Our Liberty In Christ by Philip Mauro

expression occurs only once in the New Testament. The context in which it is found sheds clear light upon the entire subject we are studying. This is the familiar passage: “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, to Whom be glory for­ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:19, 20).

God is here presented as the God who quickens the dead, and the everlasting covenant is identified as that which was ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ and as that under which sins are forgiven and eternal life be­ stowed. The purpose of the covenant is declared by the words: “make you perfect in every good work to do His will”; and the power for doing this is indicated by the clause, “working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.” The correspondence with God’s words to Abraham in Genesis 17:1 is com­plete. Abraham had long been a child of God by grace through faith, but he had yet to be made “perfect,” to “walk” before God, through God’s own power working in him.

The chief lesson from this portion of the Word of God to which we wish to call attention is that, while every believer in Jesus Christ is made, by regeneration of the Holy Ghost, a child of God, and hence is perfect as to his standing in the family of God, there is yet the need of a work (and it may be a long work) of the Spirit of God in him, to make him “perfect in every good work to do His (God’s) will,” and to make him fruitful to the glory of God through Jesus Christ. And with that goes the further lesson that the work of God in us may be hindered by our unwillingness to accept the decree of death to our­selves and our own wills, plans, and ways and to trust God completely for the doing of His own work in us and in His own way. Our own doings or “works” in the energy of the flesh, even though we may be thinking to accomplish results for God, may be simply hindering and delaying His working. Our part then is to deny our­selves, thus laying our own doings in the grave, to take up our cross daily, thus experiencing crucifixion to the world and to self as a part of our every day life, and to follow Christ, which is to “walk” before God and be “perfect.” (Mat. 16: 24, 25; Lu. 9:23-26). This was the secret of Paul’s “walk” and of his fruitful service, as witnessed by the words “I by the law died to the law. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2: 19, 20). By the words “yet not I” Paul denied himself, thus fulfilling the Lord’s conditions as to discipleship.