"Perfect in Christ Jesus." — Colossians 1:28
Our Sad Awareness of Imperfection
Don’t you feel inside your own soul that perfection is not in you? Doesn’t each day teach you that? Every tear that trickles from your eye weeps “imperfection;” every harsh word that proceeds from your lips mutters “imperfection.” You have seen your own heart too often to imagine any perfection in yourself. But in this sad awareness of imperfection, here is comfort for you—you are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” In God’s sight, you are “complete in him;” even now you are “accepted in the Beloved.”
The Hope of Future Perfection
But there is a second perfection, yet to come, which is guaranteed to all God’s children. Isn’t it wonderful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin will be removed from the believer, and he shall stand faultless before the throne, without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing? The Church of Christ then will be so pure that not even the all-seeing eye of God will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious that Hart spoke truth when he said—
“With my Saviour’s garments on,
Holy as the Holy One.”
Only then will we understand and experience the fullness of this brief but vast statement, “Complete in Christ.” Not until then will we fully grasp the heights and depths of Jesus’s salvation. Doesn’t your heart leap for joy at the thought? As black as you are, you will be white one day; as unclean as you are, you will be pure. Oh, what a marvellous salvation this is! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel; Christ takes something black and broken and makes it clean and unmatched in his glory, unequalled in his beauty, and fit to be the companion of angels. O my soul, stand and marvel at this blessed truth of perfection in Christ.