A spanish duke, it is reported, has committed suicide because he was not able to attain moral perfection. This is an example of human nature doing the best it can.
There is not a man on earth that has not just as good cause for committing suicide as had this duke, and the only reason why the lives of people who are "trying to do the best they can" do not terminate as his did, is that they care less about moral perfection.
Human nature is fallen, and cannot rise again to its lost plans by any power or virtue of its own. Yet there is a way to attain perfection, for He who said, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect," (Matthew 5:48) knew that this was utterly beyond the power of man, and so He gave them His own almighty power for its accomplishments. Note the testimony of Paul, who knew this power: "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
Paul valued moral perfection as highly as any man; yet, though he did not consider himself perfect, he was not in despair over the fact, but full of hope and courage.
And thus it is with those who seek perfection by the Christian method. With Christ living and working in them, they know that the victory is theirs, for He has already conquered every foe.
But without Him, the only recourse is to try to evolve some moral power out of human nature, where there is no power--to bring a clean thing out of the unclean--and afflict the erring body with torturing penalties such as long fastings, pilgrimages, and the various forms of penance, or take the shorter road to the same result which was taken by the duke. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." (Job 14:4)
But the language of Paul in this connection is worthy of careful note. He says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended." (Philippians 3:13)
He had not come to the place where he could pause and survey his own perfection. He did not stop to measure up his attainments and see how far he had advanced, but simply kept pressing forward with eyes fixed upon "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)
He looked steadily upon the glory of God revealed in Jesus, and forgot self entirely. "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:4-6) Had he not done so,--had he taken his eyes away from Jesus and looked at himself--he would that moment have fallen back toward the place from which he had started. If he had looked at himself and seen himself to be perfect, he would have seen something which was far from that. Notice the testimony of Job: "If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me; if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." (Job 9:20)
Looking at self and beholding perfection in self was what started all the trouble in the universe; for that was what Satan did when, as Lucifer, he was an exalted angel in heaven. "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12-15) "You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you: you shall be a terror, and never shall you be any more. Attaining Moral Perfection" (Ezekiel 28:15-19)
He saw his beauty and brightness, and because of this his heart was lifted up (verse 17) and he essayed to set up a government of his own and be equal with God. But his beauty and brightness was not his own, but God's. It was simply God in him that gave him his excellence; and when God withdrew from him and left him to himself, there was left simply--the devil.
We are not, therefore, to look to ascertain whether we are morally perfect, or ever to see any moral perfection anywhere else but in Christ. When we are perfect, is when we are crucified with Christ, and He lives in us. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
And then the perfection is not ours, but His. But God, in His love to us, gives us all the credit, and treats us as though it were our own.--Present Truth, October 18, 1894--Timeline: IV-15 (Sermon on the Mount)--Matthew 5:48.