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TRYING TO BE IMPERFECT #3
GOD THE MECHANIC
Have you ever had a $79 pain turn into a $1300 nightmare?
I'll bet you have, and I certainly have as well. You get it when you find
a hole in your car's muffler. So you look in the Yellow Pages and see
a big ad from Melvin's Discount Muffler House: $79. While You Wait! All
major credit cards accepted.
So you drive down to Melvin's, thinking that this is going to hurt to
the tune of $79. Well, the man is very nice. He puts your car up on the
hoist, then gives a little cluck with his tongue, and points out that,
really, the muffler and the pipe and the extender and the joints all have
to be replaced. The muffler's $79, like the ad says, but all those other
things come to $232 out the door.
Well, can't you get by with just the muffler, you ask, your heart sinking.
No, he replies, the other parts come with it. $232 - take it or leave
it. Then, before you can even begin to think about which items of furniture
in the house you should sell, he points out that your brakes are obviously
bad too, and your struts are thrashed, and your universal joint is within
five miles of killing your whole family in an eight-car pileup, and we're
really talking $1300. Maybe a bit more if he replaces the windshield wipers
and the seats and the engine.
And what you thought was going to be a quick $79 detour on your way to
the post office now has escalated to the point where you have to sell
your home just to keep your car going long enough to drive yourself to
the poorhouse.
In the book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis has a chapter entitled "Counting
the Cost." He's writing about the subject of perfection - which is
our topic as well this week - and he tells a similar story, only this
time about a toothache. As a boy, he confesses, he would sometimes lay
in bed at night with a bad tooth just throbbing away like crazy. And he
knew that if he went to his mother, she could give him an aspirin or some
ointment which would take the pain away.
So - why didn't he do it?
"I did not go to my mother," he writes, "at least, not
till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I
did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also
do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning.
I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more,
which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could
not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those
dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth
which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie;
if you gave them an inch they took an ell." Which is old British
for "yard."
Well, I don't know about dentists, but I'm sure that
the mechanic at Melvin's Muffler Shop has 1300 reasons why he wants to
help me with my car. Actually 1301 reasons - I suppose he does want me
to be safe on the road. The dentist really wants Jack Lewis' teeth to
not only stop hurting but to be healthy, long-term. But friend, how should
we relate to a God who tells us in His Word: "I expect you to get
all the way up to perfect. Every single rattle and squeak in the car has
got to go; every cavity has got to be filled; Be ye therefore perfect"?
Christians love to rejoice over a hallmark verse in I John 1:9, which
talks about forgiveness. But notice:
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins . . . AND purify us from all unrighteousness."
You see, this isn't just forgiveness, it's also fixing
time. Repairs. Cleansing. Purifying. And we find here a key Bible truth:
when God speaks to His children about obedience and perfection, He then
makes it clear that HE intends to take us to that destination.
Let me share with you the lead-in paragraph from C. S. Lewis' chapter
here. He begins like this:
"I find a good many people have been bothered by
what I said in the last chapter about Our Lord's words, 'Be ye perfect.'"
That's from Matthew 5:48. "Some people seem to think this means 'Unless
you are perfect, I will not help you'; and as we cannot be perfect, then,
if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not think He did
mean that. I think He meant 'The only help I will give is help to become
perfect. You may WANT something less: but I will give you nothing less.'"
What do you think about that? And really, what we read
about God purifying us, or cleansing us, in I John, is repeated in a powerful
promise found in Hebrews 13. Here are verses 20 and 21:
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, MAKE you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
IN you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ."
We discovered yesterday that it seems to be the King
James Version which usually talks about "make you perfect."
The NIV puts it this way:
". . . EQUIP you with everything good for doing
His will."
That corroborates the concept - again from yesterday
- about perfection really meaning that we grow up, becoming more mature
in Jesus. And it's good to notice that perfection, however the Bible describes
it for us, is always for the purpose of honoring God, doing His will.
Not to earn a place in His kingdom.
Let me ask you a question. Let's go back to Melvin's Discount Muffler
House. But this time let's make it Uncle Melvin's Muffler House. Or even
your dad, Melvin Venden. And he looks at your car and says: "Son,
that whole muffler is bad. Let's take it out. And you know, the brakes
are shot. I think we should put new ones on there. Plus I'd like to help
by replacing these worn-out belts." Would you gulp and worry about
the cost? Not when it's Dad! Not when it's your friendly Father who has
already paid the repair bill in full.
Let me say it again, neighbor; our perfection is God's business, because
HE'S the one who promises to take us there. Back to C. S. Lewis, who was
so worried about the dentist. On the very next page of Mere Christianity,
he writes this:
"The practical upshot is this. On the one hand,
God's demand for perfection need not discourage you in the least in your
present attempts to be good, or even in your present failures. Each time
you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your
OWN efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection. On
the other hand, you must realize from the outset that the goal towards
which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power
in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent HIM from taking
you to that goal. That is what you are in for."
Isn't that a marvelous promise? Listen, I want you to picture something
with me . . . and it's not cars or straight shiny teeth. But you - the
perfect, holy you who is someday going to be dwelling in God's kingdom.
You are. If you've given your life to Christ, friend, you're going to
be there. And you're going to be a perfect person there. Not just perfect
in body: healthy and strong, vibrant, alive. And not just perfect because
you've stopped doing a list of bad things. You're going to be perfect
because you'll be everything God always wanted you to be. You'll be all
the way back to the Eden model: completely holy, completely living up
to your divine potential.
Can you picture that you? It's rather impossible, isn't it? But the Bible
tells us that this is where God is going to take us. He's going to make
you perfect - and by His definition, which is infinitely greater and grander
than the most well-behaved church saint you know here on Planet Earth.
C. S. Lewis just can't help but add one line to his little essay about
sore teeth and a determined God. Here it is:
"We have not yet had the slightest notion
of the tremendous thing He means to make of us."
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