Interestingly, it's possible to be both imperfect and perfect at once, if you go by general Christian theology.
Most Christians consider humans to be by definition imperfect, this being a result of the Fall. Jesus is also generally considered to be a perfect human being. Therefore, even the most perfect human being is still by definition imperfect in some measure, simply by virtue of being human.
Considering the mischief Jesus got himself into as a child, (check Luke 2:41-52) this seems to work out fairly well.
My friend explained that "sin" is inherited from the father. Therefore, only he with an earthly father inherits the sins of man. I wonder if, according to this, geneticists could isolate "sin" on the father's chromosomes and extinguish it? Wow. Sin is an inherited genetic disease.
So apparently, the "Jesus" part of God, the "Son" of the trio, was not supposed to be actually perfect, or else he wouldn't really be human. However, the fact that he is said to be "sinless" causes him to be godly. Interesting paradox, eh?
The basic Christian perspective is that Jesus Christ was entirely human, and entirely divine. I know this may sound like a contradiction in terms, but basically the consensus is that 'He's God, so it doesn't have to make sense.' Of course, this is not what a theologian would tell you, in fact he'd be able to explain it better using a whole bunch of complicated Greek and Latin terms (English lacks a lot of these abstracts), the the outcome would be the same: Jesus is truly God and truly man. The important thing though, was that He was both man and God at once. Yes He farted, and I'm sure he laughed about it. He probably vomited and had nosebleeds as well, probably took longs shits and peed in the bushes behind the carpenter shop in Nazareth, and felt very human emotions, such as rage and jealously, which are perfectly natural human emotions.
But the problem comes when people confuse perfection with sinlessness. No one says Jesus was perfect in every way, just that He was sinless in every way, that he did not willingly commit acts against the will of God, His Father. Even if he felt envy, He would not have acted on it. Even if he wanted to do prostitutes with all his desire, he wouldn't. There is no doubt Jesus was tempted at every corner of His life, and that He could have sinned whenever He wanted to.
Jesus even feels fear and regret for what He eventually has to do, that's the whole point of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He could have done anything He wanted to do, including sin, including zapping all the Romans to Hell. But the point was that He didn't, that He willingly did what He was begotten to do, to die for the sins of all humanity, past present, and future. Christians believe that the pains he experienced were not simply physical, but that He felt real grief, remorse, guilt, despair, anger, and all the pains that were ever caused by every sin ever committed. Being totally God, He was strong enough to undertake all this, but being totally human, He felt all the pain and regret for what He did.
There are many of these 'contradictory' tenets of Christianity, two other popular ones being the whole Trinity, the one God in three persons; and the transubstantiation issue, which involves the essence of Christ's Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine -- according to the Catholic and many Protestant and Orthodox religions, they are not symbols, but Jesus' Body and Blood in essence.
As far as the abovementioned 'fact' that Adam of Eden was perfect, this is simply not true. It's just that sin did not exist before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They did not know what sins were, but they knew God told them not to eat from the tree, and their envy drove them to anyway, the first willful act against God by a human being. However, the point of humanity in a Christian worldview is that we can be forgiven for our sins,that we can freely choose to do good and evil, and that all this is on a ticket paid for by the death and Resurrection of Christ. So basically, humans are free to sin, but do not have to suffer for it, only to ask forgiveness, because all the suffering has already been done.
Just a disclaimer to idiots: I am not at all trying to say that any of this is fact, that you have to or should believe it. I am just stating what my beliefs and the beliefs of most Christians are, so don't go downvote me or message me saying you don't like it. Have an open mind.
Richard Foster, in his book Money, Sex and Power, calls sin "a misdeed of power", and explains the basic sin as being "us exerting our own will over God's"
Defined like this, Jesus' perfection simply means that he never put his own will before God's, that, in his own words, "Not my will, but yours, be done". Jesus was perfect, because wherever his will conflicted with that of God, he submitted to what God wanted, and let his own desires go.
Obviously it's not *quite* that simple, but I feel it goes a long way towards explaining sin and sinlessness.
Footnote: Isn't it crazy that the all-powerful god of the universe seems to make himself vulnerable enough that we can "overpower" him?
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