perfection
is it possible to stop sinning?
“Can anything be more amiable than this? Anything more desirable?” John Wesley
“A more gross and revolting error could not be conceived” Dr. John A. Todd
The two men quoted above are commenting on the doctrine of Christian Perfection. A term coined by Wesley, Christian Perfection represents the view that we can be free from sin in this lifetime—we can love God so totally that we completely stop sinning. The comments above are an illustration of how divergent the views on this matter have been. Rightly or wrongly, this is a question that has been of great interest to Christians, and in the last few hundred years it has been fiercely debated. At first we may want to agree with Wesley and ask, “Can there be a more attractive doctrine?” In this article we will attempt to understand John A. Todd's reaction and answer the question, “Can we stop sinning?”
The teaching of Charles Finney
Though it was Wesley who in recent history brought these ideas to the attention of the church I will look first at Finney's statement of them, a man who taught Christian Perfection in America in the mid-1800's. In his Lectures to Professing Christians, Finney published two sermons entitled Christian Perfection. I will be looking at the one labelled Chapter 19.
Finney first explains what is not to be understood by the term Christian Perfection. He says that Christian Perfection does not require:
- The same natural perfections that God has. He defines God's natural perfections as eternity, immutability, omnipotence and asserts that they have no moral character and are not voluntary. We are not required to have them because we are created as beings without those properties.
- Perfection of knowledge. We will never be omniscient (all knowing).
- Freedom from temptation. It is not sinful to be tempted—Jesus himself was tempted—the sin is our voluntary consent to the desires that the temptation arouses.
- Freedom from spiritual warfare.
- Infinite moral perfection. We, unlike God, cannot have infinite "affections" (e.g. infinite love, infinite desire for good).
What kind of perfection does he mean by Christian Perfection then? “It is perfect obedience to the law of God. The law of God requires perfect, disinterested, impartial benevolence, love to God and love to our neighbour. It requires that we should be actuated by the same feeling, and to act on the same principles that God acts upon; to leave self out of the question as uniformly as he does, to be separated from selfishness as he is; in a word, to be in our measure as perfect as God is.”
Perfect obedience to the law of God? Complete unselfishness? It seems too good to be true. Is such a state really possible for a Christian? He goes on to explain that it is not only possible, it is a duty of every Christian for the following reasons:
- Because God requires it. Here he quotes Jesus from Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (ESV)
- Because God has no right to require anything less. He writes, “God cannot discharge us from the obligation to be perfect, as I have defined perfection. If he were to attempt it, he would just so far give a license to sin.
- Because it is nonsense to argue that the gospel requires less holiness than the law did. The question “How much less?” shows this to be ridiculous.
I find these to be convincing reasons. God does indeed require nothing less than full obedience and perfect holiness, he does so because of his character, and the gospel does not ask us to be less holy than the law of Moses did, it asks us to be more so.
Most Christians would agree with Finney at this point, I imagine, but Finney's next argument is the point at which the doctrinal battles begin: “I will now show that Christian Perfection is attainable, or practicable, in this life.”
Am I perfect now...? What about now? Now?
The reasons that Finney gives for arguing that such perfection is attainable are basically two: that God commands it, and on the basis of the strong language used in the Bible. Language such as this:
2 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV)
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
or this:
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV)
26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Some would object at this point and say, “Well of course the Scriptures urge us to, and promise us complete sanctification, but we will never reach such a state in this life.” Others will find this a discouraging remark, implying that we will never make any progress and that we must always keep sinning.
I have sympathies with both points of view but the sin survey that was found on the front page of this site during the month of February yielded this insightful response:
“Three nights ago, there was a point at 3:02 am where I am sure I didn't sin for 3 seconds.”
That is exactly the kind of nonsense that follows if our concern is to reach a point where we no longer sin. For example, say someone didn't sin for six years, but then sinned just once. Had they attained Christian Perfection for six years or should you argue that since they sinned that one time they hadn't attained it?* Why talk about such a long period? Can I attain to Christian Perfection for five hours? Four minutes? Three seconds? Am I perfect between every sin?
Danger: Sinlessness
Hopefully you can now see that argument about whether it is possible to stop sinning is merely a distraction. If our love for God is sincere then such a possibility is certainly no incentive to holiness. But there are dangers to this view that cannot be swept aside so easily. The views of Wesley and Finney and the movements that have grown out of their teaching are deadly because they advocate a two-stage Christianity.
The “Higher Life” is one such movement that took on board the teaching of Christian Perfection. B.B. Warfield, in his book Perfection gives an account of William Edwin Boardman who wrote the original book, The “Higher Life”:
The “two great and equal wants of the sinner,” he [Boardman] declares to be these: “he must be just in the eye of the law, justified before God. And he must also be holy in heart and life”—in heart as well as in life, observe—“or he cannot be saved.” p. 230-231 of Perfectionism
Boardman believed that there were two separate experiences—justification and sanctification—and that while these may occur at the same time or may occur with a long or short interval between them, they both must occur if the person is to be saved. Warfield goes on to quote Boardman's teaching on the nature of this “second experience”:
“the second is the higher stage, and more difficult too. It is really harder to overcome sin in the heart, than to break away from the world at first. And it is harder to come to the point of trusting in Jesus to subdue one's own heart entirely to himself, than to venture upon him for the forgiveness of sin.” p. 140 of The “Higher Life”
You might expect that such teaching would imply that justification was by faith but sanctification was by works. This is not so. Wesley speaks thus of how perfection is attained:
Though we are not encouraged by any of these men to receive perfection by works, it is almost impossible to conceive how we could receive it by faith. Am I to just believe that I can be sinless and then stop sinning? A Christian who I once met from England told me that this belief had in fact led to legalism in the churches he was involved with. In many ways it makes sense that this would be the case. If we are taught that a state of sinlessness is attainable, indeed is only a step of faith away, we will become obsessed with our own perfection and perhaps even too proud to admit that we are not perfect.
Love
Wesley may have had the holiest of motives in his teaching, but proclaiming a two-stage Christianity will always leave Christian minds fixed on that second stage. A Christian life that is motivated by a desire for personal perfection is no Christian life at all. Rather, genuine love for God and for each other is to be our motivation. Of course we want our love to be a perfect one, of course we never want to fail God, or grieve the Spirit in even the slightest thing, but our minds must be fixed on the present. What is the best thing for me to do right now? How can I love my wife right now? How can I most glorify God right now? If, in the future, I don't sin for seven straight minutes, glory be to God, but a mind fixed on a state of perfection attainable in the future if I only believe is a mind that is unproductive.
“To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too—just so much as is neccessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow.” Screwtape, senior devil. (Letter 15)
Ben is not perfect.
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