The Perfect Man

“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.”                                                                                                                         (Psalm. 37:37)

Can those words be truthfully applied to any fallen son of Adam? Are there any “perfect” men for us to mark, any who are “upright” for us to behold? It is certain that none can ever be accepted of God except those who are perfect. It is written, with regard to every sacrifice offered to the holy Lord God, “It shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein” (Lev. 22:21). The Lord God demands of us, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1). “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers” (Job 8:20).

      Are all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, therefore, to be cast away into hell forever as evil doers? No. The Lord God himself specifically identifies some as “perfect and upright.” He declares that Noah was “a just man and perfect” (Gen. 6:9). Three times he tells us that Job was “perfect and upright” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). God the Holy Spirit describes some in the New Testament who are “them that are perfect” (1 Cor. 26; Phil. 3:15). How can it be said that Noah, Job, and the Corinthian and Philippian believers were all perfect, when they are all set before us as people who were sinners?

      In Adam, by nature, in themselves, and by their deeds they were all, like you and me, sinners fully deserving to be cast off forever into hell. But all of those to whom I have referred were in Christ, redeemed by his blood, saved by his grace, and born of his Spirit. All were one with him. And, being one with Christ, they were all “perfect and upright,” and their end was peace.

      The same is true of every heaven-born soul. In Christ we have been made perfect and our end shall be peace, “because as he is so are we” (1 John 4:17). Yes, “perfect and upright” before God, viewed by the eye of Omniscience sinless, holy, and complete in Christ. It is our union with Christ that gives us this perfection.

      The believer’s eternal union with Christ is a subject that few seem to grasp, though it is written as with a sunbeam upon the pages of Holy Scripture. We are “accepted in the Beloved,” and have been from eternity. That union of our souls with our Savior was made by the triune God himself before the world began, and can never be dissolved or even altered. The Lord God sees us in his Son, as one with his Son, and as his Son, because we really are in his Son, as one with his Son, and as his Son. Therefore it is written, “as he is so are we.” As no spot, blemish, or any such thing is in Christ, but only perfection, his Father is well pleased in him, and with all who are in him. The Book of God declares, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel” (Num. 23:21). Therefore, we shall “have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is so are we in this world.”

Don Fortner

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