- Perfect
Psalm 138:8
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me:
Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever:
Forsake not the works of thine own hands.
The Lord will always finish what He starts; He is the Author and Finisher of our faith; He who began a good work will bring it to completion. God began a good work in me: not only will He finish and complete it but He will also perfect it. The Holy Spirit is currently in the process of perfecting us, while we are alive; He will perfect what He has finished. This means there will be no flaws or imperfections in our characters and personalities. Sin and flaws mar and make ugly the beauty of holiness.
It is hard for the human mind to imagine what perfection would really look like for we never see it. Holiness is beautiful beyond description. Holiness is the brightness and splendor of the character of God.
The human creatures were created to reflect the beauty of holiness; this reflection is the Image of God. This image was lost in original sin, but the Holy Spirit working in us by the faith of Christ is incrementally restoring it. Christians today, who have Christ in them, reflect God to the world and to each other and back to God. This is what it means that, “the Lord will perfect.”
We do not know what holiness looks like for we cannot see it; we cannot see God; we cannot see His love; we cannot see His perfections. The best we can do is look at the life of Jesus and imitate Him and what He helps us to idealize. Since we lost the Image of God we cannot accurately reflect God; we cannot not sin; thus we can only mess up the beauty of holiness. Since we cannot see we must hear. Therefore, we need the Law from the Word of God to have some sense of what it looks like; we look at, study and obey the Ten Commandments; we meditate on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). We believe the Word to tell us the truth, and we know what to listen to and obey in order to come closer to perfect. Jesus says, “You must be perfect.” [Matthew 5:48]. And we have the promise: the Lord will perfect. Repent and receive His forever mercy and let Him work.