Perfect Character
Quote: “None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ’s character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through co-operation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to perfection of character. This is God’s assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory.” {AA 531}
Quote: “Long has God waited for the spirit of service to take possession of the whole church so that everyone shall be working for Him according to his ability? When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfilment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.” {AA 111}
Quote: “Thus Paul exalts the moral law. When this law is practically carried out in every-day life, it is found indeed to be the wisdom of God. It serves to detect sin. It discovers the defects in the moral character, and shows sin to be exceeding sinful, revealing it in all hideousness. Through obedience to its requirements, Christian character is perfected.” {BEcho 16/4/1894}
Quote: “The Christian life is constantly an onward march. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of His people; and when His image is perfectly reflected in them, they are perfect and holy, and prepared for translation. Every living Christian will advance daily in the divine life. As he advances toward perfection, he experiences a conversion to God every day; and this conversion is not completed until he attains to perfection of Christian character, a full preparation for the finishing touch of immortality.” {ML 249}
Quote: “The refining furnace is to remove the dross. When the Refiner sees His image reflected in you perfectly, He will remove you from the furnace. You will not be left to be consumed or to endure the fiery ordeal any longer than is necessary for your purification. But it is necessary for you, in order to reflect the divine image, to submit to the process the Refiner chooses for you, that you may be cleansed, purified, and every spot and blemish removed–not even a wrinkle left in your Christian character. May the Lord help you to choose to have the will and work of God accomplished in you. Look up! Jesus lives. Jesus loves. Jesus pities, and He will receive you with all your burden of care and trouble if you will come to Him and lay your burden upon Him. He has promised He will never leave or forsake those who put their trust in Him.” {OHC 312}
Quote: “The assaults of Satan are strong, his delusions are terrible; but the Lord’s eye is upon His people. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but Jesus will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. Their earthliness must be removed that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected; unbelief must be overcome; faith, hope, and patience are to be developed.” {5T 474}
Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 2:4 “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 1 Peter 2:22 “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:” 1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”
1 John 3:5 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” Revelation 7:14 “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in grace, and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.”
Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.” Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.”
