The Perfection & Renewal Process

Philippians 1:6 (Amplified Bible) And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

Last night I was up late watching TBN and I felt lead to mute the television and read the book of Philippians again. I love the Holy Spirit because He is always so faithful to lead me right to the perfect place in the Word of God so that I can receive His comfort, revelation, and confirmation for my situation. Thank you Lord! The scripture above reminded me that I am a working progress and so are you. He is not finished with us yet. In fact He will be working on us until the day our Lord returns.

The reality is that we are going to make mistakes, stumble, and sin. We are imperfect people living in an imperfect and corrupt world full of temptation. The awesome part is that even though we sin we do not have to worry about being under a spirit of condemnation. You see we have to remember that our High Priest, Christ Jesus, understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings that we do, yet He did not sin. So we can go boldly before the throne to receive His mercy, forgiveness, and grace to help us when we need it most. We can confess our sins to Him because He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (Hebrews 4:15-16, 1 John 1:9)

However, I want to be sure to clarify that just because we know that our Lord is constantly working on us and we are going to make mistakes because of our old sin nature, this does not give us an excuse to compromise the Word of God or to keep on blatantly sinning. The good work that our Lord started in us is that He has created in us a new spirit and given us a new nature. We have new lives in Christ Jesus. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! Our new nature is born and created to be like God-truly righteous and holy. (Romans 6:1-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 4:24)

Although our spirits have been born again and we have this new nature, this doesn’t mean that we will not still have sinful thoughts, desires, actions, or reactions. This is where Christ will be continually developing and perfecting us through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The perfection and renewal process that our Lord wants to take us through requires that we willingly put aside our selfish ways and follow Him. We can chose to stay baby Christians controlled by our sin nature, acting and living like people of the world, and still needing someone to teach us the basic things about God’s Word. Or we can grow up in the Word and into a full experience of salvation, teaching others to follow Christ. (Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 2:2, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

The Word of God has promised that He would continue the good work but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to do our part. Our part is to choose to throw off our old sinful nature and our former way of life which is dominated by sin. Instead, allow the Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes as we meditate on The Word of God. This is how our Lord is transforming our minds, making us complete, and developing us for His good works and service. The Word of God washes and cleanses us. It is His Word working in us giving us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. (Ephesians 4:22, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 5:26, Philippians 2:13)

None of us have arrived at perfection. But because we know that our Lord is working in us daily renewing and transforming us into vessels of honor used by our Father in heaven to bring glory to Jesus, we should press on to posses that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed us. Let us all like Paul forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead, pressing on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:12-14)