Last night, I listened to 17 year old Holly Cavanaugh sing on American Idol.  She sang a song called Perfect.  The judges told her that  her rendition of the song was not perfect.

Regardless of how hard we try, perfection is elusive.  The Bible declares “there is none righteous; no, not one (Romans 3:10).”

While there are times that I question the judges on American Idol, I never question the divine decrees of the righteous Judge who is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  There is something wonderful about His assessment of us:  We don’t have to be perfect!

The reason we don’t have to be perfect, is because Jesus was perfect for us.  We find Paul’s teaching on this in The Message:  When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross (Colossians 2).

The Perfect Christ died for imperfect man–He loves us warts and all!  Think about it!