Nobody’s Perfect!

I’m not perfect!

People who know me can vouch for it!

In fact, very often we all use this universally agreed fact that we are not perfect – we can even use it in an argument with someone or as a defence – I’m only human!

The problem is, it’s not always a good enough excuse. If I get pulled over by a police officer for speeding, how do you think he or she is going to respond if I just defend myself with the excuse that, ‘well I’m not perfect’. Or, ‘I’m only human!’

Yes, we are only human, and we do all make mistakes. And we do want our loved ones to accept us as we are and love us anyway. But what about God? How does he respond to our imperfection?

Well, like I said we might want people around us to accept us, warts and all, God definitely loves us. The bible teaches that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more than he already does. And there is nothing bad we can do to stop him loving us. Because true love is unconditional. He loves the person he made when he saw you being formed in your mother’s womb.

But there is still a problem:

• God is perfect.
• Heaven is perfect.
• If he let us in as we are, we would spoil it.

He’s also a God of justice and he must, in order to be the fairest, most just being, judge everyone equally. Going back to that police officer, imagine you’ve paid your fine and you have the points on your licence and you are out on the road again but this time your friend is driving. You are chatting away and he forgets the speed limit and gets caught by exactly the same police officer. But for whatever reason, the officer decides to let your friend off. You may be happy for them, but deep down you know it’s not fair.

When we commit an offence against God, it would be wrong for him to let everyone off… or even just one person… or even just one offence.

Any offence against God is called sin. It literally means, missing the mark. We fall short. And I think you’d agree that we have all fallen short of perfection.

The bible puts it this way:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

The good news is, because he loves us, he has sent Jesus to be our saviour. He died on a cross 2000 years ago to take the punishment for all our sins. More of that in the next posts.

There are four more posts to come, but if you feel ready now you can say a prayer right away:

Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. I know I have fallen short of your standards. Please wash away my sin and make me new deep down inside. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer do tell someone you know is a bible believing Christian or get in touch with us. We’d love to help you get started in your brand new life.

God bless you and stay connected for the next post.

Jon Petts.