Does God require perfection, or just our best?

He requires sinless perfection, achieved only by faith in the perfect, spotless Lamb of God.

Christianity 101.

 

He requires perfect righteousness which is Christ's. Christ's righteosness is imputed to us by faith.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

To put myself on the same level with Jesus Christ the sinless lamb of God, the only one, ever, to be sinless, is the height of arrogance and an insult to God Himself. Our Holy and Majestic God, and Him alone is sinless. Who are we that can claim to be without sin?

Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?


However, when I trusted Christ, he clothed me with the cloak of His righteousness, and God now looks down and sees my sin no more; for he sees only the righteousness of Jesus Christ which covers that sin. What a privilege that is for one's sin to be covered with the blood of the Lamb.

 

Amen!:thumbs:

 

Again, no answer here is the correct one. I will never be sinless, nor perfect, and "trying my best" is filthy rags. 'I am not sure' is not an answer, because I AM sure...Jesus Christ is required, HIS sinless perfection.

 

The way the questions are worded, "He requires us to do our best" seems to be the converse of "He requires sinless perfection". I took it as a requirement of sinless perfection from us. The only thing Scripture requires from us is faith in the One who can meet this requirement.

 

God said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Of course, God knows that as long as we have our sin nature we will not be sinlessly perfect. However, we CAN be "spiritually perfect" in His sight by being clothed in the righteousness of His Son, Jesus the Christ. He called Job "perfect", but did he mean that Job was sinlessly perfect? Apparently not since Job suffered greatly and finally confessed his sin of pride to God.

 

...that is speaking of His love, loving "perfectly" even our enemies...those that hate us as God does.

 

I doubt if we can even be spiritually perfect. God does not impute righteousness to us. He imputes Christ's righteousness to us. We can try to live righteously, but even then God doesn't see it in terms of our salvation. He see's the Son's righteousness, and declares us righteous on that basis.

Yes, God knows that we cannot be perfect, but Jesus could not say, "I know you're not perfect, so I'll cut you some slack. A sin here and there is okay."

 

God requires perfection. That is why I am so thankful that I am covered with the shed blood of Christ. When God looks at me He does not see my imperfections, He sees the perfect shed blood of Christ and His righteousness. Praise Jesus!:jesus: :godisgood:

BTW, I can't answer your poll because you don't have the correct answer as a choice (there more possible answers then the choices you provided).

 

I agree that God requires perfection, but that (as you and others have said) we cannot give perfection, so we need a righteousness that is not our own, that of the Lord Jesus Christ.