The Perfect Doctrine has its Weaknesses
The spiritual giant, John Wesley, thought that for the Christian, perfection was possible in this life. On a careful study of the bible and our experience, however, we know that this is not the case. It is with Piper that I resonate:
“The longer I live the less optimistic I am that I will end without sin and the more grateful I become for the blood of Christ imputed to me. As I grow older I do not feel myself becoming gloriously holy but I find myself feeling great love for the gospel.” - John Piper
As my holiness trods along with all of its mess-ups and backtracks, more and more I realize sin that I've lived with my whole life and never realized. While my sin doesn't keep ratcheting up, my awareness of my sin grows. As I grow, I am more and more thankful for a perfection that is outside myself that I can't mess up. In short, sin in a born-again believer's life is real.
The Penitent Heart
What shall we say then? Should we retract all that we said about the fruit and spiritual practices? By no means! God judges the heart.
"The mark of the Christian is not perfection, but the fight of faith showing itself in imperfect love by the power of the Spirit and in the joyful confidence that God justifies the ungodly." - John Pipebomb
How do you feel about your sin? Do you view it as a simple bad habit that should maybe go? Do you minimize or rationalize? OR do you wage war going as far as gouging out your eye? (Matt. 18:9 - figurative, but shows attitude towards sin). Do you get on your knees in helplessness pleading to a sovereign God to set you free? Do you hate your sin? This is the attitude of the regenerated heart, a heart that is soft to God and correction.
Sin Yet Remains
However, though the new heart is inclined to hate sin, the reality is that sin will happen. Sin itself is not evidence against the new birth. 1 Kings assures us that "there is no man who does not sin (8:46)". Jesus, in laying down a pattern to pray, tells us to pray "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us..."
Even from the two most challenging books in the whole Bible we are affirmed that one will not be perfect after being born again. "For we all stumble in many ways(James 3:2) ", James writes.
In 1 John, while John says some crazy things like "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning (3:6)" and "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil(3:8)", he also writes plainly that "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1:8)"
Finally, as if that wasn't enough, we see Paul, yes the Paul that wrote the Bible, still struggling with the sin that plagues him.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:19,24-25)
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