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Feb 12, 2023 06:00am

How To Be Perfect

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We all know perfection is not a realistic goal, but that doesn’t keep some of us from striving for it. Maybe we grew up as the younger sibling who watched their older sibling make questionable decisions, causing us to take the avenue of the “perfect child” who never stirred the pot. Or maybe a coach, teacher, or even a well-meaning pastor at some point encouraged us that with enough effort, the perfect game, grade, or life, was attainable.

No matter where the roots may lie, those of us who are tempted to seek perfection can’t help but see what’s lacking in a relationship, job, church, or the crooked lampshades on the lamps, and we can’t help but try to somehow fix it even when we fully understand that the solution is temporary.

The same temptation looms when we look inside ourselves.

The lack of perfection is painfully obvious when we measure what is in our hearts up against God’s holy standard. We still feel the pull toward perfection. We might set out at the beginning of every year striving for the perfect relationship with God and man, convincing ourselves that if we did enough work we could finally get it right. However, through life’s classroom, we soon recognize the perfection we so desperately strive for will always be painfully out of reach.

That’s the bad news.

Thankfully, God uses a different tool of measurement when He considers us. When our Heavenly Father thinks of us, He measures us in light of Christ’s finished work. Using this measurement, nothing is found to be lacking. In Christ, we are clothed in His perfection. You, me, all of His children, in God’s eyes, are perfect.

This is the good news.

“For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

Christ’s one time, single offering has perfected you in God’s eyes.

“But I don’t feel perfect,” You might be thinking. Welcome to the club. This not so exclusive club is where our enemy waits to capitalize on a very common opportunity. You see, just as he waited on Jesus to complete His 40-day fast in the wilderness, where presumably, He would be more susceptible to temptation, Satan also seems to wait for our moments of weakness or fatigue before shooting the all too familiar dart of “Did God really say?” in our direction. “Did God really say I was perfect for all time? Forgiven? Beloved?”

Scripture formerly hidden in our hearts gets a little fuzzy in our forgetful minds and continually twisted by our lying enemy. Scripture calls Satan the “Father of lies.” It is probably safe to call him the Father of doubts as well. The lie that there is something lacking in the finished work of Christ settles somewhere in the back of our mind and when left unconfronted, becomes the doubting backseat driver behind nearly all of our thoughts and actions.

The only way to combat a lie is with the truth. And the truth is that in Christ, you are “perfected for all time.”