Matthew 5:48. Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. NKJV. There can be no doubt as to the meaning of this astonishing promise of God. It assures us that we who believe shall in the future reach that absolute state of perfection, yet it also implies that action is needed on our part right now.

The Greek word for perfect is ‘teleios’ which can have several shades of meaning, yet the usage in this instance is unequivocal. The flawless perfection that is the very essence of our Father is assured also to us who believe, so the question is, ‘how do we reach that state’?

Fundamentally, we know that the perfection of the Father is not remotely possible to us in reliance on the nature we were born with. However, if we are born anew by the Spirit of God we have the power living within us that can do anything according to the will of God. God has willed that each one of His own will be transformed to be and to display the perfection of our Father. Only one thing can prevent this process from reaching His goal; our unbelief.

We might perhaps echo the words of Mary the mother of Jesus. In response to the archangel Gabriel, who told her that “nothing shall be impossible with God.” Mary replied, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”

As an example of the road to perfection we shall turn next to the experience of the apostle Paul. At some point he wrote in his letter to the church in Philippi, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish….‘Philippians 3:7-14. In comparison with our relationship with Jesus, is our attachment to people and possessions like Paul’s? We should lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, for where our treasure is there our heart will be also.

…. that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; Are we moment by moment relying on the righteousness that comes only through strict obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit on the basis of faith?.

….that I may know Him….Constant communion with the Lord Jesus will lead us into the most treasured and intimate of all relationships. Not even the love for our closest family members will compete with our love for Jesus.

….and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death….When the Lord Jesus went through death and resurrection we are told that ‘He was made a life-giving Spirit’. Thus the Holy Spirit who lives within us forever, possesses the resurrection power that will rise above all kinds of sufferings and trials and bring us gloriously through them. Not only so but this will mean the annulment of the operation of the self-life and increasing evidence of the victorious life in Christ.

….if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The word ‘resurrection’ here does not refer to the ultimate resurrection of all the believers but is literally ‘an out-resurrection from among the dead ones’. It relates to the birth and carrying to God’s throne of those who comprise the male child, who have overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and who do not love their self-life unto its death. This is vividly described in Revelation chapter 12.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Paul admits that he hasn’t yet attained to the Lord’s promised perfection, but he emphasizes that he just presses on, that the Lord may bring him to the perfection described in Matthew 5:48.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; The word apprehended means ‘gained’ or ‘laid hold of’. If becoming perfect in Jesus was a life journey for Paul it will certainly be no less for us, yet we must realize that it is not Paul, nor we as individuals, who is performing this transformation, but the blessed person of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

….but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead….We must no longer worry about the failures of the past, nor even our victories in Jesus. We must be conscious of the importance of every minute living in the presence of Jesus, reaching forward to what lies ahead of us.

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. If our journey is travelled in Him then surely we shall find ourselves caught up to the throne among that very small yet significant company of overcomers who will comprise the male child. This was the prize that the great apostle desired above all to attain to.

So ‘Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’. Hebrews 12:1-2.