Perfection Through Christ's Merits

[Daily Devotional]

Perfection Through Christ's Merits 

     Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect. Matt. 5:48.  

     Christ presents before us the highest perfection of Christian
character, which throughout our lifetime we should aim to reach. . . .
Concerning this perfection Paul writes: "Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after. . . . I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-15). . . .  

     How can we reach the perfection specified by our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ--our Great Teacher? Can we meet His requirement and attain
to so lofty a standard? We can, else Christ would not have enjoined us
to do so. He is our righteousness. In His humanity He has gone before us
and wrought out for us perfection of character. We are to have the faith
in Him that works by love and purifies the soul. Perfection of character
is based upon that which Christ is to us. If we have constant dependence
on the merits of our Saviour, and walk in His footsteps, we shall be
like Him, pure and undefiled.  

     Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He
expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them
grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect
if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the
ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege. He has
assured us that He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children.  

     Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the
perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase
of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor
God in character. In falling day by day so far short of the divine
requirements, we are endangering our soul's salvation. We need to
understand and appreciate the privilege with which Christ invests us,
and to show our determination to reach the highest standard. We are to
be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us.  

>From That I May Know Him - Page 130