Be Perfect. How You Can And What Happens When You Think You Can’t.

You can’t be perfect. Only God is perfect.” 
In a very real way, this is completely true. I’ve already blown it if I was trying to be perfect. 
But…
Sometimes, I gotta say, I’m quite perfect. 
Does that sound like blasphemy? How’s this?
Sometimes, I’m just as good as Jesus. 
 
I’ll explain. 
Go back to the sentence, “Sometimes, I’m just as good as Jesus.” 
Now, check my spelling. 
If Jesus were here, and we could ask Him to write the same sentence, he’d have to spell every word perfectly in order to be just as good as me. 
I’m sure Jesus can spell in English, how else could He have written the King James Bible? 
If I got into a counting contest with you, me, and Jesus, and we had to see who was the best at counting to 6, who would win? 
It would probably be a 3-way tie. At least, I know Jesus and I could do it. 
Who would do it better? No one. Because we would all have done it perfectly. 
Here comes the point.
When Christians think of a standard for living righteously, we assume we are talking about an infinite standard. But very often, we are not. 
If I said, ”be honest right now,” you could do it. There is not even a way to be a little honest. You would either be honest or dishonest. If you are mostly telling the truth, but lying on one little point, you are totally lying. If a politician tells the truth 90% of the time, but lies 10% (not that I can think of any politicians who would do that), then we just call him a liar. 
If a judge judges fairly 99% of the time, but only 1% of the time gives a corrupt judgment because of a payoff, we call her corrupt.
If we do not allow ourselves to “be ye perfect” (Mt 5:48) when it is actually possible, such as when we’re counting to 6, uttering a completely true statement, or spelling a sentence (or a whole blog post)…
…then we will never be able to see ourselves as a new creation in Christ who is righteous. 
The gospel then becomes about being completely worthless, (but Jesus is so good). 
This would be fine, I guess, if it didn’t cause people to always give up and give in to their sin, even though they have the Holy Spirit. 
That’s what’s at stake if you don’t allow yourself to believe that you can live in the righteousness that Jesus paid for with His blood. 
If you know what to do, do it. If you know the truth, say it. You will learn to trust yourself as one who can be like your Master, Christ Jesus. That’s discipleship. 
Thank you for reading and have a perfect day.