Reference: II Corinthians13:11, Matthew 5:48, and II Timothy 3:16-17
The subject that I want to deal with inthis tract is the doctrine concerning what has been termed as sinlessperfection, of which very few people today will accept as sound Bibleteaching. Now sinless perfection of course means that a person can be free fromcommitting sin in their life and thus perfect holiness within their very being.Now the church world today will absolutely refuse to accept and believe that aperson can achieve this sinless perfection, but their reasons as to why theyrefuse this teaching is based not on what the word of God may say on thissubject, but rather it's because they themselves have not and cannot attainthis position in their life.
Now the apostle Paul made the statementthat he was not claiming to have attained this position at the time of hiswriting of this epistle to the Philippians, but he absolutely did not in thisepistle deny the truth concerning sinless perfection. All that he did was tosay he had not as of yet attained the position of perfection. The word of Godmost certainly teaches that perfection can be attained in this life and thisposition is the very goal that every believer can and must reach.
I say thisbecause Paul makes it quite plain and to the point in Colossians 1:28-29 thatin these scriptures he warns every man, and teaching every man in allwisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. I myselfdo not claim nor do I teach or tell others that I am perfect, but I will say asPaul said that I forgot those things which are behind and reach forth untothose things which are before and press toward the mark for the prize of thehigh calling of God in Christ Jesus.
This "in Christ position" is theplace of being perfected. We are told if any man be in Christ then he is a newcreature wherein old things are passed away, and all things are become new.Sinless perfection is being perfected in Christ where he (Christ) becomes ourentire life. Christ becomes our entire life manifesting the same life that helived while on this earth in the form of a man.
The only difference between a born againchild of God today and the actual Jesus Christ in the days of the New Testamentera, is the body of flesh he now dwells in, is not the same corporal body thathe dwelled in when he was on this earth hundreds of years agao. A truechristian is a person that Christ has been spiritually formed in and it willactually be the same divine nature of Christ once again being manifested in theflesh.
A true born again child of God today is aperson that has become one with Christ as Christ was one with theFather. The Bible plainly teaches the fact that the believer and Christ becomesone as so stated in John 17:21-23. To be one with Christ means that we are in him and he isin us. If a person is truly in Christ and Christ is in him, then our oldnatural life is hid with Christ in God, as so stated in Colossians 3:3. The life thatwe will now manifest is the very life of the Lord Jesus, which is lived andmanifested through and by the very faith of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:20) It'svery plain to see and understand the doctrine of sinless perfection when wecome to the truth of the matter realizing that Christ becomes our life and itwill then be him living our life for us.
Christ has not become the life of theaverage confessing believer today in the realm of the religious world and forthis cause they can't possibly accept and believe the doctrine of sinlessperfection. The reason as to why the religious world today can't accept thedoctrine of sinless perfection is simply because they are not being taught thetruth concerning how God deals with the total man consisting of body, soul,and spirit.
Many are led to believe that their innerman is the only part of man that becomes born again and that their outer man,which is the body of flesh, is not involved in the spiritual birth. It isbelieved by these people that the flesh will yet sin, but that their inward mandoes not sin.
The word of God makes it very plain thatGod deals with the whole man in the process of the new birth. The new birthdoes not just consist of the inward man being spiritually reborn and made new,but rather the outer man, which is the body of flesh also is involved and mustundergo a change. This change is the crucifying of the lusts and the desires ofthe flesh. This putting to death of the fleshly lusts and desires is exactlywhere the average confessing believer will not come to the light of and acceptas being the truth of God's word taught in the gospel.
The many false prophets that Jesus saidwould rise in these last days has succeeded in deceiving many people just likeJesus said they would do. These false prophets have caused thousands of peopleto accept and believe that sinless perfection cannot be attained in this lifeand that sin cannot be completely overcome in the christian's life. The falseprophets doctrine denies the truth concerning what the baptism of the HolyGhost is and how this is accomplished in the life of the believer. Manyreligious groups deny a Holy Ghost baptism altogether while many others arebeing deceived concerning the truth of it. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is theone baptism spoken of in Ephesians 4:5 and is accomplished on a person in a daily process as Heleads the believer into all truth revealed in the gospel.
The Holy Ghost is received upon obedienceto God's word dealing with this subject, and he will then proceed to lead thebeliever into the truth of the gospel and it is this revealed word of God thatspiritually transforms the believer into the kingdom of God's dear Son makingthem an entirely new creation in Christ Jesus.
This new creation is brought about firstby the Spirit of God taking up his abode in the believer's heart thus purifyingthe heart, and then the Holy Spirit will lead the believer into all therevealed truth of the gospel and it is this revealed word of truth thatspiritually renews the mind and spiritually crucifies the lusts and the desiresof the flesh. The crucifying of the lusts and desires of the flesh brings thebody into subjection to the will of God and the body will then be what Paulcalls dead to sin. The body becomes dead to sin, but becomes alive unto God andwe are to yield our members of our body as instruments of righteousness and notas instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
The yielding of ourselves unto God willeventually mortify the deeds of the flesh and sin will not have dominion overus anymore. We are told in Romans 8:13 that if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of ourbody, then we shall live, but if we do not then God will turn us over to thelusts and desires of the flesh to be destroyed just like he did to Cain and allthe others who failed to obey God.
We absolutely can perfect pure holinesswithin us, but for any man to reject the truth God will see to it that theywill receive lies to be eternally damned forever.....