I came across a comment on another website yesterday from an apparent Bible believer that indicated his/her belief was that humans are not perfectible. And that begged me to respond.
Humans Are Perfectible
According to the Bible, in Genesis 6:9, Noah is described as being perfect.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Then in Genesis 17:1, we see that YHVH told Abram to be perfect.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
The Hebrew word translated as “perfect” in these verses is “tamiym” (H8549), and according to Brown Driver Briggs, it means “complete, sound“.
This word is used all throughout the books of Leviticus & Numbers and is translated as “without blemish” in the King James Version.
Then in Deuteronomy 18:13, Moses instructs the people to be perfect with YHVH their God.
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
There are many passages throughout the Old Testament that use this word to describe men, and many times it is translated as “upright“. I encourage you to do your own search of this word and see for yourself where & how it appears.
Clearly the Old Testament presents the idea that humans are capable of being perfect and expected to be so.
Then in the New Testament we read in Matthew 5:48 Jesus/Yeshua delivering the message to “be perfect” in his Sermon on the Mount.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
The Greek word translated as “perfect” in this verse is “teleios” (G5046), and according to Thayers Greek Definitions, it means “brought to its end, finished; lacking nothing necessary to completeness; perfect“.
So clearly, Yeshua taught mankind to be perfect.
Again, I encourage you to do a word search on this word to see where & how it is used elsewhere in the New Testament pertaining to mankind.
The notion of humans being perfect is present throughout the Bible. So where do Bible believers get the idea that humans are not perfectible?
A Prevailing Misunderstanding
I believe there is a prevailing misunderstanding within Christianity as to what it means to “be perfect”.
When I was a Christian, being perfect was explained to me as being without sin. And this explanation was often used to support the notion that Jesus was God.
Jesus is typically understood to be the perfect “Lamb of God”, and he is described as being one who “knew no sin”.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. – John 1:29
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. – 2 Corinthians 5:21
Since Paul stated,
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; – Romans 3:23
and John said,
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. – 1 John 1:8
along with other statements woven from the Bible, it is typically understood that we, human beings, cannot be without sin, and therefore we cannot be perfect — only God is perfect. (Therefore, Jesus must be God.)
This is a false notion.
What I’ve Come to Learn
A “perfect” lamb in the Old Testament is typically identified in the KJV as being “without blemish”. This does not mean the lamb was without sin. It means the lamb was “complete, sound“. In my understanding that means the lamb was healthy, whole and without defect.
As for the sin aspect of humanity, see my post on For All Have Sinned and my study on the matter of Original Sin. [Please note: my position has changed since I did that study in 2017 concerning the punishment for Adam’s sin being a physical death sentence.]
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that the Bible clearly teaches mankind is perfectible — we are able to be made whole and sound, to be brought to its end, finished; lacking nothing necessary to completeness; perfect.
And I believe it would behoove us all to aim to be so.
What do you think? Please feel free to share your thoughts below.
Carrie,
I totally agree with your analysis of the words tamiym and teleios. We can be perfect. That is, we can be upright, without blemish, and brought to completion as a finished, mature disciple.
One of my pet peeves is when my Christian friends say, ‘everybody sins,’ or “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.’ That mindset is based on ignorance, unbelief, and laziness concerning sanctification and consecration. Basically, they’ve made an unwitting truce with their carnality instead of overcoming it.
But I was disappointed (because you strayed off track) when you brought Jesus’ divinity into the discussion. You wrote,
“it is typically understood that we, human beings, cannot be without sin, and therefore we cannot be perfect — only God is perfect. (Therefore, Jesus must be God.) This is a false notion.”
As you had already shown, the concept of perfection isn’t about sinlessness–it’s about being complete, or finished. And, it is possible for human beings to be complete in this Biblical sense. Therefore, you’ve set up a straw man argument to disprove people’s belief in Jesus’ divinity. But, in my mind, Jesus’ divinity isn’t based on the incorrect understanding of the word ‘perfection.’
His divinity is based on completely different proofs, all of which I know you’re aware of, but don’t agree with.
Hi Tom! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
The reason I brought the notion of Jesus being God into this post is because, in my experience when I assert that Jesus is not God — that he’s simply a human, a typical response is “well then how could his death on the cross wash away our sins?” And then it usually comes out that people are under the assumption that Jesus is “perfect”, and in their mind “perfect” means “without sin”. Hence, my connecting the two terms & issues in this post.
Not basing one’s belief in Jesus’ divinity on the incorrect understanding of the word perfect may not be the case for you because you’ve studied and/or learned things like the meaning of words in the source text behind our English translations. But I’d venture to say there are many who haven’t gone to seminary or taken the initiative to delve deeper into studying the Bible for themselves who are confused about this idea of perfection.
May I ask, what are the proofs you use to conclude Jesus’ divinity? I know we’ve discussed the issue before, but I’d appreciate you sharing them again with me. If you don’t mind, would you please mention as many of them as you’d like? I would like the opportunity to address them in standalone posts on this site from my perspective and allow open public discussion on what I present. (If you’d like to share any posts you’ve made on this subject, you’re welcome to share those links here, too.)