Confessions of a Perfect Sinner

Confessions of a Perfect Sinner

 By TreAnna B.

            I recently posted a confessions article on my personal blog. This one is a little different though.

As the titles suggests, I am going to give you the confessions of a Perfect Sinner. You may be wondering how that oxymoron even works. Well, I'll tell you.

            We are all perfect sinners. We spend each day of our lives committing sin, whether we are aware of it or not. Therefore we are perfectly sinful.

            So what is my first confession as a perfect sinner?

I don't like holding this title.

            Does anyone? I mean there aren't many people who like to be told that what they are doing is wrong. Holding this title is essentially being reminded every day of our lives that we are doing something wrong. That there is something wrong with ourselves.

            Don't freak out just yet. I'm going somewhere with this.

            Let me try to explain this oxymoron to you a little better. Being in the state of perfection means that there is no flaw. That's almost impossible for us to think about because there aren't many things in our lives that can be dubbed as 'perfect'.

            Being in the state of sin means that we do something that goes against God's word. In some area of our lives, we rebel against God. It doesn't have to be a big thing. A lie is considered a sin.

            So when we put these two states together we have humanity. Sin is the one thing that I can say without doubt that we do perfectly. We do it every day of our lives,  and some days we do it without even realizing it.

            So we are perfectly sinful.

Confession: We don't have to let this title define us.

            Just because we are given a title doesn't mean that this title has to immediately be ingrained in ourselves.   We don't have to be ruled by it.

            We will never reach perfection. Jesus was the only man to walk the earth that ever will, but we shouldn't give up just because of being 'perfectly sinful'.

            Think about it this way: If someone called you a nerd because you read all the time, would you let that title define you? Would you stop reading because of it? Probably not.

            In the same way, we should not stop trying to be perfect just because we recognize that we are sinful creatures. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” Yet in Matthew 5:48, Jesus says to “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” These two verses almost seem to contradict each other, however they have a point. Even though we have sinned and don't deserve what God has given us, we shouldn't stop working to try to deserve it.