As believers in Christ, we shall be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48); genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is according to God’s New Testament economy under God’s dispensing for the Body of Christ, that God would gain the New Jerusalem, His ultimate goal.
God never intended that man would become perfect in himself; rather, in His eyes, even the most righteous works of man are like a dirty garment, and man’s best efforts to please God and perfect himself before God are utterly rejected by Him.
God is perfect; He is the element of perfection, and the only way that we can become perfect is by having God wrought into us so that He in us would be perfect and make us perfect.
When God is in us, when Christ lives in us, we spontaneously become perfect; if we do not live Christ, however, at best we can achieve some sort of human perfection which others may appreciate but God rejects.
In the New Testament not all believers had the clear vision of what genuine Christian perfection is; James, for example, did not have a clear vision of God’s New Testament economy, and some of the things he wrote were correct, perfect, and sound from a human perspective, but not according to God’s economy.
James 1:25 speaks of the perfect law, the law of freedom. This is not the Old Testament law but the New Testament law, the perfect law; he also called this law, the royal law.
This perfect law, the law of freedom or liberty, is not the law of letters that was written on tablets of stone outside of us and which we need to keep; rather, it is the law of life inscribed on our hearts (Heb. 8:10).
I recommend footnote 2 on James 1:25 in the Recovery Version Bible, which opens up what this perfect law is.
It is the moral standard which corresponds with that of the constitution of the kingdom decreed by the Lord in Matt. 5-7.
The law of letters in the Old Testament placed demands on man and did not give man life (Gal. 3:21) but rather, it exposed man’s weakness and failure, and it kept him in slavery under the law.
Therefore, the law of letters was the law of bondage, and sadly to say, many Christians are kept in bondage under such a law.
But praise the Lord for the perfect law of life, the function of the divine life, which was imparted into our being at regeneration!
This law of life supplies us throughout our Christian life with the unsearchable riches of the divine life!
This law of life frees us from the law of sin and of death, and it fulfils all the requirements of the law of letters in us as we walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:2, 4); such a law is the law of freedom.
This law of perfection, the law of freedom, is the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21), even Christ Himself as a living person who lives within us to regulate us by imparting the divine nature into our being.
If we live according to the law of life in us, the law of the divine life in our spirit, we will live a life that expresses God’s image.
James, however, seems to have been thinking of this law as the basic rule of the Christian life for practical Christian perfection, but the divine revelation in the New Testament clearly reveals the genuine Christian perfection according to God’s New Testament economy.
Read this article to find out what is genuine Christian perfection here and how is it related to the Body of Christ here.
Genuine Christian Perfection is the Issue of the Dispensing of God into man to produce God-men for the Building up of the Body of Christ
What is genuine Christian perfection?
Humanly speaking, all men strive to be perfect, and some succeed to be perfect in their own eyes; others may not consider them to be perfect, but some think they are perfect according to their standard of perfection.
Others, however, try to be perfect according to others’ standards, and the standard of perfection in society changes; it is impossible to be perfect, humanly speaking.
But the Bible, especially the New Testament, speaks of genuine Christian perfection.
2 Cor. 13:11 says, Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, think the same thing, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
We need to rejoice in the Lord and be perfected, be comforted, think the same thing, and be at peace.
Genuine Christian perfection is not merely something that man tries to do according to what God requires, so that man would please God by trying to fulfil God’s requirements.
In the Old Testament, there was a person who tried to do this – Job; he did everything that he saw as being righteous and just before God, and he achieved a certain human righteousness and perfection in himself.
However, such perfection and self-righteousness were not of God, so much so that God had to suggest to Satan that Job needs help, so Satan asked for permission to do his work on Job, until Job was stripped and consumed…and only when Job saw God, that’s when he realized what perfection is.
The genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is according to God’s New Testament economy.
Such perfection is that God wanted to become a man so that many men may become the God-men for the producing of the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 3:8-10; 1:9-10). Wow.
This is the highest standard of perfection according to the New Testament economy of God, and God will gain the New Jerusalem, which is the genuine, real Christian perfection.
The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of the Body of Christ; therefore, the genuine Christian perfection is the Body of Christ, the aggregate of all the God-men living the life of the God-man. Hallelujah!
Genuine Christian perfection has nothing to do with our efforts or endeavours to please God or be perfected in ourselves; it is a matter under the divine dispensing.
Genuine Christian perfection is the issue of the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into us, the believers in Christ, to make us God-men, the same as Him in life and nature and expression but not in the Godhead.
God the Father is the source, the origin, and He dispenses Himself into us with His divine nature to make us perfect (Matt. 5:48); He is our perfect heavenly Father.
The dispensing is by God the Father as the origin, the source (Rev. 21:18) and with God the Son as the element (2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 9, 11; Rev. 21:21).
This is signified by the golden base of the New Jerusalem; gold signifies the divine nature of the Father God.
Genuine Christian perfection is with Christ, God the Son, dispensing Himself into us to be the element and constituent of our inner being.
This is typified by the pearl gates of the New Jerusalem.
The dispensing of the Spirit, the dispensing fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:9, 11, 14; Rev. 21:18, 21) is to secrete and dispense the divine life juice around us through the process of God’s organic salvation to transform us and make us part of the New Jerusalem, thus achieving genuine Christian perfection.
The dispensing fellowship of the Spirit imparts and dispenses the divine life into us through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification so that we may be fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ and become beings of the New Jerusalem. Wow!
This is genuine Christian perfection, which is a matter under the divine dispensing.
We believers in Christ need to be perfected by the experience of Christ as life and by the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in the love of the Father, with the grace of the Son, and through the fellowship of the Spirit.
As we remain under the divine dispensing and enjoy the flow of the Triune God into our being, we become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, for our very constitution is perfect, God Himself. Wow!
We just need to be open to the Lord and remain under His divine dispensing, for the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us all the time to dispense, impart, and infuse His life element into us and around us to perfect us. Hallelujah!
This results not in us being perfect in ourselves but in us becoming the New Jerusalem, the consummation of genuine Christian perfection to match our processed and consummated Triune God for our eternal marriage life. Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see what is genuine Christian perfection according to God’s New Testament economy. May we realize that, in His economy, God wanted to become a man so that many men may become the God-men for the producing of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal! Hallelujah! Thank You, dear Lord, for bringing us in the wonderful organic union of God and man. Keep us under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity today. May we be open to the dispensing of God the Father as the source, the dispensing of God the Son as the element, and the dispensing of God the Spirit as the fellowship! Hallelujah, the grace of Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us all the time to infuse, impart, and transmit all that God is into us to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ so that we may achieve genuine Christian perfection, the New Jerusalem! Wow, praise the Lord!
Genuine Christian Perfection is for the Building up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem
The perfection that many people in the world practice or strive to achieve isolates them from others and sets them aside, even a little higher than others, and not many can achieve such a thing.
Even in Christianity, many who try to achieve some sort of Christian perfection according to what they see in the Word of God sets them aside from others and produces “spiritual giants” who are not built up with others nor can be built or blended with them.
This is not what God desires.
Genuine Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ. Christ as the Head of the Body gave gifts to the Body such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, not for them to be perfect in themselves but for the perfecting of the saints (Eph. 4:11-12).
On one hand, we believers in Christ need to remain under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity so that we may become perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect under God’s dispensing.
On the other hand, we are members of the Body who are being perfected by the gifted members to function in the Body for the building up of the Body.
May the Lord have mercy on us and remove any veil of preconceived knowledge and religious concepts regarding Christian perfection; may we see what is genuine Christian perfection according to God’s New Testament economy.
God does not desire individual Christians who are perfect; He desires to gain the Body of Christ, and this Body is built up through the perfecting of the saints by the gifted members.
Christ the Head gave some as apostles for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry unto the building up of the Body of Christ.
The apostles define the truth for the establishing of the churches, and they perfect the saints to function as those who are equipped with the truth, preach the gospel, set up churches, and edify the saints in their measure.
The prophets are given by the Head to the Body to prophesy for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:3-5).
They speak for the Lord, not mainly to predict the future but to declare the Lord’s word and speak Christ into others.
The prophets perfect the saints to function as prophets by speaking the word of God, speaking for the Lord, and speaking the Lord forth in the meetings of the church, thus building up the Body of Christ directly.
The evangelists preach the gospel not to “win souls” but to gain members of Christ; they win sinners for the Lord to make them members of the Body of Christ, not to “win souls to go to heaven”.
The evangelists perfect the saints to preach the gospel and be burdened for the souls of men so that many would be saved and become members of Christ.
The shepherds feed the young believers so that they may grow up for the building up of the Body of Christ (John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15-16).
They perfect the saints to bring them into their shepherding function so that the perfected saints would care for the new believers by cherishing and nourishing them so that they grow in life for the building up of the Body.
The teachers teach the believers for their edification to establish the churches (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17).
Furthermore, the teachers perfect the saints to teach the truth in the home meetings and group meetings for the mutual edification of the saints for the building up of the Body.
Genuine Christian perfection is not individual but corporate – it is for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem.
Christian perfection is not for our spiritual exhibition, for others to see how perfect we are and admire; it is for the building up of the Body.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You and to the Body to be perfected to function in our measure for the building up of the Body of Christ. May we realize that genuine Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body, not for our individual perfection. Amen, Lord, perfect us through the gifted members so that we may function in the meetings of the church for the Body to be built up. Save us from trying to be individual Christians who are perfected in themselves but are individualistic or secluded from the Body. Oh Lord, save us from ourselves! Perfect us in the Body so that our function may be brought forth for the building up of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem, Your eternal goal!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle of James,” ch. 7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 7, entitled, Being Perfect as the Heavenly Father is Perfect by being Perfected in His Love.
- Further reading on this topic:
– The Genuine Christian perfection as taught in the New Testament (portion from, Crystallization-Study of the Epistle of James, by W. Lee).
– The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, article by Ed Marks, via Affirmation and Critique.
– The Economy of God to Produce the Church as the Body of Christ in Ephesians, article by Ed Marks via A&C.
– The curriculum of the FTTM, speaking of God’s economy and His dispensing here.
– Why is God the Trinity, the Father, Son and Spirit? Article via Holding to Truth.
– Living under the divine administration through the divine dispensing of the processed Christ as the Adam and the life-giving Spirit: the gospel presented in 1 Corinthians, article by John Pester in Affirmation and Critique.
– The Recovery of the Eternal Economy of God, outline via, Full-Time training in New Zealand. - Hymns on this topic:
– Deepest springs of life dispensing, / Like the hart I thirst for Thee; / Desp’rate, may I drink Thy fullness, / ’Till Thy river flows through me. / May my self be put to death, Lord, / Under Thy control I’d be, / Transformed to Thy living image, / I’d forever flow out Thee. (Hymns #1360 stanzas 3-4)
– He’s pledged to save us to the full, / His life is operating; / He’s doing everything for us / ’Tis all for our perfecting; / Our life’s a failure at its best, / Only His life can stand the test: / His life brings full salvation! (Hymns #1130 stanza 5)
– The Lord gave gifts to the churches, / Precious saints who love the Lord. / First apostles and prophets, / Speaking forth Christ as the word! / Then He gave some gifts as evangelists, / Who proclaim the gospel of Christ! / There are shepherd-teachers, feeding the saints. / But Lord, who am I? / Lord, I’m ready and willing to be perfected by You, / Through the saints all around me, to build Your Body too! (Song on, Lord, I’m Ready and Willing to be Perfected)
About aGodMan
The genuine Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). The perfecting ones of this kind of Christian perfection are the gifted persons, such as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers (vv. 11-12). The apostles define the truths for the establishing of the church…The prophets prophesy for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:3-5). Proper prophets prophesy the divine word, not mainly to predict but mainly to speak forth the Lord. This is what Isaiah did when he spoke concerning a virgin bringing forth a child whose name is Mighty God and Eternal Father (Isa. 9:6)…The evangelists preach the gospel to make sinners the members of Christ for His Body. They preach the gospel not for soul winning but for Christ’s member winning. They win sinners to make them the members of Christ for His Body, not to gain souls for them to go to heaven…The shepherds feed the young believers that they may grow up for the building of the Body of Christ (John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15-16)…The teachers teach the believers for their edification to establish the churches (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17). Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle of James,” pp. 415-418
Brother, I have never seen this before: the genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is under God’s dispensing for the building up of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem! Wow!
We just need to remain under the divine dispensing and be open to the Lord, for the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us all the time to infuse God into us and make us perfect as He is!
And this is for the building up of the Body of Christ!
Today the Spirit is doing a transformation work by secreting the divine life-juice by regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and eventually glorification.
So on our side what do we do – we must experience of Christ as life and the enjoy the Triune God through the Spirit’s fellowship that dispenses the Father’s love in Christ’s grace into the us!
Finally brother, be perfected & comforted that we may all think the same thing and be at peace.
Let’s all be perfected by the experience of Christ as life and the enjoyment of the Triune God as our love, grace & fellowship.
God’s intention is to perfect all the members of the Body so that we would all be equipped to define the truths, to speak forth the Lord, to preach the gospel to make sinners members of Christ for His Body, to feed young believers that they may grow up for the building of the Body, and to teach for the edification of the believers and the establishing of genuine local churches.
Genuine Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The dispensing of the processed Triune God is for the perfecting of the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ.
This is through the Father as love who is the source, the Son – the expression of the Father as love – as grace the course, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which is the dispensing of all that the Father is, in the Son, into us believers so that we may experience and enjoy all that He is to perfect us in His love for the building up of the Body of Christ which will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the ultimate goal of such a perfecting work.
I enjoyed that Christian perfection is the issue of the dispensing of the process Triune God.
And that the grace of Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us all the time to perfect us for the blinding up of Christ Body.
God gives the perfecting ones, the joints as gift to the church to perfect the Saints, the parts for His building work.
May we be those who are willing to be perfected in God ordained way! Amen Lord!
Wow! Amen Lord, keep us under Your divine dispensing until Your perfection in us builds up the Body of Christ and consummates in the New Jerusalem!!
Amen brother. Oh Lord, keep us under the genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament economy. And enlighten us to see the work of the divine trinity to make us God-men to produce the body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal.
The perfect law, the law of freedom (or liberty), is not the law of letters written on tablets of stone outside us but the law of life inscribed on our hearts (Heb. 8:10), the moral standard of which corresponds with that of the kingdom’s constitution, decreed by the Lord on the mount (Matt. chs. 5—7).
Since the law of letters was not able to give man life (Gal. 3:21) but was able only to expose man’s weakness and failure and keep him in slavery (Gal. 5:1 and note Gal. 5:14c), it was a law of bondage.
Since the perfect law of life is the function of the divine life, which was imparted into our being at regeneration and supplies us throughout our Christian life with the unsearchable riches of the divine life to free us from the law of sin and death and fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law of letters (Rom. 8:2, 4), it is the law of freedom.
This law is the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21), even Christ Himself, who lives within us to regulate us by imparting the divine nature into our being, that we may live a life that expresses God’s image.
James might have considered this law the basic rule of the Christian life for practical Christian perfection.
James 1:25, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible
Amen brother!
Hallelujah!
The Triune God is infusing Himself in us to build up the body of Christ to maturity.
O Lord we long to be transformed, conformed and glorified in the New Jerusalem!
Praise the Lord!
Dear brother, This dispensing is by God the Father as the source, the origin, this dispensing is with God the Son as the element, and this dispensing is through God the Spirit as the fellowship! Hallelujah for this dispensing!