Questions and Answers:  Was Jesus really perfect?

Question:

My friends and I were talking about Jesus. Some of them have a hard time accepting the teaching that he was a perfect person.  How can I help them?

Answer: 

Allow me to offer you a few suggestions about how you might deal with this issue.  I have seen it come up before, and I can attest to the fact that it is not an easy idea to refute; many people have a hard time thinking of anybody who was perfect because it is so contrary to human experience.   We have never actually known a person who was perfect.  I would urge you to be patient with your friends, they did not develop this idea over night and its probably not going to go away quickly.   The discussion below assumes a high view of Scripture – a view that the Scriptures are the authoritative Word of God. 

First of all, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Plain and simple, Jesus was without sin; therefore, he was able to become our sin.  I’m not sure how one can hold the following statements to be true: “Jesus was not perfect” and “God made him who had no sin” (as per St. Paul).   Can we just throw the authority of Scripture is out the window?  What basis do we have for saying that Jesus was not perfect?   Do we find that in Scripture?  I’d like to see where we find it.  

Furthermore, in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the sacrifice was to be “without defect” or “without blemish.”  I would give you references, but this occurs so frequently in the OT that I do not have room (go to www.biblegateway.com and type in “without defect” – see what you get).  Jesus is the final sacrifice and the fulfillment of this sacrificial system, so it is necessary that he be without blemish, if Jesus had sin, then he was not “without defect,” and  his death has no benefit for us,  we are still dead in our sins (i.e. his sacrifice would not have counted).  We can speculate all day about how Jesus might have sinned, but the bottom line is that if Jesus was a sinner, he died a sinner’s death because he deserved a sinner’s death, and his death was for himself only.  My sin has not been forgiven and neither has yours. 

Consider the following example:  You are in an inflatable life-raft in the middle of the Ocean and every time you sin its like taking a knife and make a hole in the raft.  It is quickly losing air (for we do sin a great amount).  Now Jesus comes and offers to trade you rafts; his raft will only save you if it without holes, right?  If there is even one sin of which Jesus is guilty, then his life-raft will be of no use to you, for it will have one hole.  Sure, it would extent the amount of time you spend clinging to life, but ultimately, it will run out of air and you will sink.  Now if Jesus is without sin, then his life-raft is suitable to keep you afloat.  For this reason, Jesus had to be perfect.  

I hope that you are able to impress upon your friends the importance of Jesus’ perfectly obedient life.  If this is just an untrue dogma of the church, then we are all still dead in our sins, and in the words of St. Paul: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32b).   

Please feel free to contact me if anything I have written is unclear or if you need further information.  My contact information can be found below.  

Sincerely,

Dustin J. Krystowiak

801 Seminary Place

Saint Louis, MO  63105

dustinkrystowiak@gmail.com

krystowiakd@csl.edu