Matthew 5:48
God is Perfect
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 Peter 1:15-16
Be Holy
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Luke 18:19
Only God is Good
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus Did Not Sin
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Luke 14:25-34
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Matthew 3:13-17
The Father is Well Pleased with the Son
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
John 14:6
No One Comes to the Father Except Through Me
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Man is flawed...We have our faults...We are imperfect...We sin...We want to be perfect, but we can't be perfect...We want to be righteous, but we can't...We want to be good, but we can't...And, with our our human flaws and faults- Jesus tells us to be perfect...Jesus did not sin...And we also know that only God is good...God is perfectly good, sinless, and perfect in all ways...C. S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, explains the verse about being perfect of the LORD's -very well in my opinion...In doing so, Lewis uses the analogy and entertaining story of going to the dentist, when he was young in explaining this about our imperfections...
Lewis says that many of us take the statement literally and we may see it as meaning , "Unless you are perfect I will not help you."...But Jesus, Lewis says, did not mean it in that...Lewis says that he believes that what Jesus is saying is that "The only help I will give you, is help to become perfect...You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less."...And Lewis goes on to explain, about the dentist...When he was a child he often had toothaches, and he knew that if he went to his mother for help, she would give him something which would deaden the pain for that night and then let him sleep...But he did not go to his mother—at least, not till the pain became very bad...And the reason he did not go to his mother was this...He did not doubt she would give him the aspirin to help him; but he knew she would also do something else, something extra...He knew his mother, who loved him, would take him to the dentist the next morning...He could not get what he wanted out of her without getting something more, which he did not want...He wanted immediate relief from his pain and that was all: but he could not get it without having his teeth set permanently right...And he knew those dentists...He knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth that were no trouble at all and even the ones that had not yet begun to ache...The dentists would not let sleeping dogs lie, if you gave them an inch they took a mile...So the way Lewis sees it, is our Lord is like the helping dentists...If you give Him an inch, He will take more than a mile...Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one and only one particular sin which they need help for...The sin could be a covetous desire, having some cowardice, a bad temper, an addiction which is obviously spoiling your daily life...Well Lewis says, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there...That may be all you asked is one sin being fixed (like the one sore tooth being fixed); but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment....The perfect treatment...That is why He warned people to ‘count the cost’ before becoming Christians...And Jesus in summary said something like this -Make no mistake,’ the LORD says, ‘if you let Me, I will make you perfect...The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for...Nothing less, and nothing other, than that...You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away...But if you do not push Me away, understand that I AM going to see this job through to the end...Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect— until My Father can say without any reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with Me...This I can do and this I will do...And I will not do anything less."...
Jesus gives us nothing but the best, His best...And He is perfection...He is the way to His Father...He is the Way to God...Jesus wants to make us into someone who can obey the command of being perfect like My Father is perfect...Then after He does this -you too, will be good...The cost is painful...It is a painful process, because we are not at anyway familiar with being perfect...We are not used to being perfect, and the process hurts...The process is not easy...We will get nothing less than perfection from Him...But what does one expect from Someone who has a Father like His?...