Jesus is never unsettled by our imperfections. Actually, he is most at ease and hopeful with those who are glaringly imperfect. He dined with hated tax collectors and sinners. He offered grace to a woman caught in adultery. His own disciples—the men he chose—were sometimes dull, fickle and unbelieving. Even in his last hour, as he hung on the cross, Jesus welcomed a criminal into the kingdom.
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
It seems Jesus sees potential in our imperfection. When we are the most acutely aware of our weakness, we reach the end of our rope. Those who have run out of self-reliance are ready to rely on Jesus to give them new life.
But Jesus is frustrated by dishonesty. He reserved his sharpest words for the religious frauds who did not realize they were in desperate trouble. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor”. So an important step toward living the way Jesus intends is being brutally honest about our radical imperfections. Bringing our sins into his light by giving them a specific name—lust, anger, gossip, gluttony, greed and so on—makes it possible for us to experience deep-soul healing from the Great Physician.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
But the goal is not to merely admit our imperfections and offenses. The goal is to transform our sinful natures by the Spirit of God so that we become the kind of people in whom the life of Jesus is most vividly expressed. Because we are human, imperfections are inevitable. But through Jesus, what’s old can become new.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
