God made you Perfect

My text today is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21 where we read:

“For he (GOD) hath made him (JESUS) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we (THAT’S US) might be made the righteousness of God in him”.

So my Sermon entitled “God made you Perfect” is about helping you to understand something of the PERFECTION created in you by the Divine Carpenter who has made us, or remade us in the new birth experience. I grew up working in my Fathers Carpenters shop. At an early age, I learned how to use the plane, the spoke-shave and the mallet, and how to put a wooden ladder together. My Father made Ladders, Wheelbarrows, Farm Carts & Wheels, Cattle Feeders, Mangers, Pig Troughs, and a whole host of other wooden essentials – at a period of time when these things were not made in any other material, The point I am making, is that when my Father and I made a Ladder, a Ladder it was for all of its days. At no time, could or would it ever have been adapted or changed to become a Cart. It was made a Ladder; and it would never become a Cart.

Our text reminds us that in Jesus Christ, we have been MADE the righteousness of God, and as such, we have been made Perfect in the eyes of God. These Scriptures which we read earlier in today’s service, show us that before we could have been Made Righteous, (or Like Jesus) … Jesus had to have been

Made Sin (or like us). He who “knew no sin” or had never committed sin, was made to be sin, so that we who had been born sinners, sinners by nature and sinners by choice,

might be made righteous. He took what was ours, so that we might take what was His! He took our sin, our sicknesses and our sorrows so that we might take his saving, his salvation and his standing with the Father. He was Made sin, and we were Made Righteous … but if you don’t or won’t believe it,

you can never receive it’s benefits!

In a three part sermon a while ago about IDENTITY,

I taught you what it means to be “The Righteousness of God in Christ” yet today I do not intend to rework any of that material; instead I want to help you focus on the “perfection” that is bound up with the “righteousness” which is ours in Jesus. Remember, I’m showing you that God has made you PERFECT!

I used to teach and preach that Christians were not perfect, just saved, until I discovered that God calls us perfect. So I dare not deny what God says. Lets look at it. Turn with me if you will in your Bible to 1st Peter 5 v 10 where we read … “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” Notice here that the word Perfect is in the “future” tense, Peter is saying that God will make us perfect. Turn now to Philippians Ch 3, v 12 where Paul writes: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of

Christ …”. Again Paul puts the word Perfect in the future, saying that he has not already attained this perfection?

In the same context … turn now to James Ch 1, v4 where James says:

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” And again James puts this “perfecting” process in the future. So then how can I conclude that God Made You Perfect, (Past or Present Tense)?

Well, God did Make you Perfect, for the words used here in the Greek text imply a “repair” and a “restoration” to the former glory. You cannot repair or restore to perfection, unless the object of repair or restoration was originally perfect. You see what I want you to discover and uncover is the glorious truth that the Righteousness of God is effective in restoring our humanity back to what God created it to be in the first place! God aims to bring us back to Eden! Back to that place of perfection and glory in which we were created. And the way that God desires and designs to do this, is in Jesus. Jesus himself taught in the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. (and here the Greek word means complete) Fully Restored as God intends! So Jesus was saying

Be ye therefore fully restored”

Sin has robbed our humanity of its good and its glory in God. By it, we were rendered incomplete, imperfect, impoverished and incapable of making it back to the “glory” and the “garden” by ourselves. “For All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.

Even when God gave the “Law” through Moses, man was incapable of obeying it. Sin had developed within us an inherent bias towards evil, there was nothing man could do to save himself, … and we are still the same. – So, God sent Jesus to do the job, pay the price, and get back what the Devil had stolen

from us in the Garden. For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many be made righteous”. Romans 5:19

There is no hope for this generation or for any other, but that we have hope in Jesus. Is your confidence for eternity placed in him? Is He is your only chance, your only hope?

Now while we understand that we were originally made Perfect, and then gifted at the new birth with another’s perfection, and will eventually be entirely Perfect in glory, the Devil would have us walk in anything but perfection. He hates us to think that we might be pleasing to God. He hates it when we grasp the truth that we are MADE righteous. It is his lie, sometimes perpetuated by religious thinking that we must work to obtain righteousness, and that it is not a gift, so it is to this matter that I wish us to focus our attention in the time remaining today.

In Psalm 32:v 2 David says: “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”. and Paul takes this up and writes in

Romans 4:v6 “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,…” In other words Paul reminds us that David did not enjoy this privilege himself, – David paid for his sins, he suffered for his wrongdoing, but Paul says “God imputes (attaches) righteousness to us” he sticks it on us, he lays it on us, he makes us right, without works – without our own effort, – it is a gift – and all we had to do was to receive it. The work part was already done, the actions of a Loving God and a Gracious Saviour. As I said a few weeks ago, its Amazing Grace. We were MADE perfect in Gods sight.

This gives me a confidence before God that otherwise I could not have; for I, like you, am far from perfect. (And if you think you are perfect, wait ’till I ask those who live with you about that?)

None of us are perfect in our own eyes, or in the eyes of others, but in Gods eyes we are perfect, because God sees us already restored, already made righteous, already complete, and it was all done on the Cross, all done in Jesus. The devil would like us to believe that God stands over us with a “big stick” waiting to

Smack us when we offend or fail. The devil will lie to us and tell us that God can’t hear us or heed us, because of what we’ve done, – but the devil is a liar. He will even use the church (if he can) to convince us that we may lose this righteousness once we sin or fail God? Think about it … when you were in the world, still in your sin, you did, (like most others do) many good deeds, but all of those good or commendable things did not change your status as “unrighteous”. Only when you accepted Jesus as your Saviour did you accept and become “righteous” that is your new status. Do you really think now that some weakness, or some failing will eternally affect your new status? Of course not! Gods word is the only word, the only truth that we can confidently hold on to.

God does not see my faults and my failings, he is not looking directly at me, because God sees and ever only sees me through Jesus. When I trusted in Jesus as my sin bearer and Saviour, I was engrafted into Jesus, he is the VINE, I am the BRANCH. (John 15:5) Apart from him, separated from him, I can bear no fruit, produce no success, achieve no harvest; – but joined to Him, by faith, everything I set my hand to succeeds. Even things for which I have received no training or teaching, I can actually excel at them, for God has placed within me, within this branch, the sap (as it were), the spirit of Jesus. The spirit of excellence that was in Daniel, (Dan 5:12) lives in me, and lives in you, and flows through me to the world around me. This is why God has put us in the Church, not to bring the “church” to the world, but to bring the “KINGDOM” to the world. We are supposed to be ruling and reigning in life. Not being victims but victors. We are citizens of Heaven, – here we have no continuing city. We should be catching what is going on in Heaven, and bringing those things to earth. All of the “fulness of God has been poured into me” It can’t get any better – and John says:

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace“. John 1:16 Yet most of you Church-going Christians

are walking around empty, and don’t know why? But it’s because you won’t believe it and receive it! It is only when you walk in this “righteousness” this “perfection” that grace works.

Wherever I go, I can effect change. Whatever I do, I can create good. I can bring heaven to earth, I can bring Jesus into peoples lives, bring peace into every storm, bring a calm into every crisis. (And so can you, if you have the faith to believe it and receive it) God has given us of HIS NAME, HIS WORD, and HIS SPIRIT, (the keys of the Kingdom), and God made us Perfect, to Perfect our world. To restore, repair, renew, refresh, revive, remould, replenish and remake our world. This ruling and reigning is not just something I expect to be doing in the new millennium of Jesus’ earthly reign, it is something God expects of us now, preparing the way for the coming King.

Remember “that the best is yet to be”!

God said at the beginning:

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and

over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth“. Gen 1:28 And God does not change his mind or his message. It was His word back then, and it is still his word today. It is how he wanted it back then, and its how he wants it today. Just because the devil got in and messed it all up, did not change Gods plan. Only this time, God will soon put Jesus in charge, and tie the Devil up for 1000 years. Praise God.

Jesus is not yet in his appointed place in Jerusalem, but until he comes, we have HIS NAME, and you must know this – that his name is just as powerful as his person and his presence. All heaven bows at the name of Jesus, all hell trembles at the name of Jesus, and all on earth must bend the knee to the name of Jesus. Peter and John going into the temple for Prayer had no alms to give the poor beggar, but what they had was a NAME, and in the powerful name of Jesus, they gave the man more than money could ever buy him, they gave him the power to walk and run and leap again. Acts 3:6

And right now IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I speak peace into your life, I speak rest from the weariness of your struggle,

I speak faith for the miracle you need right now and I speak healing into your body. There is no name named on this planet greater than His Name. Cancer is not a stronger name, Bankruptcy is not a stronger name, Arthritis is not a stronger name, Angina is not a stronger name, Epilepsy is not a stronger name, Deafness is not a stronger name, Divorce is not a stronger name, Unemployment is not a stronger name … there is no other name that could ever or should ever stand above His Name.

Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord, Emanuel, God is with us. Dear Christian friend, “…take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe, it will joy and comfort give you, take it then where’er you go. Precious name, Oh how sweet, the hope of earth and the joy of Heaven!”

We have not only the name, but we have the BOOK. And all of the Promises of God in the Book find their YES and AMEN in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 1:20. It is because of Jesus that God will say YES to you and yes to me. God shows mercy and kindness to us for Jesus sake. In Psalm 23, the Psalmist could say “Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”.

I like to think of Goodness and Mercy as two angels. Of course they are not angels, they are Grace gifts. But I find it helpful to think of them as two angels, one called Goodness and the other called Mercy, following me around day after day, like a little dog would follows his master. When I get into a scrape, G & M will pull me out. When my car breaks down, G & M will find me the help I need. When someone steps off the pavement in front of my car, G & M will hit the brakes and help me to avoid them. When I forget my script or my lines, G & M bring things back into my remembrance. When I could get all excited and frustrated, G & M help to keep me calm.

You see I have come to rely on Goodness and Mercy, and God knows I need them back there, following me … and if you should catch me talking to myself while driving the car, its just that

G & M are in the back seat, and I am keeping them informed of my next move.


We have not only the Name, and the Word of God – but we have also the Holy Spirit. “God has not given us the Spirit of Fear, but the Spirit of Power, of Love and of a sound mind“. God has given us in the Holy Spirit, HIMSELF, his divine enabling, his divine love, his divine wisdom. (and it all dwells, it all lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit) Let me ask you believers, you Christians, a simple question … How well do you know the Holy Spirit?

I myself was forced to deal with this question a while ago.

All of my Christian life, I have been talking to the Father, through Jesus the Son, by the enabling and prompting of the Holy Spirit. But while I understood and accepted the personage of God and his son Jesus Christ, I found it increasingly more difficult to grasp the fact that the Holy Spirit was also a person! I never actually talked to the Holy Spirit?

I talked to God, I talked with the Lord Jesus, but I rarely actually addressed the Holy Spirit specifically, even when I was praying in the spirit in tongues. I was being edified by the Spirit, prompted by the Spirit, comforted by the Spirit, enriched and anointed in the Spirit, lifted up in the Spirit – but the relationship with the “person” of the Spirit was found wanting … at least that’s what God was saying to me. Jesus says in

John 16:v13 ” … when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come”. The indwelling Holy Spirit communicates with the Human Spirit and shows us the will and purposes of God. The express purpose of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus, and to make the life of Jesus real and relevant to our experience.

In other words, God does not want to be KING of the world,

he wants the world to make JESUS their KING. Yet I have discovered that the more I get to know and commune with the Holy Spirit, the more I get to know Jesus, and sweeter communion with him becomes more relevant in my life. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus come alive in me, and I realize that when I stretch out my hand, Jesus stretches out his hand in mine. When I open my mouth to speak, Jesus speaks through my lips. This is how I want it, and this is how it ought to be. This is how we get to that place of PERFECTION. Because perfection is a man called JESUS.

When you walk with Jesus you walk with perfection, but when you walk IN Jesus, you walk IN Perfection. Is Jesus impacting the world today through you? Think about it!

God Bless You. Amen.