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b. Scriptural proofs adduced for the doctrine of perfectionism.
(1) The Bible commands believers to be holy and even to be perfect, I Pet. 1:16; Matt. 5:48; Jas.
1:4, and urges them to follow the example of Christ who did no sin, I Pet. 2:21 f. Such
commands would be unreasonable, if it were not possible to reach sinless perfection. But the
Scriptural demand to be holy and perfect holds for the unregenerate as well as for the
regenerate, since the law of God demands holiness from the start and has never been revoked.
If the command implies that they to whom it comes can live up to the requirement, this must
be true of every man. However, only those who teach perfectionism in the Pelagian sense can
hold that view. The measure of our ability cannot be inferred from the Scriptural
commandments.
(2) Holiness and perfection are often ascribed to believers in Scripture, Song of Sol. 4:7; I Cor.
2:6; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 5:27; Heb. 5:14; Phil. 4:13; Col. 2:10. When the Bible speaks of believers as
holy and perfect, however, this does not necessarily mean that they are without sin, since both
words are often used in a different sense, not only in common parlance, but also in the Bible.
Persons set aside for the special service of God are called holy in the Bible, irrespective of their
moral condition and life. Believers can be and are called holy, because they are objectively holy
in Christ, or because they are in principle subjectively sanctified by the Spirit of God. Paul in his
Epistles invariably addresses his readers as saints, that is “holy ones,” and then proceeds in
several cases to take them to task for their sins. And when believers are described as perfect,
this means in some cases merely that they are full-grown, I Cor. 2:6; Heb. 5:14, and in others
that they are fully equipped for their task, II Tim. 3:17. All this certainly does not give
countenance to the theory of sin less perfection.
(3) There are, it is said, Biblical examples of saints who led perfect lives, such as Noah, Job, and
Asa, Gen. 6:9; Job 1:1; I Kings 15:14. But, surely, such examples as these do not prove the point
for the simple reason that they are no examples of sinless perfection. Even the most notable
saints of the Bible are pictured as men who had their failings and who sinned, in some cases
very grievously. This is true of Noah, Moses, Job, Abraham, and all the others. It is true that this
does not necessarily prove that their lives remained sinful as long as they lived on earth, but it
is a striking fact that we are not introduced to a single one who was without sin. The question
of Solomon is still pertinent: “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my
sin?” Prov. 20:9. Moreover, John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us,” I John 1:8.
(4) The apostle John declares explicitly that they who are born of God do not sin, I John 3:6,8,9;
5:18. But when John says that they who are born of God do not sin, he is contrasting the two
states, represented by the old and the new man, as to their essential nature and principle. One