Perfection is God's Work

 by Rev. Richard A. Bolland

as published in the Pagosa Springs Sun

        Human beings constantly strive to find meaning in their lives.  In this quest there are certain patterns that seem to keep showing up.  Indeed, boiled down to its essentials there seems to be three kinds of spiritual seeking.  They are: 

1.         Moralism:  Here the human will seeks to achieve perfection of conduct.

2.         Speculation:  Here the mind seeks to achieve perfection of understanding.

3.         Mysticism:  The soul seeks to achieve perfection by becoming one with God.

        The problem with all of these approaches is that none of them are achievable.  Not that we humans haven’t tried to achieve them, indeed we have tried!  I have yet to meet anyone whose conduct is perfect inclusive of my own.  I have yet to meet anyone who’s knowledge is perfect inclusive of my own, and I have yet to meet anyone whose attempts to become one with God have in any way made them god-like, including me.

        It seems to me that the most productive approach to spirituality, then rests in facing up to our imperfections.  This is simply the way we humans are, like it or not.  In the Holy Bible this is called sin and in accurately describes not only what we do badly or what we fail to do, it describes our very nature.  It is the condition in which we live.  I suppose one word would suffice to describe sin:  “selfishness.”  It seems that our innate sinfulness is precisely what brings about our abject failures in all our attempts to be moral, knowledgeable, and mystically one with God our Creator.

        With this reality in view, Christianity offers some real insight and some real help.  While every other religion in the world points to what man must do to please God, Christianity alone points to what God has done to redeem man from the mess we have managed to make both of our world and our own personal lives.  In Christianity, it is God who acts!

        If man cannot achieve moral perfection, then God sends His Son Jesus Christ who, as a man, perfectly lives and offers His perfection to us as a free gift.  If man can make no adequate payment for his own failures, his own selfish inclinations, and his own omission of kindness when they should have been offered, then God’s only Son, Jesus the Christ or Messiah of God will offer His own divine life in payment for our failures.  You see, Christianity is all about what God has done, not what man imperfectly attempts to do.

        In this Easter season Christians celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead.   It is a joyous and great high festival of the Church.  Perhaps St. Paul says it about as clearly as it can be said:  “For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [Jesus].  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in his own turn:  Christ, the firstfruits; then when he comes, those belonging to him.”  (I Corinthians 15:21-23)

        In Christ, and in Christ alone, do what find what is absent in our lives.  In Him we find a perfection that truly is perfect because it is Christ’s perfection given to us.  In Him we find forgiveness because the sacrifice offered on humanity’s behalf was of such incredible value that we find our sins have been completely removed from God’s sight through Christ.  In Him we find life where all we might have expected would be death.  For Jesus Christ as become human flesh and lived among us, suffering our punishment, forgiving our sins, and restoring us to life forever with Him. 

        All of this, every bit of it is a free gift.  St. Paul writes:  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”  (Ephesians 2:4-9)

        So, my fellow spiritual seekers, in what do you put your trust?  In your own ability to accomplish what cannot be humanly accomplished, or in Christ who does all things well?