HEB 13:20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21a equip you with everything good

Translator note: In the Mandarin version of this verse, 21a stands out more as a completed sentence as compared to the English version, which carries on to say in 21b 'for doing his will'. In the Mandarin version, the verse refers more to being made perfect or made complete. This is strictly speaking, an extension of the original text in Greek, which reads more closely to the English version of the saints being equipped to do God's will rather than being made perfect to do God's will. Having said that, Dr Tong's thoughts on this subject however, are nonetheless in line with overall biblical principles.

Dr Tong started by reviewing last week's lesson, and reminded all that the testimony of the Christian ought to be one that lasts throughout their life, and not a fragmentary one. We already received eternal blessings, and have eternal inheritance; and so we should be able to influence the world for all eternity. Dr Tong said that young people today do not need more information or more head knowledge. Other than the WORD of God, they need the examples of true Christian leaders, whose messages should influence the world long after they have died. Dr Tong also revised the 3 key principles of prayer from last week, namely prayer is the acknowledgement of God's sovereignty, prayer is an admission of our limitations, and prayer is to seek God's added grace by faith.

All Christians need to remember that even at the height of his spirituality, the apostle Paul said that he does not consider himself to have already attained (Philip 3:13), but he still press on towards the goal of Christ with trembling and fear in his heart. In other words, even the apostle Paul believed that he needed to improve further, and to be made perfect. But how would God make us perfect?

God would make us perfect through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:2 specifically spoke about Jesus, not Christ, but Jesus. The name Christ describes the role and divinity of second person in the triune God. When we remember the name Jesus alone, we remember how he led life on earth for 33 and a half years. We remember Him as the prophet, the priest, the King. These were roles He played as a human being. He came to fulfill God's will as written in Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10. Even at age 12, Jesus knew that His purpose on earth was to do His Father's will. Jesus completed His purpose on earth perfectly, which was why He could proclaim "It is done", while He was on the cross.

What does God the Father wants to accomplish through Christ? The answer is for us to be made perfect, to accomplish God's will set in eternity. As sinners, we have fallen short of the glory of God. But Christ, makes perfect and complete the glory of God instead. We have fallen short of God's laws, while Christ completes God's laws. We have fallen short of the will that God has set for us, while Christ fulfilled God's will completely. He is the one who makes perfect. He led a lonely life, totally devoted to fulfilling God's will. So through Him, God will make perfect our faith, which is why we need to look upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.Jesus said that we are to be perfect, just like our Father in heaven is perfect (Matt 5:48). Scripture tells us that the only way we can be made perfect, is through Christ, who equips us with all things good and makes us perfect. Thus, every Christian continues to be made perfect while he is in Christ. What sort of process is this? This is a process that goes from qualitative perfection to quantitative perfection. What does this mean? It is like a chick is born perfect. One cannot say that we should add two more legs, or two more eyes to the chick. Its original state is qualitatively perfect. The original created state has qualitative perfection. But this is not sufficient as the chick needs to grow up to be a full-grown chicken, to achieve quantitative perfection. As the apostle Paul wrote, we are to grow in the whole measure of the fullness of Jesus Christ (Eph 3:19). We are to grow into maturity like Jesus Christ, from qualitative perfection to quantitative perfection.

The concept of perfection has not been explained very well in church history. Some people believe that we can achieve perfection and cannot sin anymore in this lifetime. This is heretical. Others consider the visible perfection in the world as the perfection for our entire life. This is also not from the Bible. The Bible tells us that we need progressive spiritual growth. So long as we are alive, we will need to grow although we can never reach a state when we become perfected in this lifetime. So we need someone to guide us, and this person is Christ, our great shepherd. Like us, he went through the whole process of life, from infancy to adulthood. The Bible says that He grew in wisdom and stature, in the favour of God and men (Luke 2:52). Like Christ, we need to grow.

But there is not one moment we can consider ourselves as having been made perfected while we are still alive. If we say we are perfected today, God's additional grace tomorrow would mean simply that we were not perfected. So every day is a different day of growth and progression towards perfection. Our spirituality therefore is not static, but dynamic, growing each day, receiving more and more grace from God daily. His mercies and grace are new every morning. God is pleased with us when He looks at us growing, the way we get excited with the growth of our children.

The great shepherd leads us in this growth process. He went through all sorts of trials and difficulties, and went through the valley of the shadow of death for us. This can be seen in Psalm 22, 23 and 24. In Psalm 22, we see a painful struggle in pain as He suffered on the cross. In Psalm 24, we see the King triumphant. But Psalm 23 shows us Christ going through death, and resurrection as He walks through the valley of the shadow of death. A pastor needs to know the suffering his flock is going through. Without having similar experiences, a pastor or counselor would not be able to empathize fully. The LORD allows us to go through all sorts of trials and difficulties to train us in this progression of growth, that we may be able to lead others. The great shepherd is unlike any shepherd. He became the great shepherd through experiencing death and the resurrection. He was tested in every way and could understand our weaknesses and how we feel.

Dr Tong related how his mother was widowed at 33. She made a promise before the LORD that she will spend one afternoon each week to preach the gospel and to visit others. So she would often go out at 2 pm each Friday, wearing an all-white outfit, preaching and visiting others. Dr Tong said that he would ask his mother where she was going, and she would reply, "To preach the gospel, to search for souls, to bring these lost souls back with the gospel." And she was especially effective preaching to the widows, because she understood how they felt.

The great shepherd not only went through death and was resurrected, having victory over Satan who holds death, He is the life and the resurrection (John 11:25). Unlike all other persons who resurrected others (Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament, Peter and Paul in the New Testament), Jesus Christ did not resort to the use of the name of God. He simply commanded the dead to be resurrection. Rev Andrew Gih said that when Jesus resurrected Lazarus, He commanded "Lazarus, come forth!" This is of significance because Jesus did not say, "Dead man, come forth". Had He said that, Rev Gih said that all the dead in the world would have been resurrected, because the power of Christ was supreme. But the way He resurrected Lazarus also implicitly tells us that salvation is individualistic. Although people like to declare that their whole family or their whole village has been saved, every one of us needs to respond individually to the call of God.

Dr Tong then posed a difficult question to the audience. Was Christ resurrected by God the Father, or through the Holy Spirit, or by His own power? The answer is that the scripture contains all three possibilities. Galatians 1:1 and Ephesians 1:20 said the Father raised the Son from the dead. Romans 8:11 indicates that it was the Spirit who raised Christ. The angels proclaimed that "He is risen", not that someone raised Him. So the fact is that all three are possible. Dr Tong said that these issues may seem trivial, but when we do not study scripture properly, we are liable to make some mistakes. For example, Benny Hinn wrote a book entitled "Good morning, Holy Spirit". Dr Tong said that we often do not realise this, but the Bible does not record one single incident when someone asked for guidance from the Holy Spirit. The Bible does tell us that we should pray to the Father, in the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ. So the correct manner ought to be for us to pray to God the Father, through the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, in the name of God the Son. The last verse of the Revelation contains a call towards Jesus Christ, so prayer directly to Christ does have a precedent in the Bible; but Dr Tong believes that the proper manner of prayer should be directed to the Father.

We are assured of the success of this process of perfection because it is guaranteed by the blood of eternal covenant. In Christ therefore, we are able to continually grow into perfection as part of God's perfect plan, delivering us from having fallen short to a state of blessing in perfection. God is faithful to His own plan and promises, and we are blessed indeed.

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.