THE GREAT CHRISTIAN LIE ABOUT PERFECTION: GOD NEVER DEMANDED THE IMPOSSIBLE

Christianity teaches that no one can keep God’s Law perfectly, and therefore we need Christ to deliver us from it. But what if that entire theological argument rests upon a fundamental misunderstanding of what God actually requires? One of the most pervasive teachings in Christianity is the assertion that God gave Israel a Law that human beings could never successfully obey.

According to this theological argument, the Torah establishes a standard of absolute moral perfection. Because every human being inevitably sins, no one can satisfy its requirements. Consequently, humanity stands condemned, and the Messiah must come to rescue us from the Law’s condemnation.

The argument is familiar:

God demands perfection. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, nobody can keep the Torah. This is why we need Jesus. Millions of Christians have accepted this reasoning without ever seriously examining its foundational premise.

But where does the Torah actually teach this?

Where does Moses declare that God gave Israel commandments that were impossible to obey? Where does God announce that He requires absolute sinlessness as the condition of remaining in covenant with Him? And where does the Tanakh teach that the solution to human imperfection is the eventual abandonment of Torah observance?

These questions expose a fundamental problem with a common Christian interpretation of the Law.

The problem is not with the Torah.

The problem is with the theological assumptions imposed upon it.

1. God Commanded Abraham to Be Perfect — But What Did He Mean?

In Genesis 17:1, HaShem appears to Abraham and declares:

“I am El Shaddai; walk before Me, and be perfect.”

The Hebrew reads:

הִתְהַלֵּךְ לְפָנַי וֶהְיֵה תָמִים

Hit’halech lefanai vehyeh tamim.

“Walk before Me and be complete.”

This passage raises an extraordinarily important question. If human beings are incapable of achieving the perfection God requires, why would God command Abraham to become perfect?

Was God demanding something Abraham could never accomplish? Was He establishing an impossible standard merely to demonstrate Abraham’s inevitable failure? Or have we fundamentally misunderstood the meaning of biblical perfection?

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski addresses precisely this question in his book Growing Each Day, in the entry for 6 Cheshvan. Drawing upon the commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Twerski explains that the perfection required of Abraham is not the absolute perfection of God Himself. Rather, it is the perfection appropriate to a human being who freely chooses to walk according to the Divine will.

In Twerski’s explanation, a person achieves human perfection by living according to God’s teachings and thereby fulfilling his human potential.

This distinction is crucial.

Divine perfection and human perfection are not identical categories. God possesses absolute perfection by His very nature. Human beings, however, are finite creatures who must make moral decisions, overcome temptation, correct mistakes, and continually grow in righteousness.

God does not demand that human beings become God.

He commands them to walk before Him.

Notice the relationship between the two expressions in Genesis 17:1: Walk before Me — and be complete. The command to walk establishes the manner in which human completeness is achieved. Perfection is not presented as an impossible prerequisite to walking with God. It is the result of walking in His ways.

That distinction overturns the premise upon which much of the Christian argument depends.

2. Biblical Perfection Does Not Mean Absolute Sinlessness

The Hebrew word translated as “perfect” in Genesis 17:1 is tamim (תָּמִים). Its meaning includes completeness, wholeness, integrity, and blamelessness. It does not invariably mean metaphysical flawlessness or an absolute inability to commit sin.

Consider Noah.

Genesis 6:9 declares:

“Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noah walked with God.”

The Hebrew describes Noah as:

אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים

Ish tzaddik tamim.

“A righteous and complete man.”

Notice the remarkable similarity between Noah and Abraham. Noah was described as tamim, and he walked with God. Abraham was commanded to walk before God and become tamim. The Torah is establishing a recognizable biblical pattern.

Righteousness, completeness, and walking with God belong together.

Yet Noah was not a divine being. He was a human being, and the Torah later records his drunkenness in Genesis 9:20–21.

The same principle appears in Deuteronomy 18:13:

תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה עִם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ

Tamim tihyeh im Adonai Elohecha.

“You shall be wholehearted with the LORD your God.”

In context, Moses is instructing Israel to reject divination, sorcery, and the religious practices of the surrounding nations. Being tamim means maintaining wholehearted fidelity to HaShem. It is a covenantal and moral requirement. It is not a demand to possess the infinite perfection of the Creator.

Indeed, Ecclesiastes 7:20 explicitly acknowledges:

“For there is not a righteous man upon earth who does good and does not sin.”

This is an astonishingly important passage.

The Tanakh recognizes that even righteous people sin. Yet it continues to describe human beings as righteous, upright, blameless, and complete. Therefore, righteousness cannot simply mean that a person has never committed a transgression. The biblical categories of righteousness and human fallibility are not mutually exclusive.

3. Moses Explicitly Declared That the Torah Is Not Beyond Our Ability

Perhaps the most devastating challenge to the claim that God’s commandments are inherently impossible to obey comes from Moses himself.

In Deuteronomy 30:11, Moses declares:

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, neither is it far off.”

The Hebrew reads:

כִּי הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לֹא־נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא

Moses continues by explaining that the commandment is not inaccessible in heaven or beyond the sea.

Then he concludes in Deuteronomy 30:14:

“But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.”

לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ — La’asoto.

“To do it.”

Not merely to admire it.

Not merely to recognize that it is impossible.

Not merely to wait for someone else to fulfill it on Israel’s behalf.

To do it.

The immediate context concerns Israel’s return to HaShem, obedience to His commandments, and the choice between life and death. Moses does not present the Divine commandments as an impossible burden designed to condemn Israel.

He presents obedience as a real covenantal responsibility. This does not mean Moses promised that no Israelite would ever sin. The Torah itself anticipates human failure. Rather, Moses teaches that returning to God and living according to His commandments are genuinely within Israel’s reach.

The distinction is essential.

The fact that human beings sometimes fail to obey a commandment does not establish that obedience itself is impossible. To argue otherwise is to confuse human imperfection with moral incapacity.

4. God Himself Defines What He Requires

Deuteronomy 10:12–13 asks one of the most important questions in the entire Torah:

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you?”

The answer follows immediately:

“But to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good.”

Read that carefully.

God Himself defines what He requires.

To fear Him.

To walk in His ways.

To love Him.

To serve Him wholeheartedly.

To keep His commandments.

Nothing in this passage suggests that God secretly requires an unattainable standard of absolute sinlessness as a prerequisite to covenantal faithfulness. Nor does Moses announce that these commandments are merely a temporary arrangement until the Messiah comes to release Israel from them.

Quite the opposite.

Moses explicitly says that the commandments are given for Israel’s good. The Torah is not presented as a divine trap. It is presented as the path of covenantal life.

Psalm 119:1 reinforces this principle:

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Torah of the LORD.”

Again, notice the language.

They walk.

The Torah is a way of life.

It is a path upon which God’s people are commanded to travel. The biblical ideal is not the abandonment of the path because human beings occasionally stumble.

It is continuing to walk in the ways of HaShem.

5. The Torah Already Provides for Human Failure

Here we encounter another fundamental difficulty with the argument that the Torah demands absolute sinlessness. The Torah itself contains commandments governing what happens when someone sins.

Consider Leviticus chapters 4 and 5.

These chapters establish procedures for dealing with various transgressions, including inadvertent sins, through the sacrificial system.

Leviticus 5:5 also requires confession of wrongdoing in the circumstances described there. Why would God establish commandments addressing human sin if His covenantal system assumed that faithful people would never sin?

The very existence of these provisions demonstrates that human failure was anticipated within the covenant. Furthermore, the Torah makes a distinction between unintentional wrongdoing and deliberate, defiant rebellion.

Numbers 15:22–31 distinguishes sins committed inadvertently from sins committed with a high hand.

That distinction matters enormously.

The Torah does not treat every human failing as equivalent to a conscious repudiation of God and His covenant.

Nor does the Tanakh teach that every sin automatically requires a new covenant or the abolition of the commandments.

Consider David.

Following his sin, David prayed:

“Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.” — Psalm 51:4

David did not conclude that the Torah was defective because he had failed to obey it. He acknowledged his wrongdoing and sought forgiveness.

Psalm 51:17 declares:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

This is not a rejection of the Torah’s sacrificial commandments. It is a recognition that genuine repentance and humility are indispensable to reconciliation with God. The same principle appears in Psalm 32:5, where David acknowledges his sin and describes receiving divine forgiveness.

The biblical answer to sin is not the cancellation of God’s commandments.

It is repentance, confession, forgiveness, and renewed obedience.

6. Ezekiel Directly Contradicts the Claim That Past Sin Makes Righteousness Impossible

Ezekiel 18 presents an extraordinary explanation of individual moral responsibility.

In verses 21–22, HaShem declares:

“But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”

The passage continues:

“All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live.”

Consider the implications.

The individual in this passage has already sinned.

He has violated God’s commandments. Yet HaShem explicitly declares that he can turn from his wickedness, keep the Divine statutes, practice righteousness, and live. His previous transgressions do not render future obedience meaningless.

Nor does God declare that the sinner’s only hope is for the Torah to be removed. Instead, the sinner is commanded to return to the very commandments he previously violated.

Ezekiel 18:23 then asks:

“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?”

The answer is unmistakable.

God desires repentance and life.

Ezekiel 18:30–32 repeats the call to turn away from transgression and receive a new heart and spirit.

This is the biblical doctrine of teshuvah — repentance and return.

The sinner is not told that obedience is impossible.

He is told to repent and obey.

The God of Israel does not command sinners to abandon His Torah. He commands them to return to it.

7. Even the Torah’s Covenant Curses Assume That Israel Can Return

Leviticus 26 is particularly important because it describes the consequences of Israel’s disobedience. The chapter anticipates serious covenantal transgressions, punishment, exile, and national suffering.

Yet what happens after Israel has violated the covenant?

Does HaShem announce that the Torah has become invalid? Does He explain that Israel’s disobedience proves the covenant was impossible to maintain?

No.

Leviticus 26:40–42 describes Israel confessing its iniquity, humbling its heart, and God’s remembrance of His covenant with the patriarchs.

Even after profound national failure, the covenant remains the basis of restoration.

Leviticus 26:44 is especially decisive:

“And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.”

This is an explicit declaration of covenantal continuity. Israel’s failures do not mean that HaShem has abandoned His covenant. And the solution to Israel’s disobedience is not the destruction of the Torah.

It is repentance and restoration.

Deuteronomy 30:1–10 teaches the same principle.

After the blessings and curses have come upon Israel, the people are called to return to HaShem and obey His voice.

Deuteronomy 30:8 declares:

“And you shall return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all His commandments which I command you this day.”

The restoration of Israel includes renewed obedience to the commandments of Moses. That is the opposite of a theology in which Israel must eventually be delivered from those commandments.

8. But Didn’t Yeshua Command Perfection?

A Christian reader may reasonably object:

“Didn’t Jesus Himself say, ‘Be perfect’?”

Indeed, Matthew 5:48 records Yeshua declaring:

“Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

But context matters. The statement occurs within Yeshua’s teaching about loving others, including one’s enemies. He is calling His disciples toward wholehearted imitation of the Father’s goodness and mercy.

The parallel teaching in Luke 6:36 expresses the principle in terms of mercy:

“Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

The point is not that human beings must become metaphysically equal to God. It is that they must imitate the Divine character in their moral conduct. This is consistent with the Torah’s command:

“You shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” — Leviticus 19:2

No reasonable interpreter would conclude that Israel was commanded to become ontologically identical to the Creator. Rather, Israel was commanded to imitate His holiness through the manner of its life.

The same principle applies to Yeshua’s command to be perfect.

Indeed, immediately before these teachings, Yeshua declares in Matthew 5:17–19 that he has not come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets and warns against relaxing even the least of the commandments.

Therefore, interpreting Matthew 5:48 as proof that the Torah establishes an impossible standard from which the Messiah must deliver Israel creates a serious tension with the preceding context.

Yeshua’s command to pursue perfection is best understood within the biblical tradition of wholehearted covenantal faithfulness.

It is not an announcement that the Torah must be abandoned.

9. Where the Christian Argument Goes Wrong

We should distinguish between Christianity’s many theological traditions.

Not every Christian teaches that the Torah was given solely to establish an impossible standard, and not every Christian believes that obedience is irrelevant.

Nevertheless, a common Protestant argument, often associated with particular readings of Pauline theology, maintains that the Law reveals humanity’s inability to attain righteousness and therefore demonstrates the necessity of salvation through Christ.

The problem arises when that argument is projected backward into the Torah as though it were Moses’ own explanation of why God gave His commandments.

The Tanakh does not describe the Torah as an impossible system intended to demonstrate the futility of obedience.

It describes the commandments as wise, righteous, good, and life-giving.

Deuteronomy 4:6 declares:

“Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations.”

Deuteronomy 6:24 teaches that HaShem commanded Israel to observe His statutes for its good.

Psalm 19:7 declares:

“The Torah of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.”

And Psalm 119:142 states:

“Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your Torah is truth.”

The biblical description of the Torah is overwhelmingly positive. The commandments are not portrayed as a defective or impossible system.

They are the revelation of God’s righteous will. One must also distinguish between two entirely different claims:

Claim one: Human beings cannot live their entire lives without ever committing a sin.

Claim two: Human beings cannot obey God’s commandments in any meaningful, covenantally acceptable way.

The first claim is consistent with Ecclesiastes 7:20.

The second does not follow from the first. And the Torah repeatedly calls Israel to obedience precisely because that obedience is a genuine human responsibility.

Christian theology may offer its own account of grace, justification, atonement, and the Messiah. But those theological conclusions cannot simply be assumed to be the original meaning of the Mosaic covenant.

They must be demonstrated from Scripture.

10. The Messiah Did Not Come to Rescue Israel from Obeying God

From the perspective of Lapid Judaism, this distinction is indispensable to understanding the mission of Yeshua.

We affirm Yeshua as the Divine Messiah. But we reject the proposition that his mission was to release the Jewish people from the commandments of HaShem.

Such a mission would contradict the covenantal framework established in the Torah.

Deuteronomy 13:1–5 warns Israel against following a religious figure who would lead the people away from fidelity to HaShem, even if that figure presents extraordinary signs.

The standard of faithfulness is the revelation already given by God. A true messenger of HaShem cannot legitimately teach Israel to abandon its covenantal obligations.

This is why Yeshua’s declaration in Matthew 5:17–19 is so important.

He does not present himself as the enemy of Moses. He affirms the continuing significance of the Torah and warns against diminishing its commandments.

The prophetic vision of the Messianic Age reinforces this continuity.

Isaiah 2:3 declares:

“For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

The nations are not depicted celebrating their deliverance from God’s instruction.

They are depicted seeking it. The Messianic future is characterized by the universal recognition of HaShem’s ways.

The Torah goes forth from Zion.

The nations learn His paths. And humanity is called to walk in them.

That is the prophetic picture of redemption.

The Messiah does not make obedience to God obsolete. He leads humanity toward the knowledge and service of God.

11. The Great Difference Between Perfection and Perfectionism

We must now return to Rabbi Twerski’s insight.

There is an enormous difference between biblical perfection and the modern idea of perfectionism. Perfectionism often demands flawless performance.

It measures a person’s worth against an unattainable ideal.

It can produce despair because every mistake becomes evidence of failure.

Biblical temimut, however, concerns wholeness, integrity, and wholehearted devotion to HaShem.

A person may stumble without abandoning the path.

A person may sin and subsequently repent.

A person may fail in one area while continuing to grow in righteousness.

Proverbs 24:16 declares:

“For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again.”

The righteous man is not defined as someone who has never fallen.

He is someone who rises again.

That is a profoundly different understanding of spiritual life. The goal is not to become incapable of making mistakes. The goal is to become a person who continually chooses the will of HaShem.

Rabbi Twerski, drawing upon Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, emphasizes the importance of moral freedom in this process.

The human being is not merely a passive creature controlled by circumstances.

He possesses the responsibility to make decisions, resist wrongdoing, and direct his life toward the Divine will.

This is why Genesis 17:1 is so powerful.

God did not simply say to Abraham, “Be perfect.”

He said:

“Walk before Me — and be complete.”

The walking matters.

The choosing matters.

The obedience matters.

The journey matters.

And through that journey, a human being can fulfill the purpose for which he was created.

Conclusion: God Never Asked You to Become God

The claim that God demands absolute sinlessness and then condemns humanity for failing to achieve an impossible standard is not the picture presented by the Torah.