QUESTION: Praise God Pastor, I Am Arthur and would like to know whether it is possible to live a sinless life as a Christian. Can I attain perfection as a Christian?
Arthur
RESPONSE: Brother Arthur, praise the name of Jesus and I appreciate you asking the question. According to certain religious doctrines, sinless perfection is a condition for acceptance by one’s god. According to the teaching, as a believer, you can live a life free from sin. To reach perfectionism in such settings, believers fight to stay away from sin and various compromising environments and conditions. According to these religious beliefs, it is each believer’s responsibility to strive for perfection, while God demands it of them.
Let me continue answering this question about perfection by telling you a story.
“A gentleman once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same idol?” “No,” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.” The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. “Where is the damage?” he asked. “There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” said the sculptor, still busy with his work. “Where are you going to install the idol?” The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. “If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?” the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, “I know it and God knows it!”
The irony of those who follow this path of perfectionism is that they constantly have some imperfection in their lives, and both they and God are aware of it. To immediately answer your question, it is impossible to lead a sinless life and to achieve perfectionism—not even in front of oneself or a higher authority like God.
Sinlessness and Perfection
In John 8 Jesus Christ had an audience of Pharisees and Pharisees were advocates of sinlessness and perfection. To this audience, Jesus made two powerful statements that I would like to draw your attention to. The first is in John 8:7 which says: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
The Pharisees claimed they had caught a woman committing adultery and according to the law she deserved stoning however, in the legal code, a sinner could only be stoned by sinless people. Jesus then asked the audience to choose the sinless among them to stone the guilty sinner to death and none was able. None was able not because all of them had committed the same sin of adultery but rather while they were not guilty of adultery, they were guilty of another sinning in other areas of their lives. In most cases, those who claim perfection intend sinlessness in one area at the expense of other areas.
The second statement Jesus made to the same audience in the same respect is in John 8:46; “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” This question was addressed to the society jury and the most righteous of all and still, they couldn’t accuse Jesus of any sin. This statement proves that only Jesus was Sinless and Perfect in all areas of life.
To be perfect and sinless therefore is not in what we are to do but rather in who we are. Sinlessness and perfection are issues of identity before lifestyle. For the word of God says: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10Psalm 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; 1 Timothy 1:15). Sinlessness and perfection are therefore two impossibilities due to nature not nurture.
Nature not Nurture
We often tend to view sin merely as wrong actions and perfection as consistent right actions. This however is a misunderstanding of what sin and perfection are in the Bible. Sinning in the Bible is not what we do (Exodus 20) but who we are (Mathew 5:27-28; Romans 7:15, 18, and 24). We are not sinners by doing but sinners by being (Psalm 51:5) it is in this context therefore that regardless of the good we do, we cannot be sinless or even perfect for given the standard all our righteous works are but filthy-stinky rags (Isaiah 64:6).
The righteous deeds are filthy not in essence (for they are righteous) but they are filthy because of who (sinner doing good) does them. It is for this reason that after you have done all right and all good you still do not qualify to say you are not a sinner, for such a claim makes you more sinful (1 John 1:8). We are, therefore, sinners and imperfect by nature (who we are) before nurture (what we do). Mangoes that define a mango tree are in the DNA of the tree, so it is a mango tree even without mangoes.
Sinlessness and Perfection are the absence of the potential to sin and fail. As long as there is a small potential to fail or to sin, then one is not sinless and they cannot be perfect.
What it means to be perfect
The Pharisees and other cultures and religious people who obey the law to the dot achieve what I call; subjective perfection. This is a perfection one acquires by achieving human standards (Romans 2:11-14). This is the first kind of perfection addressed in the Bible and many appreciate this. Subjective Perfectionism and sinlessness are demonstrated in legal, religious, and cultural gymnastics of doing good. However, this is mere ‘doing good‘ but not ‘being good’ necessarily. This kind of sinlessness and perfection is determined by the means (what is done).
When biblical characters are addressed as ‘Perfect’ the Hebrew and Greek terms (for instance in Genesis 6:9; 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1Kings 15:14; James 3:2) do not mean Sinless. The idea of perfect in the Bible is not moral but rather a state of being.
In Mathew 5:48 Jesus said: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Our father in heaven follows no moral code that he is at risk of falling away; but rather he is the standard of being and his attitude towards both sinners and so-called saints is a state.
In the context of Mathew 5, Jesus is asking us his followers to have a standard attitude of love to our enemies regardless of their actions. Now, this is what I call ‘Objective perfection’, we are perfect when we believe God the same way in good and horrible situations (Romans 8:35-39). The New Testament use of the term perfect is about the End/state, not the Means.
God bless you,
I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Priest M.I.T White (+256-775 822833)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 