God created man in perfection. He stepped back after creation and said it is good. Not “good enough” in a fallen world sense, but ultimately and perfectly good. He created us perfect, but sin got in the way of that perfection. In Genesis 17:1 God tells Noah to walk before him and be perfect. That's a bit harsh you might say, but Jesus actually said the same thing in Matthew 5 when he says “be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect”.
But what a frustrating command. We cannot make ourselves perfect. Sin has caused us all to be imperfect.
How does that work. Perfection does not come from ourselves. In Romans 7 Paul calls himself a “wretched man”. It's not often we hear Christian leaders or anyone for that matter publicly stating that they are “wretched”. Paul, then does something interesting. He asks a question and answers that same question in one breath. Who will rescue me? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. Our perfection does not come from ourselves. Christ is perfect and we are in him. He is our perfecter and perfection.
And in ourselves there is actually a benefit to admitting our imperfection. This is not an easy thing for many of us. To be imperfect publicly. Now, I'm not talking here about sin, I'm talking about basic struggles the admission that being Christ like is not easy for us.
See we often, as Christians like to put on a public face of being good Christians. We often advertise the good things we do, making sure to tell everyone when we have done a good work or good action (contrary to Matthew 6:1). We hide our struggles, we don't allow our disappointments, our hurts, or our sadness to be evident to others. We spend a good deal of time on outward appearance making sure we look the way the image we are trying to present requires. But this is all attempts at perfecting ourselves. If we can be perfect ourselves why do we need Jesus.
So what are the benefits of admitting imperfection.
Admitting our imperfection, confessing our sins makes us rely completely and totally on the grace of Jesus Christ.
But what a frustrating command. We cannot make ourselves perfect. Sin has caused us all to be imperfect.
How does that work. Perfection does not come from ourselves. In Romans 7 Paul calls himself a “wretched man”. It's not often we hear Christian leaders or anyone for that matter publicly stating that they are “wretched”. Paul, then does something interesting. He asks a question and answers that same question in one breath. Who will rescue me? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. Our perfection does not come from ourselves. Christ is perfect and we are in him. He is our perfecter and perfection.
And in ourselves there is actually a benefit to admitting our imperfection. This is not an easy thing for many of us. To be imperfect publicly. Now, I'm not talking here about sin, I'm talking about basic struggles the admission that being Christ like is not easy for us.
See we often, as Christians like to put on a public face of being good Christians. We often advertise the good things we do, making sure to tell everyone when we have done a good work or good action (contrary to Matthew 6:1). We hide our struggles, we don't allow our disappointments, our hurts, or our sadness to be evident to others. We spend a good deal of time on outward appearance making sure we look the way the image we are trying to present requires. But this is all attempts at perfecting ourselves. If we can be perfect ourselves why do we need Jesus.
So what are the benefits of admitting imperfection.
- Changing the way we talk about Jesus. Many people are unwilling to speak publicly about Jesus and about their faith in him, for fear of appearing too religious. But if we are made perfect through him, then all credit has to be due to Him and not to us. This allows us to be free from need to impress others, cause, in all reality, in ourselves, we are not that impressive, but he is. If we admit our imperfection any time goodness happens in our life, we know it really comes from Him so we talk about Him.
- Changing the way we view others. If we admit that we are imperfect in ourselves we will change the standards we hold for others. We will see those who make mistakes as people who need Jesus, not as failures. We will desire to connect with those who are caught up in sin rather than to isolate them, because we will want them to know Jesus Christ and find perfection in him.
- Being changeable: Jesus often spoke about the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of people who believed they could be made righteous by obeying the law and by living by certain traditions. They were very proud of themselves and their leaders set themselves apart and gained favour by always doing the right actions and looking the right way and making sure to tell everyone how great they were. But when the messiah came they were so wrapped up in making themselves perfect that they weren't able to hear the message of grace and they were so wrapped up in themselves and their own actions that they could not believe that they needed Jesus. They were perfect in themselves or so they though, so they were not upon to be changed by Christ and made new, because they believed they were perfect just the way they were. Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisees who goes up to pray. He brags about himself in the prayer and what he does to be righteous. Then, a sinner comes up and simply says...”I'm a sinner”. Jesus says the sinner would be exulted.
- Limiting burn out: Jesus tells the Pharisees they are like a bowl that is clean on the outside while it's filthy on the inside. See when we try to be perfect we often can only do it on the outside. We may look amazing on the outside. We may be volunteering for hours on end. We may always have a smile on our face and seem happy. If that doesn't not come from an inward change it is not sustainable and we will burn out. If we are doing it on our own then all we really can do is be perfect on the outside, because Jesus is the only one who can change us on the inside. Often you will find wonderful men of God who are amazing people on the outside, but you will find on the inside a lack of faith, a broken family, a limited prayer life, and eventually you will see burn out. By admitting imperfection the drive to be perfect on the outside is gone and you can focus on allowing Christ to change you from the inside. It won't matter how you appear to the world, what will matter is how Christ is working in you.
- Allowing others to shine. Often when we see perfection as coming from ourselves we see everyone else as less perfect. This leads us to accept the old adage “if you want something done you have to do it yourself.” This is totally untrue. In fact, you certainly have giftings and a call, but outside of that, changes are if you want something done right there is probably someone else who can do it better than you. In fact what we read in 1 Corinthians 12 says exactly that, that we are one body with many parts, the hand, as perfect as it thinks it is can't hear or speak like the mouth. So to admit imperfection is to step back and allow others to shine. As Philippians 2:3 says we are to think of others as more important than ourselves.
Admitting our imperfection, confessing our sins makes us rely completely and totally on the grace of Jesus Christ.