardships he has lived through. Looking down at his chest, thoughts of hatred and utter disgust start to seep into his mind as he thinks of the weak and feeble heart of his that is threatening to separate him from his wife and kids. All of his worrying is for naught, however, as days later this man receives the heart transplant he so desperately needed. After awhile he is able to return home, and eventually he goes back to work. While on the job one of his coworkers comes up to him and asks, “how is your heart doing?
” The man replies, “my heart is working just great.
”
In this scenario the man who received the transplant lived with two different hearts. The first heart was the one he was born with; the second heart was the one someone donated to him. If you were to ask if the first heart was his, he would answer yes. Likewise, if you were to ask if the second heart was his, he would answer yes. But does the second heart belong to him in the same way that the first one did? Not at all. While the first heart was his by right, the second one became his as a gift. After he had received his transplant, the man is not wrong to refer to the donated heart as “my heart,
” however, that new heart is technically not his, but it is the person's who gave it to him. There is a difference between to have something, and to take or receive something. The man cannot rightly go around feeling that it is his heart that allows him to continue living; he cannot go around boasting that he is fine because it is his heart that is beating normally inside of him. No, that man will always be conscious that the heart inside of him is from another man.
This may seem like a trivial distinction to make, but it is an important one. Much confusion over whether it is possible for a Christian to be perfect involves this particular issue, and it must be properly understood in order to have a clear idea of what true Christian perfection is.
For a Christian to be perfect does not mean that the Christian went to Christ, took perfection from Him, put the perfection on and now is perfect. Neither does it mean that the Christian has put in long hours of work to get the victory over sin, and now he has the strength in himself to resist any temptation that might be thrown his way. No man can obtain perfection by his own works, and no man can be perfect outside of Christ. To say that it is possible for a Christian to be perfect does not mean that the Christian is incapable of falling to temptation and incapable of sin. It is clear that even after accepting Christ a believer still has sinful flesh, and by his own strength the believer still has no power over the law of sin and death. It is trap of Satan for any one of us to think that we can defeat sin by our own power. The Christian who feels he is perfect is most undoubtedly harvesting pride within himself, and in some cases displaying it openly. It is also likely that this person is condemning fellow believers for their actions, and thus in effect tearing them down and lifting himself yet even higher. That person is nowhere near perfect, and it is obviously seen by the gaping disparity between his own actions and the actions of Christ.
We must look back to the example of the man who received a heart transplant. Just as the new heart was not his own, neither is perfection for the Christian his own. It is Christ who is working in the life to deliver from the law of sin and death. It is Christ who is at the wheel, leading the Christian from one victory to the next. To say that Christian perfection is possible does not mean that it is the person who is perfect. It means Christ who is in the person is perfect. Just as the new heart did not inherently belong to the man with the heart transplant, so any victory we may have does not inherently belong to us.
The life of the new man is one in which the man has given Christ the allowance to fight his battles. Our life is in Him and He is in us. It is possible for the man to be perfect, not because he has worked his way towards it, but because Christ has led him to it, and is still leading him yet further to the original image of God.
