| James 2:10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
A Heavenly Treasure by David Rich, June 12, 2026
For the next 7 Heavenly Treasures that I pen, I will recap an entry of my book, “7 Biblical Truths You Won’t Hear in Church, BUT Might Change Your Life!” This book was written in 2007, and it was not only inspired by Glenna, but she was also my personal consultant through every chapter. In that book, I highlighted 7 biblical truths that do not get much airtime in today’s modern church but are pivotal to a believer’s grace and sovereignty journey. Each truth builds on the one before and some may be harder to digest than others. My aim is not to shock you, although Glenna was known to wield a “truth hammer” at times, but rather my goal is to drive you deeper into Scripture to peel the onion yourself.
So, to introduce the first truth, let’s start with a question:
True or false: Only PERFECT people go to Heaven?
If you’re like me, before I met Glenna and understood grace and sovereignty, I would have emphatically said FALSE. I would have said that imperfect people go to heaven because they believe in Jesus. We become perfect IN heaven.
But that’s not Biblically true…the first of my 7 truths you won’t hear in church is that God does not grade on a curve. He demands perfection. He demands the law be kept in FULL. Not 75%, not even 99% but 100%. Either we are perfect or don’t go to heaven. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth. James put it in plain text. James 2:10 says that we can’t keep part of the law. It’s all or nothing. And perfection isn’t just required for our actions. God demands the Law be kept in THOUGHT, WORD, and DEED.
Just re-read the story in Matthew 5:21-30. This is where Jesus tells us that sin is more than just an action. Sin can be a thought or a spoken word. Jesus taught that if we merely get angry with another person, we have committed murder in our hearts, and if we look at another person with lust in our eyes, we have committed adultery! It isn’t good enough not to physically commit murder or adultery. God’s grading system demands purity in our hearts and minds as well. We must be without sin in any form to satisfy the Law. We must be perfect. We also know that sin cannot, nor does not, exist in heaven. Therefore, it can’t be right that we only become perfect upon entering the pearly gates. That transformation must happen prior.
And the good news is that it does. It happens when you are “born again.” When you accept Jesus as your savior, you become perfect. That’s what it means to be born again. You are born anew. The confusion lies in that this new creation still dwells in an earthly, sinful body. The flesh will still sin. But you are NOT your flesh. Paul struggled with this in Romans 7:15-18 when he experienced sin by his flesh against what he knows to be true and feels inside. In Romans 7:17 he writes, “It is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” In Romans 8:9, “But you are NOT in the flesh but in the Spirit.” Your new born again identity is not what you see in the mirror, but rather it is what God sees inside. He sees your perfect spirit, not your imperfect flesh.
This was Paul’s mission and is evident throughout his writings. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, he writes in 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new.” And in Galatians 2:20, he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Simply put, Jesus fulfilled the Law for us. He was perfect. He bore our sins. All of them. The ones we’ve committed in the past and the ones our flesh has yet to commit. He was perfect in thought, word, and deed. Our debt has been paid. God’s requirement for perfection has been met through Jesus for those who call upon His name.
God does not grade on a curve but rather on a cross!
Prayer:
Father, your Word tells us that the wages for sin is death. Not the physical death our bodies will inevitably experience, but eternal, spiritual death. We also know that sin is permanently built into our bodies. The only way to perfection is through re-birth. Being born again. For this, mere words cannot thank you appropriately nor enough. We know you demand perfection, and that’s exactly why you sent Your Son to redeem us, namely, to be for us what we could not be on our own. Thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you for nailing our sins to that cross. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for securing my place in Paradise.
Amen!
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