He Was More than Just a Man

[tbpew]

So Nina,
I have not answered your inquiry related to”

Bro, tbpew,
Do You teach sinless perfection?

I went back to your opening post to try and see if you were pointing back to an aspect of a viewpoint held by someone else you are in conversation with…I did not find such a reference, so…..

I do not use the phrase so I guess that’s a pretty good indicator (to me) that I do not actively share any specific scriptural understanding that would conclude this as some expected condition among all born-again believers.

Just for the sake of conversation,
let me make an assumption and then use that assumption as a point of reference for what I DO BELIEVE is light from scripture. The following is a kind of “stream of conscience” --not copy/paste from anything.

Assumption: The term sinless perfection supposes that a believer should live a life that is free (or void) of sin. Now since the phrase includes PERFECTION, that word normally supposes a process bringing one to ‘completed state’, so maybe this phrase that you have made repeated inquiry of me (and others), is speaking of an EXPECTATION that the born-again believer should press toward reaching ---in this life.

I offer two scriptural circumstances/settings for consideration:
1. The nation of Israel passing through the Red Sea as part of their exodus from Egypt.
2. Paul’s witness (seemingly personal) that is read in Romans Chapter 7, and the fact that it FOLLOWS Romans Chapter 6. A chapter that provides such a vivid witness of the death/cutting away that is accomplished when we are buried with Christ in water baptism.

Circumstance No. 1
The Israelites were absolutely delivered from their former taskmaster, Pharaoh, when he was suffocated under the returning waters of the Red Sea. Yet even AFTER having this former taskmaster cutoff/separated from them, they still had to wander in this new place (the wilderness). The purpose for this season in their sojourning was to give space for UNBELIEF to DIE out in preparation for entering into the promised land. So death continued to perform its work for forty more years after the DEATH of their former taskmaster.

Circumstance No.2
Paul is giving us such ‘apples of Gold’ in Romans Chapter 6 concerning an essential understanding: DEATH is the operation that delivers from sin.

Beginning with verse 6 we read what is accomplished in water baptism: DEATH to our FORMER taskmaster –the BODY of SIN!
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

So now, as Israel no longer served Pharaoh in the wilderness, they still had to deal with the presence of UNBELIEF among their members. In like manner, those of us who have been crucified with Christ have to reconcile that we ourselves are DEAD to sin. I submit that we each must deal with the former strongholds that manifest themselves within our members as UNBELIEF.

Verses 7-13 are life freeing.
v. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
v.8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
v.9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
v.10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
v.11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
v.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
v.13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.

Our new birth journey involves that which WE MUST NOT YIELD TO and we MUST YIELD TO.

The taskmaster is DEAD, his dominion over our lives is destroyed in the waters of baptism; being baptized in the name of the one who died for us.
We each must confront what remains as an influence within our own members that is NOT OF FAITH; unbelief should be dying daily, as we recon ourselves dead indeed unto sin.

So Nina, at the very least, that is certainly not sinless perfection at the point of any new birth. I suppose it is reasonable to say that those of us who do sin have not reconciled ourselves dead to sin.