"Be Perfect?"

“You therefore must, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 ESV)

What does God want us to do? Be perfect like Him? Okay, but we are not perfect. We are far from perfect. Have you ever read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5? If you have not, read them; if you have, reread them. Jesus tells us what is right and what is wrong, sometimes much stricter than what we were taught.

God defines what is good and what is perfect. Jesus said to the young rich man, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). You see, God is not a fraction of love, a fraction of mercy, or a fraction of anything at all. God is 100% of everything, of every characteristic; in this, the attributes of God are full and unwavering without limitations or restrictions.

We, however, being human, have limitations and restrictions on everything. This is why the man-centered feel good, be good message can send someone into despair. All you have to do is be a good person, and God will love you. There is no message so destructive as this. So, you cannot be “good,” and you realize you cannot be good and God cannot love you. You cannot fix yourself, so you are to blame. You do not have enough faith; you have too much sin. What is your problem? It is not God’s fault or the pastors, so it must be you. You are the problem.

This kind of message is destructive. It is hurtful, causes pain, and causes people to run from God instead of clinging to Him. This is why the gospel is so important. No, you cannot be good on your own, but you do not have to be good. God knew you could not be good enough, so He sent Jesus to be good enough for you. In fact, Jesus was the perfect one to stand in your place before God and deal with your sin.

Jesus Christ is God, within the Trinity, the Son of God the Father. He is perfect without limitations or restrictions. Jesus is sinless, yet He bore our sins on the cross, dying as a payment to God the Father for the sins of the world. Well, how could one person on the cross for a few hours pay for the world's sins? Because Jesus, the Son of God, is more precious than all of creation itself, from the time of its inception to the time of its destruction. Jesus is infinitely valuable, transcendently pure, and paid the price for our sins.

What does God want us to do? He wants us to have faith in the one He sent to us, Jesus. Jesus told us this when He said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”(John 6:29). You may try to fool yourself because you have not robbed or murdered someone, but we are all sinners. John wrote in 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” To deny we are sinful is to deny Christ; the truth of the gospel cannot be in us. We are essentially saying I am perfect, I do not need a Savior, in which case Jesus did not have to die. This, of course, is a fool's statement. When we are finally able to see the truth and the light that is Christ, we are able to see our total depravity. All this can only come about by God’s grace.

If this is you, the one who thinks you can do it alone, I pray that you will see the glory of God and your own sinful nature. I pray that you will turn to Christ and place your faith in Him as your Savior, receiving the gift of eternal life freely.

If this is someone you know, do not give up hope. God is patient and works in His own time. You may have tried every way you can think of to explain the gospel, but it is still folly to the one you love. Be the example; show them the light of Christ. Reflect Jesus in all you do. There is still time to pray for their redemption, all the while remembering that not all will be saved. This is up to God, not us.

If you need prayer or support in a matter such as this, please reach out to us here at In Messiah.

Grace and Peace.