You are not perfect. Own it. See your deep weakness….We acknowledge our sin, and then we press on. We don’t roll over and give up. We don’t hide our faces. Instead we draw nearer to Christ through the cross. We pick up our Bibles and show up to the gathering of the saints. We press on.

As I hung up the phone, I realized how impatient I had sounded. Yes, this was the third phone call about the same thing. Yes, they were unwilling to process paperwork that had been previously submitted. Yes, it was going to take more time out of my day to do a frustratingly simple task. And in the middle of it, instead of having my mind set on things above, I decided to get frustrated. Just one example of how I’m not like Christ. I hate it, but it’s true: I’m not perfect.

And to be fair, neither are you. You might say, “You don’t know me!” I don’t have to. God has let me into an open secret: “None is righteous, no, not one…No one does good, not even one” (Rom 3:10, 12). You and I belong to the category of “none” in that sentence. And we belong in the “all” of the next group: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Each of us have sinned against a holy God, and none of us are where we would like to be. We have not been perfect.

“But,” you protest, “Jesus saved me.” And by God’s grace, I pray that’s true. And yes, God’s grace to Christians is that we are a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17), “dead to sin” (Rom 6:11), and now “slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17). Real sanctification is happening for every true Christian. The Christian’s relationship with sin is different now. But even still, until heaven Christians have to deal with a flesh that wars against the Spirit (Gal 5:17). And though we are being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29), we are not completely like Christ yet. Even still it is right to say, “I am not perfect.”

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