IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE PERFECT?

Throughout Scripture (66 times in the O.T. and 57 times in the N.T.), God's Word speaks of perfection.  In Matthew 5:48, Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."  Synonyms for "perfect," are "holy" (Lev. 20:7; 1 Pet. 1:15-16), and "righteous" (2 Kg. 10:9; Mt. 6:33; Rev. 22:11).  Of course, God is perfect, we know that, but we also know that we are not (Rom. 3:23).  Neither are we holy (1 Sam. 2:2), nor are we righteous (Rom. 3:10).  That is the problem! 

While God's goal has always been for mankind to be "like Him," with the fall of Adam, man ceased to be like his Creator.  We read in Genesis 1:26, "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness..."; but notice, following Adam's sin, his children were made in his likeness, not God's.  We read,  "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth" (Gen. 5:3).  While we are not specifically told that Cain and Abel were born in Adam's likeness, we are told that Seth was.  Surely, if Seth was born in Adam's likeness, there should be no doubt that Seth's older brothers were as well.

So, how do you and I become perfect?  We don't!  For us to become perfect, we need to be perfected!  Philippians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."  From the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are born anew (Jn. 3:3-8; 2 Cor. 5:17).  It is then, that God begins transforming us into the likeness of His dear Son (Rom. 6:5; 1 Jn. 3:2).  Here is what the Word of the Lord has to say:

*  "For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14).
*  "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one..." (Jn. 17:23).
*  "To the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:23).
*  "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect IN Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:28).
*  "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?  (Gal. 3:2-3).

Our perfection: 

"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26