John claims that the Christian walk is characterized by three stages; children, young men and fathers (1 John 2:13). When Jesus walked this earth he went through the common human seasons; infancy, childhood, adolescence and maturity. In every stage of his earthly life he was found without sin (Hebr 4:15).
John also asserts that we can have boldness on the day of judgment “because as he (Jesus) is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) Moreover, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews states; “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Both verses encompass the same truth, our perfection in Christ.
In addition, John alludes to our union life – the mystery revealed – Christ in us living as us (Col 1:27), when he writes that as he is so are we. God's master plan is to regenerate man so that humanity and divinity is perfectly amalgamated into one being, which is both us and Him and where it is impossible to discern between the two. A perfect union.
Paul corroborates with John’s stages when he differentiates between what kind of food the Christian is able to digest in 1 Cor 3:2; “Everyone who uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.” Meat, however, is for the mature.
What we can infer from this is that Jesus' different stages in life symbolize the different stages the Christian goes through as a new creation. If Jesus was perfect from infancy to maturity it is not far stretched to assert that this also applies to our grace walk. For most believers this calls for a leap of faith.
When established in this amazing truth our entire outlook will be altered, and how we view our sisters and brothers who still are unskillful in the word of righteousness will be revolutionized. This truth empowers us as well to accept and love ourselves as perfect in Him.
This perfection concerns body, soul and spirit. We are compelled to assume that this perfection applies to all of our human entities on account of Jesus who was the son of man coming in the flesh. If we limit this perfection to only the spiritual realm we are unwittingly limiting Jesus' perfect sacrifice, and we are standing on the threshold of Gnosticism.
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