The Three Kinds of Perfection (Rewritten)

When the Bible talks about “perfection” in relation to human beings, it doesn’t mean just one thing. In fact, much of the confusion around the idea of Christian perfection comes from blending together three very different meanings. Once we separate them, the picture becomes much clearer.

1. The Perfection of Eden: Humanity as It Was Created

First, there is the perfection Adam possessed in the Garden of Eden.

Adam came from God’s hand fully formed — physically, mentally, and morally. Every part of him was in harmony. His desires were under the control of a will that chose what was right. His passions didn’t pull him downward; they energized his spiritual life, like steady winds pushing a ship toward its destination. In short, Adam was as perfect as a created being could be.

That said, Adam was still finite. He didn’t have experience yet, because experience can only be gained over time. That wasn’t a flaw — it was simply the reality of being newly created. Importantly, there was nothing in him that leaned toward sin. No hidden weakness. No built‑in tendency toward rebellion. His affections were properly fixed on God, giving his life a clear upward direction rather than leaving him balanced between good and evil.

So how could someone like that fall?

Because perfection doesn’t mean infinity. Adam still had limited knowledge and therefore had to live by faith. In a world full of unknowns, even a perfect being could make a wrong choice — especially when tempted. Still, he was fully capable of obeying God’s law completely. That kind of perfection — Adamic perfection — belonged to Eden alone.

Once sin entered the world, that perfection vanished. With the fall of humanity’s representative head, the moral balance of the entire race was disrupted (with Jesus Christ as the only exception). Scripture itself tells us this kind of perfection is no longer attainable or required. As Job says, if a fallen human claims this sort of perfection, it only exposes their blindness. A clean thing cannot come from an unclean source. Eden’s perfection is gone, and pretending otherwise doesn’t make it real.

2. The Perfection of Heaven: What We Will Become

The second kind of perfection lies entirely in the future.

While we may grieve what was lost in Eden, we also look forward with hope to a perfection that awaits us after the resurrection. This is the perfection the apostle Paul speaks about in Philippians 3. He admits plainly that he has not yet arrived — that he has not yet reached perfection. The word he uses implies a runner finally crowned at the finish line, the race fully complete.

This is the perfection of glorification. It is what believers long for and what creation itself is waiting to see revealed. As John writes, we are already God’s children, but what we will be has not yet been fully shown. When Christ appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He truly is.

This perfection is perfect in kind, but not static in degree. Our love will continue to grow forever as we discover more of Christ’s beauty and glory. Think of it like a line that gets closer and closer to a curve without ever touching it — always approaching, never exhausting. Growth is essential to a living mind, and God will never freeze our spiritual development. Heaven is not the end of growth; it is the beginning of endless expansion.

3. The Perfection of Love: What Is Possible Now

Between the perfection we lost and the perfection we await lies a third kind — one that is available here and now.

This is the perfection of love, often called evangelical or Christian perfection. It does not mean flawlessness, nor does it mean freedom from ignorance or mistake. It means perfect love: love that has driven out fear, love fully poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit.

This kind of perfection fulfills the law — not the law Adam was expected to keep, but the law of Christ. God does not demand from us what sin has made impossible. Instead, He graciously adapts His law to our condition and fills what remains of us with His own fullness. Every faculty can be energized. Every capacity can be filled. Every part of our being can be governed by love.

When love reigns, obedience becomes joyful rather than forced. Prayer becomes constant. Gratitude becomes natural. As John Wesley put it, there is no better name for this state than Christian perfection.

Some object to the word “perfection” and prefer softer phrases like “the higher life” or “the rest of faith.” But these alternatives never quite say the same thing. Scripture consistently uses the language of perfection to describe a heart made whole in love. This perfection includes justification, but it goes beyond it — it describes a deep inner completeness in Christ, who is both our righteousness and our sanctification.

In this sense, a person may still be limited or imperfect in many outward ways, yet be whole at the center. Love unifies the soul. Every energy is directed toward God. Sin no longer reigns. The heart is fully alive to Christ and fully dead to sin.

This is why Scripture sometimes calls people “perfect” and elsewhere has those same people deny perfection. Job is called perfect, yet refuses the label for himself. Paul says he is not perfect — and then speaks to those who are. The contradiction disappears once we see the difference. Legal perfection is impossible for fallen humanity. But perfect love‑service is not.

God’s intention, revealed from Genesis through the New Testament, is clear: He calls His people to holiness and provides the means to make it real. Through the sacrifice of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, believers can be made complete in love — even now.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a revision of Part 1, Chapter 3 of Mile-stone Papers (1878) by Daniel Steele, with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original chapter can be found here: THE THREE PERFECTIONS.