BLJ: I would get this one a lot. "So, you think you are perfect?" Sanctified believers are not perfect. They still make mistakes, make errors in judgment, and fall short of God's perfection all the time. However, the motives of the heart are pure. I can be in error, but with a pure heart. The sanctified heart is one of pure love: pure love for God and pure love for his neighbor.
Do you teach a sinless perfection?
Our answer must be according to what is meant by "sinless perfection;" which is a term we never use in teaching Christian perfection.
1. If by sinless perfection be meant infallibility, or a state in which the soul cannot sin, we answer, No. We believe in no such perfection in this life; and further, we know of no one who teaches any such thing, although has been asserted over and over, thousands of times, by the opposers of Christian perfection.
2. If by this term be meant, a perfect fulfillment of the Paradisiacal law of innocence, and freedom from all voluntary transgressions of the law of love, we answer, No. Mr. Wesley says: "Therefore sinless perfection is phrase I never use, lest I should seem to contradict myself. I believe a person filled with the love of God still liable to these involuntary transgressions. Such transgressions you may call sins, if you please; I do not." Plain Account, p. 67
3. If by this phrase be meant, a perfect observance of the evangelical law of love, so as to love God with all the heart, soul, and strength, we answer, by the grace of God, Yes. See Deut. xxx. 6.
4. If it be meant a moral condition, in which the soul has no disposition to sin, and will not sin, and by the grace of God is kept from sinning, we answer Yes, to the glory and praise of God.
5. If this question means, does God fully pardon all our sinful acts and absolve us from all guilt, and does He entirely cleanse the soul from a sinful state, so that it becomes pure, or entirely free from sinful proclivities we answer, Yes.
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