Well, it's really important to point out, I think, that the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew 5-7, was spoken primarily to Jews within an Old Covenant context. Nothing in what Jesus said in the sermon offered the "how to" of living in the way he described in his sermon. He didn't mention the indwelling Holy Spirit, nor his soon-coming atonement for sin, nor reconciliation to God through himself, nor justification by faith, etc. Instead, what Jesus did in his sermon was establish a standard of living so high that it was plainly impossible for his audience to reach it. He wanted them fully cognizant of the fact that what God demanded of those who would be part of His kingdom was entirely out of reach by the means dictated by the Old Covenant under which his Jewish audience lived. He wanted them to despair of connecting with God by way of the Old Covenant system so that they would be willing to hear of the "new and living way" (
Hebrews 10:19-20) that he would provide for them in sacrifice of himself for them all (
John 1:29).
So, then, the Sermon on the Mount is not a "how to" of Christian living. It sets for every person an unattainable standard that puts connecting with God beyond those who would try to connect with Him on the basis of law-keeping, as the Old Covenant prescribed. But there is no reason to despair of being perfect as God is perfect. Rather than attaining such a condition by way of self-effort, by means of perfect obedience to God's commands, God has made it possible for the perfect righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. By faith, we can "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (
Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27), and be "found in him" by God, having
Christ's perfect righteousness (
Philippians 3:9) and thus become acceptable to God.
We don't, then, obtain the perfection of which Jesus spoke in
Matthew 5:48 eventually, but fully
at the moment we are saved. The Bible calls this "justification." In Christ, we are completely justified before God, made perfectly righteous by our being put into Christ by the Holy Spirit. There is no other condition under which God will accept any of us. We
have to be perfect as He is perfect in order to be accepted by Him. And so we are, when, by faith in Christ as Savior and submission to him as Lord, we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30
30 And because of him [God, the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, justification and sanctification and redemption,
Romans 3:23-28
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith [in Christ] apart from works of the law.
Romans 5:1
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:9
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
The truth concerning the genuinely born-again person is, then, that, at the moment they were saved, they were made spiritually, in Christ, perfectly righteous. This spiritual position in Jesus is worked out progressively, however, all throughout the Christian's life in the process called "sanctification."
I would remark also that God has no interest whatever in us being physically perfect. God is not a physical being, but an immaterial, supernatural (that is, above nature) Spirit and deals with us, therefore, chiefly on a spiritual level. Our physical bodies, corrupted by sin, He will one day replace with new, glorified ones, but this is of secondary importance to the
spiritual condition of our hearts and minds. If necessary, God will cause our physical deterioration so that our inner, spiritual person may be more conformed to our spiritual identity in Jesus.
Consider the example of the apostle Paul who was permanently afflicted with a "thorn in the flesh" - very likely a sight problem extending from his Damascus Road experience. His protege, Timothy had an ongoing problem with his stomach for which he received no miraculous divine intervention. Trophimus and Epaphroditus, too, fell ill and had to go through the usual process of recovery. King David wrote,
Psalm 119:67
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
It's not the case, then, that God wants us to have the "spiritual and physical perfection that He has." He doesn't have physical perfection; He's a Spirit. And physical affliction was common to the lives of God's servants. Read
Hebrews 11.
I don't know what Christians are trying to imply when they say, "We cannot be perfect in this life." Usually, this is the response I get from fellow believers when I talk about holiness. It seems to me that they are simply making room for sin in their lives. "We can't help but sin so don't fuss about it," seems to be the meaning behind "Nobody's perfect."
The problem here - and it's a very serious one - is that "without holiness no one shall see God" (
Hebrews 12:14b). The less one is holy, then, the less clearly they see God. If one does not see God well, they cannot fellowship with Him properly. And if one is not in fellowship with God, one cannot enjoy Him, which is the essential and fundamental motivation for all Christian living.
Though holiness is merely the means to fellowship with God (as opposed to an end in itself, as many modern Christians think), it is still a vital part of Christian living and ought never to be diminished by the "Nobody's perfect" remark. This may not be what you intended,
WalterandDebbie, but many others do have this in mind and so it's super important not encourage them in this thinking by repeating their sin-accommodating "mantra."
