Chapter 8 - Review and Perfection
A Quick Review
Justice and Righteousness
Reveals a righteous perfect God who created a perfect creation and a just God who requires absolute compliance and obedience. But He also loves people, who, due to their disobedience are no longer perfect. God does not face a dilemma as we might see it, instead He reveals His plan of salvation through His Son Jesus.
Forgiveness
Biblically this is not a conditional or temporary facade, but a forgiveness that has completely forgotten the offense.
Atonement
The action leading to making amends for a transgression as if it never occurred. The Biblical terminology also carries the meaning of a covering, giving us a visual of making the transgression (sin) no longer visible. Which provides an incredible illustration of when God the Father looks at us, He sees Jesus’ blood and not our sins.
Reconciliation
God knew humanity could never save itself from condemnation, eternity away from God, so He sent His Son to provide the necessary reconciliation to save all who choose to be saved. In addition, all believers have been given the ministry to help bring others to salvation.
Redemption
Humanity was a slave to sin prior to Jesus being victorious on the cross. Jesus bought us out of our slavery to sin by redeeming us with His blood.
Restoration
The restoration in God’s plan does not involve the restoration of existing creation. He is recreating it! And since all believers will be glorified, given perfect bodies, a new creation, we will no longer be imperfect. We will we restored to pre-sin condition!
Sanctification
The process of sanctification begins the moment someone accepts Jesus as their Savior. While this process seems counterproductive, unguided, and random at times, it is always in His hands.
The Word Perfection
We began this investigation with an examination of words that soon brought our attention to the concept of perfection, so it seems appropriate that we close with a look at the words of the Bible that are related to or convey perfection.
In the Old Testament we find two primary Hebrew adjectives, tā·mîm, meaning blameless and complete, and tāmm which means integrity and completeness. Plus, one lesser-used adjective, kā·lîl means whole, entire, complete. The Hebrew nouns include tāḵ·nîṯ, referring to a plan that points to completeness in every way and the noun ‘miḵ·lǎl which refers to being ideal, found only once to describe perfect beauty (see Psalm 50:2), followed by the Hebrew noun tiḵ·lā(h) indicating perfection, without fault, being complete (again only found once in the Bible, see Psalm 119:96). The primary Hebrew verb is kālal, meaning to complete.
In the Bible we often encounter a word repeated together that is typically understood as a form of emphasis (much like a word printed today in bold, something we need to pay special attention to) but are usually not translated. The Hebrew word for peace is šā·lôm, and when stated or written twice (šā·lôm šā·lôm) it is considered “perfect peace” (for example see Isaiah 26:3).
In the New Testament there are three Greek adjectives, the first being teleios, meaning finished, complete, full, wanting nothing. The second and third are similar, hapas, meaning all, the whole, and pas, meaning oneness, being the whole. The primary noun is teleiotēs referring to one who reaches a goal. Then there are three main Greek verbs, teleioō to complete, to reach the intended goal, teleō to accomplish, to complete something, and epiteleō to finish, or complete.
Sorry for dumping all these foreign words on you, but I wanted you to see the major theme behind perfection, can you guess? Yes, completion! Our completion awaits! We may use the word ‘perfect’ in our daily speech, but true perfection is indeed inconceivable…well for at least for the moment.