When Jesus Loves Us Anyway

You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48

What does the word “perfection” do to you? Recall too many past failures? Never being able to measure up no matter how hard you try? For years this word scared the daylights out of me. Perfection always expected me to clear the bar and brought me to shame when I always caught it with my foot.

Our English equivalent of the word has a very different meaning from the Greek (teleios). The English means flawless while this Greek word means to join-together, prepare, and restore. A huge difference from what we normally think perfection means.

For years I labored under the misconception I could not be a true servant of God unless I matched His perfection, but how can anyone do that? As Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick” (Lk. 5:31). That is why we are in need of a Savior. That is why God sent His only Beloved Son to us (John 3:16). So, I stumbled along in my imperfection, torturing myself by believing the lie that my acceptability to Him was based upon walking in sinless perfection in a nature that was depraved by sin (Rom. 3:10).

When I understood Paul’s anthem that the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17, Gal.3:11), I understood that if God in Christ loved me so much that He would die for me in my imperfection (Rom. 5:6-9), how much more would He accept me clothed in His righteousness? He never expects any believer to walk in sinless perfection, for only He is eternally perfect.

Because Jesus is your perfection He continually repairs and restores you. When you put your trust in Him, He polishes you to His brightness and clothes you in His perfection. In doing that He not only lifts an impossible burden from mind and heart but sets upon you His lighter yoke of genuine acceptance and love that brings rest to the soul (Matt. 11:29).

I must confess I still have days I need to return to Paul’s admonition that I am always justified in Christ and not my perfection. I live my life by faith through His redemptive work (Gal. 2:20). It is a life that is burnished to a shiny luster, and perfectly made new every morning. He reminds me that only He is without blemish or error, and I am perfect in Him despite the judgments of others. When I believed in Him, I became perfect in God’s estimation and esteem.

Restoration in Christ Jesus comes only through His perfection and mercies and those mercies never come to an end. In His grace you do not have to come to Him clean, you just need to come to Him in belief (Acts 16:31) and He does the cleanup and restoration. His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23), and that is where true perfection always lies.

Maranatha,

Ken