Must We Accept Moral Imperfection?

Alden Nowlan said,"The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise."

Think carefully and one realises that what the writer proposes is that the acceptance of moral imperfection makes you wise. To acknowledge that man is morally imperfect is wise, no man is sinless and we are all hopelessly bound by the power of sin against our own will. But to forgive yourself for this is to bow down to the triumph of darkness and to insult God's sublime purpose for the creation he made in his own image.

Today, the world teaches you to love yourself, to celebrate your flaws, to pat yourself on the back,to tell yourself that you are perfect just the way you are. But the unavoidable truth is that we are not.The man shackled by the chains of flesh and sin, the man so depraved that even the best and most commendable of his actions are marred by the stain of sin, this is not what God had in mind when he created us, this is not our destiny. The Bible says that we were made in the image of God, that God's plan for us is to be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.

Have we not all, at some wistful moment, grieved over the power of sin, over a lost faith in humanity, over the terrible truth that we cannot even do good without the force of evil working relentlessly against our pitiful efforts. And have we not, in the same way, longed for goodness and justice? Have we not fruitlessly believed in the goodness of man? Have we not searched for perfection?

So think back to the childish faith in humanity that you once had, think back to the idealism of your youth and know that you are wise when you seek perfection, completeness and holiness in the person of God,when you seek the cleansing of your sins and the purification of your soul in the gift of salvation that he offers, through the undeserved kindness that he showered on all mankind by his death on the cross that was rightly ours. The adolescent realisation of our imperfection can lead us either to love the sin in ourselves or to seek perfection in a higher being. We do not have to accept our corrupted state, we have only to acknowledge it and seek God's intervention to begin our journey towards becoming who we were always meant to be. 

Then let us not as the world does, hold ourselves in high estimation thinking that this is the best we can be, but rather understand that God has greater plans for the people he loves with an everlasting love. As the Bible says, we are meant not to be slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness, we are not to worship ourselves, but to set our eyes on the only person worthy of worship, on the righteousness, wisdom and goodness of God.