“He has done everything well.”
—Mark 7:37
Where to begin? In starting to write about Jesus, the options are truly unlimited. We could start before time, where He has existed for eternity—the uncreated Creator. We could start at a manger in Bethlehem, where He who made the universe condescended to inhabit planet Earth. We could start with the events leading up to what we now know as Easter, where His purpose in coming here came to full fruition and where we humans were given the inexpressible hope of living forever. With Him.
I believe we do well, however, right here at the beginning, to simply stand back and try to take in the overall reality of Jesus. His utter beauty. His true perfection.
He is altogether ideal.
This statement stands out most vividly to us when we consider how far short we fall of being ideal ourselves. We don’t have it together physically. We don’t have it together spiritually. We don’t have it together morally. Hardworking and well-meaning as we may be, we are still sinners—repeat offenders desperately in need of a Savior.
We wish it weren’t so. We try not to be. We feel the inner urge to do more and be more. To be different. To be better. Yet we consistently come up short, as does everyone else. People can be strong in certain areas, perhaps in several areas. We’re even strong in a few ourselves. But none of us is strong in everything. We each possess our weak areas.
Stop and wonder, then, that Jesus has no weak areas. He is perfect in every way.
The writers who prophesied about Him in the Old Testament saw Him as “fairer than the sons of men” (Psalm 45:2 NKJV). Israel’s Messiah, as envisioned in their minds under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, was to be a man of perfection, surpassing all other humans.
But then to actually meet Him when He came, to spend time with Him, and to realize He truly was perfection at every turn, that you could find nothing at which He didn’t excel . . . what an incomparable experience.
This is not to say that Jesus struck everyone He met as being physically perfect. We have no New Testament evidence that He was the equivalent of a male model in His day, though as a carpenter He was surely fit. The prophet Isaiah had even stated that the coming Messiah
didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him. (Isa. 53:2)
Yet people did desire Jesus. They followed Him without question because no matter what His appearance, His beauty was unmistakable. He possessed every grace, every virtue, in perfect tension and balance. Not one of them was missing. Think of that. We’ve never seen what sheer perfection looks like in a person. Perfect symmetry between the inner and the outer. Perfect alignment of heart and character. It’s almost impossible to envision such perfection. But there it is in Jesus.
He is not merely good; He is perfect.
He is not merely enough; He is everything.
He also kept the law of God perfectly. And let’s be sure we’re clear on what this means. Not only did He avoid committing even a single sin—an accomplishment that to our minds, knowing our struggles, is remarkable enough—but the perfection of Jesus went beyond mere sin avoidance. He actively lived the whole standard of God’s law. None of it was for show. Everything He said and did was said and done with complete purity of motive. He fulfilled the law’s mandate every
moment of every day and went beyond that to fulfill the spirit behind the law.
I think of that memorable verse in Micah 6:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (v. 8 ESV)
That’s a solid summary of what God’s law requires of us: perfect fairness and perfect love, delivered in perfect humility. That’s precisely what Jesus did every second of His earthly life—and He did it perfectly. People could be overheard saying, “He has done all things well”
(Mark 7:37). They couldn’t help but notice.
So let us, too, pause to wonder at the perfection of Jesus.
He is not merely good; He is perfect.
He is not merely enough; He is everything.
He is not merely our Savior and Lord; He is our one priceless treasure.
We have in Him the most beautiful thing in all the world, the most desirable of all possessions—the most wonderful relationship a human being could ever possibly hope to have with anyone.
When we have Jesus, we have all we really need for time and eternity.
John Flavel, a Puritan pastor from the 1600s, in a sermon titled “Christ Altogether Lovely,” asked his listeners to “cast your eyes among all created things, survey the universe.”
You will observe strength in one, beauty in a second, faithfulness in a third, wisdom in a fourth; but you shall find none excelling in them all as Christ does. Bread has one quality,
water another, clothing another, medicine another; but none has them all in itself as Christ does. He is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded; and whatever a soul can desire is found in him.1
Look anywhere else to find perfection, and you will never find it. Look to any other person as a model of flawless loveliness, and you will inevitably be disappointed. Look to anything or anybody—your spouse, your home, your job, yourself—to provide unmitigated satisfaction, and while you may see a number of impressive, desirable qualities there, you’ll also see deficiencies that remind you they can never be everything you’ll ever need.
But look to Jesus, and He will exceed your highest hopes.
Look to Jesus, and He will surpass your expectations.
Look to Jesus, and you will find yourself in the presence of utter perfection.
Adapted from Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth (©2024). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.
1 John Flavel, “Christ Altogether Lovely,” SermonIndex.net, www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=2927.
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