Hey everyone! I know it’s been forever and it’s also 1:00 AM, but when God calls you have to answer! I have a little more free time this year than I had last year so hopefully I will be able to stay consistent in my writing.
So, I am actually supposed to be asleep right now because I have my graduate program orientation in the morning, but I just could not fall asleep. Finally I started thinking about how a lot of people in the area I live in think that they have to work to become a perfect human being and that that is what we are here for. Then God said, “Cheyenne, it’s time to write!” So here it is!
Perfection. That’s what we all strive for. That’s what this life is all about, right? Doing everything we can to be worthy. Being kind to everyone, helping the homeless so we can be perfect like Jesus. Working toward that reward of eternal life. That’s why we’re here right? So we can become worthy and perfect, right? WRONG! Perfection for us is unattainable. Perfection is being without blemish, without flaw, and yet from the very day we are conceived we are tainted with the dark stain of sin (Psalm 51:5). You can’t be perfect if you’re already flawed.
So how are we supposed to enter into God’s presence when He can’t be in the presence of sin (Habakkuk 1:13)? The Bible declares that no one is righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10), but that is what is so amazing about what Jesus did.
Jesus walked through a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22). He faced every temptation, every trial that we faced and went through it all without ever sinning against His Father (Hebrews 4:15). He is the one person worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and yet what did He do? He laid down His own life, took all sin – yours, mine, and everyone who ever lived and will live – onto his shoulders and endured the punishment that should have been ours. He took His own righteousness, His own perfection, and draped it over us, covering all our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).
You are made perfect, worthy, in the Father’s sight, not because you go to church every Sunday and pay your tithing, but because Jesus gave you His own righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). All He asks for this gift is that you believe in Him and love Him as He loves you. Have faith that what He did for us is enough, because it is (Romans 9:30; Romans 4:5).
I am imperfect. I lie, I turn from God, I do things I know I shouldn’t, and I sin probably a thousand times a day, possibly even more. But I am called perfect in His sight because Jesus loved me enough to say, “Cheyenne, you are mine and you are worth dying and suffering for, just as you are with all your imperfections. I don’t want you to through that so here is my righteousness for you to wear.” I did nothing, and could never do anything to earn God’s grace and love, but He showers me in it anyway every single day. He’s done the same for you. Perfection is unattainable. But grace is a free gift.
I am a diamond in progress who is imperfectly perfect.
Psalm 51:5 “For I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.”
Habakkuk 1:13 “But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil…”
1 Peter 2:22 “He never sinned nor ever deceived anyone.”
Hebrews 4:15 “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:30 “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.”
Romans 9:30 “What does this all mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. ”
Romans 4:5 “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.”
Verses in NLT
All Images taken from Google
Diamond in Progress 