Perfection

 "It's not going to be perfect, but nothing ever is."  I said this to a colleague today as we were discussing a new pathway we are considering for our department at work.  Perfection...I don't even know what that is...perfection at work? not even as a joke.  Perfection in health? HA! Perfection in marriage? Sure! In what planet?  Perfection in any relationship? Unless we're all robots.  

I don't think perfection is possible in human terms.  Take it for example that typical icebreaker question: what's your perfect vacation?  Without hesitation, I always say: the beach!!!  But, then, you get there and it's raining or the house is a dump or someone gets food poisoning or nobody agrees on what to do or someone gets second degree sunburn on the first day...anyway...it's not perfect...far from it!

Achieving perfection is impossible through our humanity.

Then, why does Jesus say at the end of chapter 5 in the gospel of Matthew, during the Sermon on the Mount:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5: 48

I think this is Jesus' way of showing us that the only way we can do all the things He instructs us to do is through Him and in Him.  Like the writer of Hebrews says:

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10: 14

Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross...His Blood and Resurrection constitute the conduit by which we are made perfect as we are being made holy.  I love LOVE the grammatical structure of this statement:  "He has made perfect forever."  It is D.O.N.E.  He accomplished this part already.  But notice the second part: "those who are being made holy."  This part is the reason we are still on this earth.  We are in the process of sanctification: being made holy thanks to what He has already done on the Cross.

Perfection is therefore only possible in Christ, as He is the Lord and Savior and King of who we are.  It is only in Him that we can be made perfect as we walk with Him on the road to holiness.

This is the joy of the season: by His wounds we are healed! (Isaiah 53: 5)

May we take time to meditate during the days and weeks leading up to Christmas on the greatest gift ever given: Jesus.  May we remember that it is by grace that we have been saved. (Ephesians 2: 8) And that His grace is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12: 9)  That's perfection!  In the Precious Name of Jesus.  Amen!