Since the day I believed in Jesus Christ I have struggled with perfection. It has been something that I have always struggled with. From childhood I would always try to make an assignment perfect. I was disappointed with anything less than 100 per cent and so I would spend hours making something that I was proud of, that I hoped was perfect.

However, God broke me. He removed my mobility, and with that went the illusion I had the ability to be perfect. How could I be perfect if only 30 per cent of my body worked properly? For years I struggled to come to terms with this.

It was only once I accepted Jesus that I came to terms with my imperfection, but it was this decision that made me perfect.

Since that decision I have often felt that I should be a better Christian, but that’s putting it lightly. I see missionaries, I read about Paul, I listen to my pastor. I know that I am a bad Christian, I could be better, I can only strive to be a perfect Christian.

The truth is that I can never be perfect on my own, but I don’t need to be, because with Jesus I am 100 per cent perfect.

Because of what Jesus did we are 100 per cent perfect in God’s eyes. Once we accept Jesus, it is his perfection that God sees. We are 100 per cent perfect because of Jesus. And as long as we believe in Him that will never change.

When I was told this it changed me. I no longer had to strive for perfection, it was a burden lifted off my shoulders. But I soon realised that it didn’t mean I could go around making mistakes, it meant something else.

It means that we are 100 per cent new.

When we accept Jesus we are given a ticket to eternal life, to Heaven. But our Earthly, mistaken bodies cannot enter Heaven. So Jesus must do more than represent us, he must make us new. He must make us into something that can enter Heaven.

A new creation, one that is not and will not be affected by our mistakes. And the fact that he will never need to die again proves that. All this would mean nothing if he had to die again and again for our future mistakes.

The implications are huge. By accepting Jesus it means that we don’t belong to ourselves, we don’t belong to sin, we belong to God. We have a new life, a life given to us by Jesus.

We are 100 per cent new, unaffected by mistakes.

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