"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect…” Paul would not have fit in with the mysticism and perfectionism groups of our day. The great Bible teacher, Harry Ironside, had a nervous breakdown trying to attain a state of Spiritual perfection. And the gifted Canadian scholar, J.I. Packer, testifies that he came close to the same experience in his early Christian life. People have gone insane trying to achieve the unachievable. Working toward a goal and reaching it are two entirely different things. Complete perfection is achieved only in Heaven.
There is a mild teaching of this doctrine found in both Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism today. You will find flavors of it in their preaching, writings, and testimonies. It characterizes itself by centering on the individual. There is a constant introspection which never allows them to ever have a sweet relationship with God. And yet the advocates of this teaching would have you to believe that this is what it is all about. They seem to always display a miserable and sad spirit. And who wouldn’t, scraping your insides constantly for any and all defects?
God accepts and blesses us where we are during any particular time in our Christian life. He knows our emotional, moral, physical, and spiritual state. God looks at the whole of a person; He does not look for isolated blemishes. Hebrews eleven proves this out. The people listed there all had their shortcomings and sins of the flesh. Of Abraham, for example, the New Testament says, “He staggered not at the promise of God…” but as you read the Old Testament account of this, you find he staggered like a drunken man. We find from this that it is possible for a saint to have a strong faith, but a weak flesh.
Until we are realistic about ourselves we will never lose our spirit of Phariseeism.
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