Nobody's Perfect. Most of us have used that phrase at one point or another, usually to avoid consequences for our own failings. I’d like to make three points about that.
There is a sense in which it’s not true.
Believing it puts you on a slippery slope.
The purpose of life is to get ready for death.
1-There is a sense in which it’s not true.
John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God. The Jews in the era of the Jerusalem Temple knew that the animals they brought to offer as sacrifices had to be perfect and spotless. But at no time did they refer to any of those animals saying they took away the sins of the world. So the implication was that for the first time in history, there was a perfect, spotless Lamb. But it wasn’t just that he was without spot or blemish or any other imperfection. It was that he not only served as an atoning sacrifice, and not only for the one who offered the sacrifice, but for all the people of the world who would follow Him.
He did that, of course, by his willing acceptance of the plan the Father laid out, to sacrifice his only Son, as the sacrifice that would bring atonement to all people. So he willingly laid down his life to bring salvation everyone who calls on his perfect name.1
But in a broader sense, we are commanded, in Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” But how do we do that? Nobody’s perfect, as we all have plainly seen and experienced.
Well the answer, dear friend, is to call on the Name that is above every name, Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, who will take away your sins.
How he makes us perfect is a mystery, but he does! It’s a process called sanctification, and it begins at the moment you decide in your heart2 to turn from your pursuit of lesser things, and resolve to pursue him. It’s never complete until the day we are separated from our Earthly bodies and ascend to our forever home with him. It’s supernatural, of course, but it happens, so every one in Heaven is perfect.
2-Believing it (that nobody’s perfect) puts you on a Slippery Slope
Some people never seem to want to improve themselves. They don’t read for the purpose of learning new things, they don’t associate with people with whom they disagree, and they don’t seem to care much about their appearance, their cleanliness or their health.
Anyone who says ‘nobody’s perfect’ takes a stand on the notion that we’re all fine, just the way we are. I’m OK. You’re OK. We’re all OK, and there’s no reason to work toward any kind of improvement. As long as the people in our tribe accept us the way we are, we’re fine.
And yet we’re taught in Romans 12:2 ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
Nobody ever achieved perfection during life on Earth by his or her own efforts, but by refusing to strive toward it, or even to desire it, we just send up a surrender flag and begin to drift just a little - like a dead fish.
So even if you don’t believe in God, or His promise of everlasting life, you shouldn’t just drift like a dead fish. And if you’re going to try to improve, why not set perfection as the standard? Wouldn’t anything else be like just saying ‘nobody’s perfect’?
3-The purpose of life is to get ready for death.
Another of the ideas on which everybody agrees is that everybody dies. And yet the irony of it all is that death is the one thing that happens that almost nobody is ready for. We are no more in control of our death than we were of our birth. And yet we humans have something within us that longs for life to endure. We are made for eternity.
We learn from a careful reading of scripture that when we die, our bodies go back to the earth from which they came (dust to dust), but our souls live on. So we who belong to Jesus Christ know that what the world thinks of as the end of our lives is really just the commencement of the life we’ve been traveling toward and preparing for from the day we first believed.
Here are the soaring words penned by the Apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians 5, which perfectly describe the whole thing.
Our Heavenly Dwelling
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So even though we are living in the midst of unimaginably evil men who want to rule over us and to have us serve them, we belong to the Heavenly Man, who loved us and gave himself up for us, so that we could be with him forever.
Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
The Bible refers to “the heart” as the center, or locus of our thinking, not our brains. There are many references to our minds and to our hearts, but the brain seems to never be mentioned. Yet we today, with our more advanced understanding of ‘the science’, assume that all thought originates in the brain, and the heart has nothing to do with it. Of course, neither the heart or or the mind are in this sense physical organs. Could it be that we are spiritual beings, that all of our thought takes place in our minds (the spiritual organs that share a plane of existence with the Heavenly Host), and that our hearts are the essence of our identities?