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The devil has deceived people in many ways and with many false doctrines, and the heresy of sinlessness in the flesh is one of them. Not many communities have escaped this heresy, and I am sure that wherever you may live, some false teacher has come along to propagate this doctrine. In fact, from the pulpit, over the radio, and on television, people are subjected to this heresy all over the world.

In view of the widespread area this false doctrine has permeated, we deem it wise to refute this heresy with the Word of God, in order to establish God's people in the truth.

When One Is Saved

First of all, let us notice what happens when a sinner is saved. In Ephesians 2:1, we read, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

This verse teaches us that a person becomes alive spiritually when he is saved. Note, too, that before being saved, the person was "dead" spiritually. Not dead physically; the flesh wasn't dead; but "dead" spiritually. Now when the sinner is saved, he becomes "alive" spiritually. This has nothing to do with the old flesh, but with inner spiritual life in Christ. The flesh has been alive all along. Now the soul is quickened to life, or united to Christ's life.

Notice another verse in John 6:63 - "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." Here we are taught that God's Spirit is the Agent who "quickens" a sinner to spiritual life, and that the flesh is profitless. The flesh is absolutely unprofitable in every respect. It is carnal, not spiritual.

The Two Natures

So when a person is saved, he is "quickened" to life - spiritual life in Christ - by the Spirit of God, and the flesh is not concerned therewith in the least degree. Thus, the Christian now has two natures that are alive - he has the fleshly nature and the spiritual nature. His spiritual nature was once "dead" (without Christ), but is now alive, so there are now two natures. The fleshly nature is the nature that he received from Adam at physical birth, and his spiritual nature is the nature he received from Christ when born again.

Paul tells us of these two natures in Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Here we are told that the two natures of a Christian - his fleshly nature and his spiritual nature - are at war with each other.

Paul teaches the same truth in Romans 7:22-23, 25b: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." We see here that both the spiritual nature and the fleshly nature are in every born-again child of God.

We Do NOT Teach "A Sinning Religion"

I want to say in this connection that Baptists do not teach that a Christian has the privilege of "sinning a little every day," as you may have heard some preacher say over the radio or TV. That doctrine is of the devil, and the idea that Baptists teach such - regardless of who said it - is of the devil. [Read a related sermon by C. H. Spurgeon entitled "The Doctrines of Grace Do Not Lead to Sin" #1735, Romans 6:14-15]

What Baptists teach is exactly what Paul taught - that the flesh is good for nothing (spiritually) and that the Spirit and the old flesh are at war in the Christian. Baptists do not teach that a person can live a "sinless" life in the flesh, for as long as we are in the flesh, we shall have this warfare going on between the Spirit and flesh.

I heard a "sinless perfection" preacher once say that one could live sinless, but he would make "a few errors and mistakes along the way." Now, where did this preacher ever get the idea that errors and mistakes are not breaches of the Law?

God's Law demands absolute perfection, and one error or mistake brings condemnation. Listen to James 2:10 - "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

Sin is sin, despite the fact that some want to excuse it as an error or a mistake.

How Made Perfect

Secondly, look into the Scriptures and read how we are "made perfect." The Law demands perfection, if we are to enter Heaven. Now, how are we to be perfect? Well, we are made absolutely perfect before the Law of God by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Jesus lived in the flesh, under Law, and He kept the Law perfectly. Then He died to satisfy the Law's demands against sin. Thus, He established the Law. He fulfilled both the perceptive and penal sanctions of the Law.

This is the righteousness Christ wrought out for us. It is absolutely perfect. When God saves us, He clothes us with this righteousness, and we stand perfect before the Law. We don't have another deed to do to fulfill the Law's demands, for Christ did it all. Listen to the Scripture:

Brother, sister, you can have all the so-called "sinless perfection" you can muster up, but I would not swap the perfect righteousness that is mine in Christ for all the fleshly righteousness of all the so-called "sinless" people in the world. The whole crowd of self-righteous, hypocritical, white-washed Pharisees will split HELL wide open without the perfect, holy, imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:19-20).

"Cannot Sin?"

Thirdly, I want to show you that the born-again person cannot sin in the new nature - (not the old, but the new) - the nature given to him when he was quickened by the Spirit. Listen to I John 3:9 - "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

Notice that phrase, "he cannot sin, because he is born of God." But according to the notion of the "sinless perfection" crowd, a Christian can sin! I heard one say over the radio just a few days ago that "if you sin after you're saved, you're lost again." But this verse says that a saint cannot sin!

But, what will the "sinless perfection" crowd do with that verse? Will they accept it? If so, they will have to come on over and believe in Eternal Security, for if a person cannot sin, then he is secure eternally. But if they teach that one born of God can sin, then they deny God's Word. Now, which horn will Mr. Sinless Perfection take? He is stabbed to death on either one.

Now, what does this verse teach? It is telling us that the man born of God does not and cannot sin, because the seed of God - the new nature begotten by the Spirit - remains in him. Now, the flesh isn't born of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh. But the "new man" - the spiritual man - is born of God. It is this inward man - the new nature - that does not, and cannot sin.

When God saved us, He did not change our old Adamic fleshly nature one particle; He simply gave us a new nature. Now, we have two: one of them wants to sin, the other fights against sin, and causes us to serve the Lord. All sin is of the old fleshly nature, and all good is of the spiritual nature. This new nature (new man) cannot sin and cannot even approve of a sinful thought.

Another verse that teaches us this same truth is I John 5:18 - "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not."

You see, here we have security again. The new man keeps himself, and the devil cannot touch him. The only nature the devil can touch is the old flesh. The old flesh is nothing but a mass of sin.

We won't have this old body of sin in Heaven, for the Lord will give us a new body. No sinful thing can enter Heaven, so God doesn't take the old sinful body to Heaven! Beloved, the very fact that Christians die, physically, proves that they are not sinless in the body. Do you realize that the only thing that causes either physical or eternal death is sin? Thus, IF we were sinlessly prefect in the flesh, we would never die, for there would be no sin to cause us to die. In view of the fact that we all die, it is quite evident that no one is perfect in the old flesh.

"Sinless Perfectionists" Are Void of the Truth

Lastly, I want to call your attention to God's indictment against those who loudly boast that they are sinless. Let us read in I John 1:8 - "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

Now, the next time you hear a so-called "sinless preacher" or "falling from grace" person tell you how holy he is, you just recall this verse, and remember that it states that such a person does not have the truth in him, and is deceived by himself. Yes, they deceive themselves, the verse says. Do you know what that means? It simply means that a person has hypocritically lied and said that he is sinless, and he has said it so long, he has deceived himself. You know, you can tell a lie for the truth so long that you yourself will believe it. That's the case with so-called "sinless perfectionists." They have deceived themselves.

You know, if a person were to say, "God you are a liar!" we would think that it is a horrible blasphemy. Well, when the so-called sinless, holy people of this world say they have no sin in the flesh, they make God a liar! Let's read the verse again: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John 1:10). All liars shall have their part in the lake of fire, and the man who lies by saying his flesh is sinless is on the road to Hell, in front of the whole line of liars, for he has lied on God. God's Word says that the flesh is full of sin, carnal, sold under sin, but the sinless perfectionist calls God a liar, and says, "Well, here's one exception."

These so-called "sinless perfectionists" know that we don't tell people to "sin a little every day;" they know what we teach. We teach that good works are the fruits of being born of the Spirit; but those works are not motivated by the flesh, but by the Spirit. The flesh profits nothing. The Spirit, thank God, fights against our old flesh, and causes us to win the victory day-by-day.

The trouble with those who boast and talk about "sinless perfection" is that they are blind spiritually, and may need to be born again and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. May God grant that it may be so.

The VERDICT on "Sinless Perfectionism"...

Only a hypocrite would profess to be perfect in the flesh. The most godly Christians who have ever lived were not those who boasted about being "perfect in the flesh," but rather were those who moaned over the sinfulness of their flesh. Nowhere in the Bible do the writers ever claim perfection in the flesh. Why, even in the spiritual realm, the Apostle Paul had this to say, even after he had been saved for a great number of years -

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:12-14

Thus, the man who claims any perfection except that perfection which we have in Christ and the new nature, is a hypocrite. He is not sinless in the flesh and simply lies if he says that he is. He is exactly like the Pharisees of old who thought that they, too, were sinless in the flesh.

Now, this doctrine will make an infidel out of a man because anyone with common sense realizes that he cannot be perfect in the flesh. Thus, when one hears the doctrine of "sinless perfection," and hears all the boasting of the bossy women and hen-pecked men who claim to be sinless, then that man will say, "Well, if that's Christianity, then I don't believe a word of it."

Well, you don't have to be a hypocrite or an infidel; if you will just take your Bible and study it, you will find that what I have preached to you is the Word of God... and that sinless perfection is of the devil.

Author: Bob L. Ross