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In this episode of Hebrew Voices #222 - You Can’t Be Perfect—Can You?: Part 1, Nehemia is joined by Pastor AJ Bernard to discuss what “being perfect” means in context of Scripture, as they debunk and reaffirm various perceptions about how people can attain Biblical “perfection.”

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Nehemia: “And he reckoned it for him as righteousness.” What does that mean?

Pastor AJ Bernard: So, trusting in the Lord is how Abraham is made righteous. Believing that Yehovah is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do is how Abraham is made perfect.

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Nehemia: Shalom, and welcome to Hebrew Voices. I have here today, Pastor AJ Bernard, who is a licensed pastor at the Global Methodist Church.

And can I call you a lover of Torah?

AJ: Yes, absolutely.

Nehemia: Okay, beautiful. We’ve done programs in the past, AJ, and I just love your heart. And you reached out to me, I don’t know, a year or two ago, and I said, “We need to do a program on that!” And I never got to it. And I’m like, “Where’s AJ? I need to do this program with him that he brought up to me.”

So, I’m going to let you do kind of the introduction of what the topic is, because it’s been a while. And it was a program that I had presented, and you had contacted me and told me it really resonated with you. And I’m like, “We need to share that with people.”

AJ: Yeah.

Nehemia: I think it could bless a lot of people.

AJ: I really hope so. The program that I found was on your Nehemia Gordon Clips channel, and it was a clip from Hebrew Gospel Pearls #29 where you were talking about Numbers chapter 15 and verse 30… Numbers 15 and 30. I probably should have pulled that up here before I started talking.

Nehemia: And, guys, I asked him to move back from the keyboard, and so, he’s going to have to, like, stretch to be able to type. I’m sorry about that AJ, because your head was filling up too much of the…

AJ: Oh…

Nehemia: By the way, I love your new hairdo since I’ve last seen you. A man after my own heart.

AJ: Yes. I wanted to be more like Nehemia.

Nehemia: Well, I tell people this is a choice. Say, choice.

AJ: Good choice.

Nehemia: I didn’t say it’s much of a choice, but it’s a choice.

AJ: [Laughter]

Nehemia: You could always do that kind of squirrel sitting on your head, kind of swirl thing. It takes several years. You can do it! I can do it.

AJ: Actually, it goes backwards. I could do the, you know, the medieval monk tonsure thing with the bald spot on the top and the hair on the side.

Nehemia: Wow! I think the tonsure has to have hair in front, AJ.

AJ: Well, I can do that. There’s a little bit there, but not a whole lot.

Nehemia: I’m with you.

AJ: [Laughter] So, the…

Nehemia: All right. So, Numbers 15, let me pull that up as well, and go ahead and tell me…

AJ: Yeah, yeah. The teaching that I saw, you were talking to Keith. I found another recording that you had done where you were speaking to Jono about it, but your conversation with Keith just… I don’t want to put too much emphasis on this. I don’t want to say it too strongly, but can I say, your teaching with Keith changed my life forever?

Nehemia: Okay, people need to hear; what is the intelligent thing I said? Because I don’t remember.

AJ: [Laughter]

Nehemia: Every once in a while, I have a piece of wisdom that comes through. You know, I’m Balaam’s donkey, and every once in a while, Yehovah allows some truth to come out of my mouth. Hopefully more than every once in a while.

AJ: Because I love you, I’m going to tease you a little bit.

Nehemia: Please tease me.

Nehemia: The beautiful thing that you said was when you were quoting Yeshua. So…

Nehemia: Okay. I think I was quoting my father, but he stole it from Yeshua.

AJ: You were quoting your father, who was quoting Yeshua. Yes.

Nehemia: Unbeknownst to him, he was quoting Yeshua, yes. I remember this now, yes.

AJ: [Laughter]. Yes. And I heard this, and I was sitting on the edge of my chair, staring at my screen, waiting to hear what you were going to say. And when your father quoted Yeshua on this passage, I broke down in tears. Yeah. Because it was so beautiful. So, this passage… beginning at verse 27 of Numbers chapter 15. I’m reading from the ESV. “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat, a year old for a sin offering, and a priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who makes a mistake, and when he sins unintentionally to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.”

Nehemia: Which translation is this? That’s going to be important.

AJ: I’m sorry. I’m reading from the ESV, the English Standard Version.

Nehemia: That’s great. We’ll go back and I’ll nitpick about little words there, but more or less, that’s what it says. Yeah.

AJ: Well, I also have the JPS and the King James here if…

Nehemia: That’s fine. Let’s stick with the ESV for now.

AJ: All right. Verse 29. “You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among