September 29
Read: Psalms 101:1-3
The Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect (Genesis 17:1).
Perfect Before God
The experience of entire sanctification is sometimes called Christian perfection. The term is used because the Bible speaks in this language of a man’s relationship to God. It would be incorrect to speak of Christian perfection in the Old Testament because Christ had not yet come. But the New Testament experience has a clear Old Testament parallel.
The Bible says: “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9). In our text for today God commanded Abram: “Walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1). The Levites were instructed: “Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). We are assured that “Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days” (I Kings 15:14). David prayed, “Give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments” (I Chronicles 29:19). The Bible says of Job: “That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1, A.R.V.). David promised God: “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Psalms 101:2). In life’s most serious moment, when called to account before God, Hezekiah could testify: “I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart” (Isaiah 38:3).
In the light of Christian standards there were moral flaws in the lives of all of these men, but the Bible repeatedly calls them perfect. There must be something significant to which God’s Word testifies in these passages. Is this not the perfect heart? The perfect desire and full intention to do the whole will of God? Is not God here saying clearly, Your life can be entirely satisfying in My sight — you can, in this sense, be perfect before Me?
Prayer For Today
O God, when evening comes today, and when the shades are drawn on my life, may I too be able to say, “I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart.” In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.