A while back, the Florida State Seminoles were celebrated as college football’s BCS Champions after completing a perfect 14-0 season. In the long history of Major League Baseball, only 23 pitchers have tossed a perfect game. Each of those 23 pitchers is widely celebrated for accomplishing one of baseball’s rarest individual feats. Years ago, USA Today reported that a Michigan teen got a perfect score on her ACT–and her SAT–and her PSAT! She was rewarded with a full-ride scholarship to Princeton University.

If perfection is so celebrated because of its rarity, should the opposite be true as well? Should imperfection be condemned? I mean, if perfection is considered the rarest of all feats, shouldn’t it be considered acceptable if the rest of us don’t achieve such a vaunted status? Nobody’s perfect at life! We all make mistakes. Who cares?

God cares. While imperfections are an accepted part of life for us, they are not acceptable to our God. Imperfections run contrary to the way God intended this world to function. When he finished his work of creation, God was pleased to know that everything worked in harmony. There were no imperfections; “God saw all that he made and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Our imperfections are therefore an offense to our perfect creator God. They are not excused; they are not overlooked. They are punished for the offense that they are.

Sure, nobody’s perfect. That’s why we need someone to be perfect for us.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Yes, Jesus Christ who had no sin or imperfection became our imperfection so that he might receive all of the punishment that we deserved, paying for it all by his death on the cross. In return, he grants us the perfection that we could not achieve on our own. In Christ we become “the righteousness of God.”

As much as we celebrate individual accomplishments of perfection–the perfect season, the perfect game, or the perfect test score–how much greater can we celebrate the perfection that is ours by faith in Jesus Christ! In Christ you are perfect; believe it! Celebrate it! Live it!