Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Perfection
Colin D. Standish
Colin D. Standish
Perfection
Colin D. Standish
Rapidan VA
Copyright 2009
Colin D. Standish
Printed in the USA
Published by
Hartland Publications
Rapidan VA 22733
Cover and text design by
AltamontGraphics.com
Table of Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1. What Perfection is Not. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Perfection and Maturity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. Perfection and the Reformation. . . . . . 13
4. The High and Low View of Sin. . . . . . . 16
5. Perfection and Sins of Ignorance. . . . . 20
6. The Gospel and Perfection . . . . . . . . . . 23
7. Perfection a Condition of Salvation. . . 28
8. Perfection and the Judgment. . . . . . . . . 32
9. Perfection and Justification. . . . . . . . . . 39
10. Perfection and Sanctification . . . . . . . . 42
11. Perfection and Gods Character . . . . . . 47
12. Perfection and Gods Law . . . . . . . . . . . 49
13. Perfection and the Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
14. Perfection and Romans 7 & 8. . . . . . . . 53
15. Perfection and Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . 58
16. Perfection and Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . 62
17. Gods Versus Mans Evaluation
of Perfection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
18. Perfection and the Second Coming
of Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
19. Perfection and Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
20. Perfection in the Church. . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Preface
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never achieve to the maturity of Gods perfection even in eternity. Not even the angels have
such perfection. But the Lord has promised
His power to give us victory over temptation.
Ours is a dependent perfection, depending
upon the power of Christ moment by moment for victory over temptation.
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In the Garden of Eden, Adams faulty judgment led to sin and all its attendant miseries.
And not as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift: for the judgment was
by one to condemnation, but the free
gift is of many offences unto justification. Therefore as by the offence of
one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life
(Romans 5:16,18).
God is restoring the universe by four
restorative judgments: A.The Judgment of
Reconciliation; B.The Investigative Judgment;
C.The Millennial Judgment; D.The Executive
Judgment.
A. The Judgment of Reconciliation
Now is the judgment of this world;
now shall the prince of this world be
cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me
(John 12:31, 32).
At the cross, Jesus brought reconciliation
between man and God.
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themselves that God has been a God of infinite love, mercy, and long-suffering; a God
of justice Who has made no mistakes. Thus,
during the millennium, the saints review the
records of the lives of men and angels.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon
them, and judgment was given unto
them: and I saw the souls of them
that were beheaded for the witness of
Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which had not worshipped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads,
or in their hands; and they lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years
(Revelation 20:4).
Do ye not know that the saints shall
judge the world? and if the world shall
be judged by you, are ye unworthy to
judge the smallest matters? Know ye
not that we shall judge angels? how
much more things that pertain to this
life? (1 Corinthians 6:2,3).
Like the angels they will find no mistakes
in the judgment acts of God.
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But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance
(Matthew 9:13).
Because salvation is not unconditional,
neither is justification unconditional.
For not the hearers of the law are just
before God, but the doers of the law
shall be justified (Romans 2:13).
He that justifieth the wicked, and he
that condemneth the just, even they
both are abomination to the Lord
(Proverbs 17:15).
Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him; and to
our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7).
God requires the entire surrender of
the heart before justification can take
place. 1 Selected Messages, p. 366
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absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it
is God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure
(Philippians 2:12, 13).
Make you perfect in every good work
to do his will, working in you that
which is well pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever (Hebrews 13:21).
Can we understand then what the servant
of the Lord meant when she said:
This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human
devising. Christs Object Lessons,
p. 311
Surely Christ included sanctification in
the gospel of salvation.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth
(2 Thessalonians 2:13).
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Perfection and G od s Character
n the Garden of Eden, Satan perverted truth and Eve lost confidence in the Word of God. Thus
for the second time the character of God was
held in question. The final generation of saints
will reflect the character of Christ, not for human glorification, but for the glorification of
their Lord. This is part of the everlasting gospel, give glory to him (Revelation 14:7). Any
claims which deny that Christ has the power
to give victory in the life of the wholly surrendered soul is an attack upon His character, His
sacrifice, and His High Priestly ministry. The
love of God is truly bound up in the salvation
of His people. But when mans salvation is
made central to the gospel, self-centeredness
seems to dominate the thinking, and Christ
and His glory tends to become secondary. It
is Satan who challenges Gods character on
the basis of his claims to provide perfection
of character.
Satan declared that it was impossible
for the sons and daughters of Adam to
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Perfection and G od s Law
avid declared,
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G od s Versus Man s
Evaluation of Perfection
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of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother
(1 John 3:8-10).
And so it is too that the servant of the
Lord sees the preparation of his people as absolutely essential for the return of Jesus:
When the character of Christ shall
be perfectly reproduced in His
people, then He will come to claim
them as His own. Christs Object
Lessons, p. 69
Not one of us will ever receive the
seal of God while our characters have
one spot or stain upon them. It is left
with us to remedy the defects in our
characters, to cleanse the soul temple
of every defilement. Then the latter
rain will fall upon us as the early rain
fell upon the disciples on the Day of
Pentecost. 5 Testimonies, p. 214
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n recent times, with the doctrinal and lifestyle dissonance within our Church, there has been
strong cries for unity. Unity is essential before Gods servants can give the loud cry of
Revelation 18:1-5. This gospel reaches to every nook and cranny of the world. Then our
Lord and Saviour will appear to redeem His
waiting saints.
We know that Jesus will not come until the gospel commission has been taken
to every nation, kindred, tongue and people (Matthew 24:14). Though there have
been remarkable efforts by the Seventh-day
Adventist Church to share this message
around the world, we must acknowledge the
reality that the overwhelming majority of the
inhabitants of this world have never heard
the name Seventh-day Adventists, much less
the thrilling gospel that God has entrusted
to this Church as the depository of His truth
at the end of time. Yet we know that Christs
invitation will not be given to all the world
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Perfection
Colin D. Standish
Colin D. Standish