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Ellen G. White, the
prophet of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
said we must.
“Now, while our great
High Priest is making the atonement for us,
we should seek to become perfect in Christ.
Not even by a thought could our Saviour be
brought to yield to the power of temptation.
Satan finds in human hearts some point where
he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire
is cherished, by means of which his
temptations assert their power. But Christ
declared of Himself: “The prince of this
world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John 14:30.
Satan could find nothing in the Son
of God that would enable him to gain the
victory. He had kept His Father’s
commandments, and there was no sin in Him
that Satan could use to his advantage. This
is the condition in which those must be
found who shall stand in the time of
trouble.” (The Great Controversy, p.
623).
“Those only who through
faith in Christ obey all of God’s
commandments will reach the condition of
sinlessness in which Adam lived before his
transgression. They testify to their love of
Christ by obeying all His precepts.”
(Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary,
Vol. 6, p. 1118).
“In order to let
Jesus into our hearts, we must stop
sinning.” (Signs of the Times, March 3,
1898).
“To be redeemed means to cease
from sin.” (Review & Herald, September 25,
1900).
Can we be sinless in
this life?
Those who believe in
perfectionism will usually quote Matthew 5:48
that says, “You therefore must be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”
The word used for “perfect”
in Matthew 5:48 does not mean sinless
perfectionism. It is the Greek word “téleios”
which means, “complete, goal, purpose, or
that which has reached its end and wanting
nothing.” [The Complete Word Study
Dictionary, The New Testament].
Those
people who believe we can stop sinning in
this life have to reject what the Apostle
John said in 1 John 1:8 which says, “If we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.”
No one
will ever be justified by keeping the law
perfectly. Galatians 2:16 says, “yet we know
that a person is not justified by works of
the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,
so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in
order to be justified by faith in Christ and
not by works of the law, because by works of
the law no one will be justified.”
If you think you can keep
the Law and become perfect, you are under
the same strong delusion that the Galatian
Church fell under.
It is foolishness
to go back under the law after embracing
biblical faith. Paul said the perfectionists were
acting as if they are under a spell.
Galatians 3:1-5 says, “O foolish Galatians!
Who has bewitched you? It was before your
eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly
portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you
only this: Did you receive the Spirit by
works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the
Spirit, are you now being perfected by the
flesh? Did you suffer so many things in
vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who
supplies the Spirit to you and works
miracles among you do so by works of the
law, or by hearing with faith—”
The
law brings a curse on everyone who fails to
keep it perfectly. Galatians 3:10 says, “For
all who rely on works of the law are under a
curse; for it is written, “Cursed be
everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the Book of the Law, and do
them.” (cf. Deut. 27:26; Rom. 10:5; James 2:8-10).
The law is a
prison that enslaves everyone who tries to
live by it.
Galatians 3:22-23 says,
“But the
Scripture imprisoned everything under sin,
so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ
might be given to those who believe. Now
before faith came, we were held captive
under the law, imprisoned until the coming
faith would be revealed.”
Christ had
to redeem us from the curse of the law in
order for us to be saved through faith in
Him alone.
Galatians 3:13 says,
“Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us — for it is written,
“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
Everyone sins. Every one of us,
every day, even us good ol’ Christians. We
commit sins of commission (doing that which
we shouldn’t do), and sins of omission (not
doing something we should do). We may sin by
taking the Lord’s name in vain, or lust in
our flesh for a fleeting moment of weakness,
but no matter how hard we try, we constantly
sin and will never become perfect this side
of heaven.
Even the best of us is
totally unworthy. Isaiah 64:6 says,
“All of us have become like one who is
unclean, and all our righteous acts are like
filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
(NIV)
So what did Jesus mean when He
said we must be perfect?
The Bible
says that when we accept Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior, we are credited with
Christ’s righteousness and made perfect in
God’s eyes.
Romans 3:21-24 says,
“But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested apart from the law, although the
Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there
is no distinction: for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and
are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus,”
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Becoming
perfect is not something we can achieve by
controlling
our own thoughts and actions. Christ’s
righteousness is given to us by God when we
believe in His Son and follow Him. There is
no other way of becoming perfect in this
life!
God declares us righteous
because of what Christ has done for us! That
is not the same thing as being without sin
in this life.
Our goal should be to
become more like Christ in every way! When
we strive to be sinless we are focused on
our performance. Christ wants us to be more
like Him, and we do that by letting the Holy
Spirit into our lives. We need to focus on
Christ to be transformed into His likeness,
and reflect His glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
The Apostle Paul told us what it meant
for him to grow in maturity.
Philippians 3:7-16 says, “But whatever gain
I had, I counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain
Christ and be found in him,
not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which comes through faith in
Christ, the righteousness from God that
depends on faith — that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection, and may
share his sufferings, becoming like him in
his death, that by any means possible I
may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or
am already perfect,
but I press on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me
his own. Brothers, I do not consider that
I have made it my own.
But one thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead,
I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of
us who are mature think this way, and if in
anything you think otherwise, God will
reveal that also to you. Only let us hold
true to what we have attained.”
Paul
said that he was not yet fully mature, but he
pressed on to maturity because of the
greatness of knowing Christ personally. He
was not perfect in himself, but through
Christ he knew he would one day be made
perfect with
Christ in the resurrection. Paul glorified
in the fact that he was growing spiritually in
Christ more and more each day. He had
learned that his righteousness was worthless
apart from Christ’s righteousness.
We can all have
the same kind of personal relationship with
Jesus Christ that Paul and the other
apostles had.
We are not saved
by keeping the Ten Commandments, or through any merit of our own. Paul could
rejoice in the Lord because he had learned
what it meant to trust in Christ’s
righteousness alone, and not to look to his
own self-righteousness for salvation.
Look at how the Bible describes our
righteousness in Christ.
Ephesians 1:13 says, “In him you also, when
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, and believed in him, were
sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who
is the guarantee of our inheritance until we
acquire possession of it, to the praise of
his glory.”
Notice that it is the
Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our
inheritance, not us living without sin. No
amount of law-keeping can redeem us.
Romans 10:4 says, “For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone who
believes.”
We are saved by grace in
the Son of God (Ephesians 2:8-10). God wants
us to believe in Him, not be perfect in
ourselves.
Romans 5:17 says,
“For if, because of one man’s trespass,
death reigned through that one man, much
more will those who receive the abundance of
grace and the free gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man Jesus
Christ.”
Galatians 5:5 says, “For through the Spirit,
by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the
hope of righteousness.”
None of these
verses say that we can become perfect in
this life. When we believed in Jesus Christ
we were credited with His righteousness, not
our own.
Romans 4:5 says,
“And to the one who does not work but
believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted as righteousness,”
To be justified means to be declared
righteous by God.
Justification is an act of God
whereby He pronounces a sinner to be legally
declared righteous because of that sinner’s
faith in Christ alone (cf. Rom. 3:28; 5:1; 8:33).
Christians can know that they have salvation
right here, and right now. Our sins are blotted out
when we repent and give our lives to Christ.
Isaiah 44:22 says, “I have blotted out
your transgressions like a cloud and your
sins like mist; return to me, for I have
redeemed you.”
Acts 3:19
says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that
your sins may be blotted out,”
Hebrews 10:12-14 says,
“But when Christ had offered for all time a
single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at
the right hand of God, waiting from that
time until his enemies should be made a
footstool for his feet. For by a single
offering he has perfected for all time those
who are being sanctified.”
1 John 1:7
says, “But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son
cleanses us from all sin.”
Romans 5:9
says, “Since, therefore, we have now been
justified by his blood, much more shall we
be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
The Bible
tells us that God’s children do not come under
negative judgment.
John 5:24
says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
hears my word and believes him who sent me
has eternal life. He does not come into
judgment, but has passed from death to
life.”
John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me. I give them eternal life, and
they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of my hand.”
Romans 8:1
says, “There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus.”
Romans 5:1-2 says,
“Therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also
obtained access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of
the glory of God.”
Christians never have to fear
for their salvation. Whoever accepts Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior has (present
tense), eternal life.
1 John 5:11-13 says, “And this
is the testimony, that God gave us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does
not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God that you may
know that you have eternal life.”
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.”
John 17:3 says,
“Now this is eternal life: that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent.”
Romans 6:23
says, “For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
John 3:36 says,
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life, but whoever rejects the Son will not
see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
1 Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good
fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal
life to which you were called when you made
your good confession in the presence of many
witnesses.”
1 John 3:14 says, “We
know that we have passed out of death into
life, because we love the brothers. Whoever
does not love abides in death.”
The goal of the New Covenant is for
us to learn to love.
Matthew 22:34-40
says, “But when the Pharisees heard that he
had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered
together. And one of them, a lawyer,
asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your
mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. On
these two commandments depend all the Law
and the Prophets.’”
The only way we can
actually love the way Jesus wants us to love is
for the Holy Spirit to transform us into
Christ’s image and give us God’s love in our
hearts.
Romans 5:2-5 says, “Through
him we have also obtained access by faith
into this grace in which we stand, and we
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not
only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, and hope does not
put us to shame, because God’s love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us.”
Jude 1:21 says, “keep yourselves in the love
of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
No one can be perfect in this life
apart from Christ.
We
will one day be made perfect but that will
only happen when Christ comes to take us
home to be with Him for eternity. The Bible tells us we
have a corruptible flesh that cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. We have to be
transformed and made new by Christ to take
part in the resurrection.
We will become physically and
spiritually perfected when Christ returns for
us.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 says, “Now this I
say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God; nor does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold,
I tell you a mystery: We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. So
when this corruptible has put on
incorruption, and this mortal has put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written: “Death is
swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where
is your sting? O Hades, where is your
victory?” The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord.” (NKJV)
Trusting in Christ’s
righteousness is the only way to receive eternal life!
Always try to remember Romans 8:1,
“There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus.” And John 5:24
which says, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life. He does not
come into judgment, but has passed from
death to life.”
If someone
like Ellen G. White tells you
that you need to be sinless before Christ
comes, don’t listen to them.
We do not have to
become sinless to gain eternal life. You can
believe God’s Word when He says that every
true believer has eternal life the moment
they truly believe. If we don’t
believe that we have eternal life right now,
then we are not trusting in Christ
righteousness alone to
save us. We need to stop focusing on our
fallen flesh because we have already been
made perfect and given Christ’s
righteousness when we trust in Him for our
salvation.
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