But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.  2 Timothy 3:14-17 

Still, I like having the choice. What I choose to do with it will say something, one way or another, about the things I value. There is at least a lesson worth learning in that.

Af the moment this new way of posting is proving useful since I'm alone in my office without my Mac. I came by with Sharon for our second meeting with a baptismal candidate, someone who is becoming a friend. That meeting is over. Now I'm waiting for Sharon to finish rehearsing with her worship team.

I think now would be a good time to stop writing with both thumbs and do some reading.

A mature woman with long, brown, stringy hair, her right hand clinched palm up, awkwardly, unnaturally like a claw, walked next to a shorter, older woman, someone I imagined as her mother. I couldn’t remember ever seeing legs so thin. They were tightly wrapped in black jeans. How did she get them on? One leg seem thinner than the other. Unable to fully lift her right foot, she pulled it behind her, catching the edge of her white shoe where the asphalt met the sidewalk. She wore a flowing black cloak festooned with brightly colored musical notes and a keyboard, perhaps in memory of a time when she could extend her long fingers toward the piano. A young, bulging woman laughed behind her, at her I think; her husband looked down at his feet as he shushed her. 

I thought of Christ in his suffering, of the call to share his sufferings. I thought more about my vanity.

As for the ARCHIVES, the renewed link is at the top of the page, left side, in the header next to “home journal”. 

The archives are listed in three ways. 1. By category 2. By title…it’s a long, long list 3. By month, at the bottom of the page. 

I hope I can recover the other lost pages. If not, it will be a slow process of rebuilding. 

I’ve also re-instated an old feature, recent comments, just to your left in the sidebar, in case you want to see who is saying what lately. It seems certain older post still catch a lot of google search traffic. 

By naming a person, a thing, an idea—to name anything—is to distinguish one thing from another. In doing so we also locate it; if we can say what something is we can better say where it is. This includes ourselves. Definition helps locate us in the world. With good definition we are better able to know our relationship to others who have their own names, their own locations. We are better able to see where we are, where we’ve been, or where we might go. 

However, if a word can mean anything it means nothing. Without meaning we are also dislocated, disconnected, indistinguishable in the world.

There are limits in naming, in defining things. Everything exists with an edge. To define something or someone marks a line, a boundary between what is and is not, what is mine and what is yours. Living with edges, painful though it be, is necessary. Without the edge definition creates we cannot separate or come together with any tangible meaning. We may become aliens to those we might have known by name. 

Ignoring our need of definition and the importance of a clear identity creates and multiplies confusion, as well as frustration, anger, and alienation. Reality must be definable to be lived in and lived with. 

With this said, I’ll ask a question I think is relevant today. How do I define my faith and practice in relation to God and others? (My reality is one of belief in God.)

How do I define my beliefs? How does history (events in time and space) shape or change my identity? How does culture? How does God? Each of these things has a name of their own. Do I know the relation one of these things bears to the other? 

If I cannot name my faith, how can I rightly say I have one? And does the name I give it correspond to the name others recognize as the same? If I identify my faith and practice in a way that other “believers” do not recognize, how can I have any sense of unity with them in my faith and practice? How can they have a sense of knowing me as they know themselves if we both take the name but define it differently?

But let’s go further…how do the contexts of time and place, the proximity of one thing to another, and other such matters, how might these change the meaning of thing? Does a thing mean the same thing in a different context? Change matters to us. Does it not effect meaning and definition? If so, should we resist change for the sake of feeling safer, more well-defined in a secure past than in a less-sure future?

There is this problem of our less than perfect perceptions. Like all other things, we too have our limits, limits that very with age, education, experience, health, and so forth. What I perceived as a child changes as an adult. With knowledge in time, definitions may change, broaden, expand, or even contract, just as weather alters the boundaries of the earth. 

Definition may bring certainty in an uncertain world. But the process of definition, the ongoing need to redefine the things I once knew by another name, may also bring doubt, if at least for a little while. 

As the apostle Paul said, we only know in part. We see through a glass darkly. Therefore, we need faith, hope, and love to transcend the mystery of our living ignorance, something more to pierce the unnamed darkness that threatens us. 

That “something” we need also has a name. They called his name, Jesus. 

Just a few thoughts before bedtime, a little game of “Name that Thing”. 

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” 

Proverbs 29.20

“For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words”.

Ecclesiastes 3.5

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” 

Matthew 12.33-36

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord. 
He is like a tree planted by water, 
that sends out its roots by the stream, 
and does not fear when heat comes, 
for its leaves remain green, 
and is not anxious in the year of drought, 
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things,
 and desperately sick;
 who can understand it?
“ I the Lord search the heart
 and test the mind,
 to give every man according to his ways, 
according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 17.7-10

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.“ I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

Matthew 3.4-12

Too often the preacher’s felt-needs, his spiritual hunger or spiritual drought, dominate his ministry to others; his particular area’s of weakness too often control his mind and heart. They continually spew from his mouth. Only through a daily surrender of myself to the Spirit of God, only by a daily conversion, a rebirth from the flesh to the spirit, am I able to have an abiding, living relationship with Christ. 

“Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus”. The mind of Christ, his humble, self-sacrificing spirit, can be ours “in him”. It is ours together as his body and ours separately as believers alone with God. Knowing the weakness of our flesh as we see ourselves in “Christ crucified”, we will long for and have the spirit of his resurrection. Our obedience is to be the obedience of the cross. It comes out of death and receives the new life of his righteousness. Each day calls us, as Christ calls us, to “take up our cross” and follow him.

Jesus said that unless we do this we cannot be his disciples. That is, only in the daily experience of death and resurrection in him will we be able to follow him in the path of self-denial for the sake of others. Without this daily experience we prefer to be served rather than to serve. Our life will be the working out of our naturally self-centered heart.

The Word of God presents only one solution for the terrible work of the flesh. It is death in Christ. When we are weak enough to count ourselves dead to the world and alive to him we can have the confidence of his own abiding strength in our heart.

I have this one day, this one Sabbath day, ahead of me. I can live it through dying with Christ or I can be dead to the Spirit as I am alive to my selfish need. The choice of faith, as always, remains my own. If I will exercise this faith that he has given me, then I can make Christ my own as he has made me his own. Today I have life and death presented to me by the Word of God. The choice and the privilege of dying to live are mine in Christ.  

More and more the words of Jesus are pressing on my mind, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Matthew 4.4

All that Scripture defines as true life, the true life of man, the definition of what it means to be human, the very intent of and knowledge of God…all this comes to us through his living Word. God is the God who speaks. He is known by us through his speaking to us. And as we come to know him we know the meaning of our own lives, for the One who speaks to us is our Maker and our Redeemer. 

It is the Word of God that forms us and reforms us. Once made in his image, then deformed by sin, God is acting now in the world to reform all who long to be what he first intended. To do this our minds must be changed, we must be turned in a new direction, our values must be his values, our ways his ways. And this is accomplished for us and in us when we willingly receive his Word into our hearts.

What is this Word of God? It is the word that has come to us through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It is the Word made flesh that “dwelt among us”, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, as revealed in those Scriptures. It is the Word spoken to and passed on through his witnesses, the apostles of Christ. God has spoken to men through men; that word, that revelation has been recorded for us so that we might know and do the will of God.

In this Word is all the creative and redemptive power of God for our salvation. If we will hear him and follow his teaching we will be led all the way through this wilderness to the land beyond, we will be led into the heaven of eternal life with God.  

Nothing will be more important for me today than to read his word, to listen for his voice, to study his teachings, so that I might know my duty as a servant of Christ. What else do I have worth doing today other than serve Christ? Why should I feel safe in going my own way, in following my own plans, why should I think to live as if God has not spoken to me concerning all that matters in my life? If God has spoken, if I believe that, then what greater thing do I have to consider?

Nothing in life compares with or is greater than the will of God, for he is life itself. To know and do his will is life. Such a life is ours through his Word. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God….In him was life, and the life was the light of men” John 1.1,2,4

God gave Israel, through his prophets, specific instructions about how to come into his presence and receive his blessings. We see in these inspired stories a history of true and false worship. With John the Revelator, the curtain is drawn away from the future so that we see the final conflict between good and evil centers around true and false worship. 

The worship of God is the heart of spiritual life. To worship in spirit and truth together, to have a faith that loves to obey and serve God, is the life of the church.

I’ve asked the following questions elsewhere and offer them here for us to ponder:

Would you say your personal worship of God, corporately or privately, is informed and conditioned on the Word of God, personal preference, cultural norms, thoughtless habit, or a combination of these? How did you arrive at the values you invest in worshiping God? Are you sure God accepts your offering? Why or why not?

Worship, if offered without thoughtful conviction, is neither true or spiritual, and is not accepted by God. Nor is offering God our achievements as the basis of acceptance with him. Only when we come with helpless dependence on the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of our sins, is our offering of thanksgiving and praise acceptable to him. But do we know what it means to come as true, real sinners before God?

Such offerings will be marked by humility in the giving of ourselves and joy in the receiving of God’s acceptance. We will think, speak, and act as if we are in the visible presence of a pure, holy God. We will be conscious of the blood we spilled and the suffering we caused him through our sin. We will tremble at his Word and in his presence until we have the full assurance that our sins are forgiven. 

Yet more often than not, the forgiveness of sin is taken for granted, as a casual occurrence, something God owes us without condition because we have professed a set of beliefs or been “reasonably good”. After all, nobody’s perfect! Everybody makes mistakes. We often act as if the sins we so frequently commit have had no serious consequences for God, ourselves, or others. We love a cheap grace that requires no repentance, no change, no suffering on our part though we have caused others immense grief. We condemn those who feel the pain of their sin in crucifying the Son of God, as if that in itself were a sin to repent of. 

From the signs around us, when compared to the lives of Bible saints, true worship is exceedingly rare today, so rare that Jesus asked his disciples, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Will we have the courage to ask ourselves, “How rare is it with us?

   Christ crucified is the one pure human being, the true man made in the image of God. At Calvary man is seen for what he was meant to be. Calvary reveals the promise of glorious things to come and secures that future for all who believe. Conformed to him we become like him, moment by moment, for as long as we abide with him on the mount made of God.

   Calvary is the place humanity most needs to be, yet it is the place we most resist. If it were not for the drawing power of God in Christ on the cross we would be lost for eternity. Thankfully, his call, “Come unto me”, is still rich with all the spiritual rest of heaven. Jacob’s ladder still extends to earth, the Shepard of souls still seeks his wandering sheep, there remains a door open to the sanctuary above, where Christ ministers his blood at the right hand of God.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2Co 3:18 ESV)

   Paul expands this idea when he cautions the Corinthian church, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’  Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2Co 6:14-7:1 ESV)

   John described the apostate Christian world this way: “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.” (Rev 17:4-6 ESV)

I’m offering it here because the late Dr. Heppenstall’s views on the Biblical meaning of “perfection” are as close to my own as I have discovered. I am in full agreement with his thoughts on the subject. This is the way I try to live my life as a Christian.

I’m also offering this article because, through a lack of clarity or depth in my own writing, teaching, and preaching, I may have failed to adequately and concisely express myself on the subject. As for my behavior or occasional mistatements that would unintentionally contridict this view, I can only ask forgiveness and patience from those I may have misled. 

Over the years, Dr. Heppenstall’s thought has been a blessing to me, helping me to a better understanding of my right relationship to God and others. For that, I am deeply grateful. I only had the opportunity to spend a brief day with him many years ago. I hope to find more time in the eternity to come. 

Finally, I hope this will go some way in clarifying the distinction I see between the obedience of faith (Paul’s phrase in Romans) and the corruption known as legalism. Obedience, spiritual power over known sin, love for God’s law and thus for God’s own character, should never in themselves, when properly understood, be construed as legalism.  

How Perfect Is “Perfect” Or
Is Christian Perfection Possible?

by Edward Heppenstall

        To be right with God is the most vital thing in life. Apart from all we do, all we have, what about us as creatures standing before our Creator? How do we stand with God? Paul declares that the only way to be right with God is to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

    I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. (Phil 3:8, 9)

The Sinner’s Only Hope

    The perfect righteousness of Christ is the only answer to the sin problem in any man’s life, the only possibility of living like Christ here and now. “Our righteousness”-the best we can do and are in ourselves-are “as filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). Rags because they do not cover us, and filthy because they leave us in our defilements and our sins.
    Many sincere Christians express dissatisfaction over the fact that they continually fall short of perfection. Many admit of continual failure in the spiritual life, of repeating sins again and again, of giving way to habit patterns contrary to the life of Christ. When they read the command of Christ: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48), the effect is both condemnation and discouragement.
    In almost all the great revivals believers have sought in one way or another to attain to perfection of living. They have longed for it, prayed for it, and worked for it. But the testimony of all great Christians is that they have never attained to it; that the more they strived and the closer they came to Christ, the deeper was their sense of inadequacy and inherent sinfulness. While their lives bore testimony to victory over sin, at the same time they felt a deeper sense of their own need and unworthiness. Ask Peter, James and John. Ask Martin Luther and John Wesley. Ask the noblest souls that the Christian church has ever seen, the most zealous spirits that mankind has ever produced. With one mighty chorus and with one accord they exclaim with Paul:

    Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:12-14)

    If there is one central truth borne out in Scripture in the experience of all true believers who have come to know the saving power of God, it is this: that the only perfection, the only sinlessness they have ever seen or known has been that of Jesus Christ, the only perfect and sinless man; that because of this Jesus is the whole of their salvation, the whole of their righteousness and perfection. To be a genuine Christian means faith in Christ, fellowship with Christ, faithfulness to Christ, and fruitfulness for Christ. Faith means that man has no perfection and no righteousness of and in himself; that man trusts wholly and solely in Christ.

Biblical Perfection

    One of the hindrances to living the Christian life successfully is failure to understand what the Bible teaches on the nature of sin and perfection. A grave misapprehension lies at the root of much of the false teaching on this subject. The Bible, in applying the term “perfection” to believers, never means “sinlessness.” There are at least nine different Hebrew words and six Greek words translated “perfection.” Noah is said to be “perfect in his generations” (Gen 6:9). Of Asa, the King of Judah, we read: “But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days” (1 Kings 15:14). “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2). “We speak wisdom among them that are the perfect” (1 Cor 2:6).
    The Bible writers are not saying that these men are sinless. The meaning is that of spiritual maturity, full grown spiritually, ripe in spiritual understanding, whole in response to god, keeping nothing back. A “perfect” Christian is one whose heart and mind are permanently committed to Christ, cannot be moved. Noah, Abraham, and Job were all declared to be “perfect” men. Yet the history of their lives shows that they were far from being sinless.
    If one’s view of sin is shallow enough, sinless perfection would not be an impossible achievement. It is a defective view of sin that leads to a wrong understanding of perfection. If sin simply means a deliberate, willful doing of what is known to be wrong, then no Christian should commit this kind of sin. But if sin includes also a man’s state of mind and heart, man’s bias toward sin, sin as an indwelling tendency, then perfection presents a totally different picture.

What God Expects of His People

    There are some Christians who believe that it is possible in this life to reach a point in spiritual development, where the sinful nature is completely eradicated and therefore, no longer operative. The Bible does teach that the genuine Christian life is one of uniform and sustained victory over all known sin. The normal Christian experience should be one of victory and not constant defeat.

    Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 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. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. (Rom 6:11-15)

    There is one truth that every believer needs to learn who would fully enjoy complete salvation in Christ. It is the need to abide in Christ, to look continually to Christ, to depend wholly on Christ and His righteousness. God’s method of salvation is not eradication of a sinful nature, but the counteraction of divine power through the Holy Spirit. Only by the continual counteracting presence of the Holy Spirit is it possible to be victorious over sin and the sinful nature within us.
    It is fatal to believe that if only we become totally surrendered to Christ, that the sinful nature is eradicated. The law of sin and death is still operating within us. It is something that remains in us as long as we live. Victory over all known sin does not mean sinlessness. It does mean the glorious opportunity in Christ to strive successfully against all sin and overcome it. But this is an experience that must be maintained day by day through fellowship with and surrender to Christ. The Christian life is a lifelong battle. So long as the believer abides in Christ, real holiness and victory are possible. What we have in the every-day life is the counteracting power of God against our sinful tendencies and our sinful natures.

    O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom 7:24-8:2)

    Salvation in Christ alone means that the bias to sin in human nature is too strong and overwhelming to be dealt with apart from moment by moment trusting in Christ and in His power to save. The law of sin and death is operating all the time. Deliverance comes by means of a higher law, a higher power-the law of the Spirit, the mightiest power of God which counteracts the law of sin in our members. Peter sank in the waves the moment he took his eyes off Christ. He sank because he had the tendency to sink in water. The only thing that kept him walking on top of the sea was the power of Christ momentarily exercised counteracting the gravitational power to pull him down. So it is in the Christian life.
    There is always a conflict in this earthly life between the flesh and the Spirit:

    This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (Gal 5:16-18)

    The Christian must walk continually in the Spirit. Never in this life will the Christian arrive at the place where he can dispense with the counteracting power of Christ against the sinful tendency in his life. Only through the continual, day by day operation of the Holy Spirit is our sinful nature counteracted. The sinful nature is not eradicated until the day of the resurrection, until this “mortal shall have put on immortality.” The Christian learns to live in the sphere of the Spirit, not in the sphere of the flesh. The believer is never beyond the reach of temptation or the possibility of sinning. But in Christ he is brought into a position of victory over all known sin. Sin no longer has dominion over him.

Sinful Nature: Controlled But Not Eradicated

    The greatest men in the Bible never claimed sinless perfection. They were all painfully aware of the fact that they were sinners and remained so throughout their lives. So long as a man is in a state of sin with a sinful nature still present in him, he will confess himself to be a sinner. The Christian always recognizes himself to be a sinner in need of divine grace.
    If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)
    We find here the most solemn warning against the doctrine of sinless perfection in this life. The incontrovertible meaning of this passage is that the man is a self-deceiver who claims for himself what the apostle John dared not claim. The truth is not in him. The doctrine of sinless perfection leads to the conclusion that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are unnecessary once this state of eradication of the sinful nature is reached. Wherever the professed Christian claims to have the sinful nature eradicated in his life, there is a corresponding loss of true dependence upon Christ. There is a break in the only saving relationship that man needs for victory. This allows people to sin and call evil good. It discourages those who strive to be like Christ, but fall short of this false idea of perfection.
    It is God’s will that, having surrendered to Christ at conversion as best he knows, the believer will maintain that attitude that as fast as anything further is revealed to him contrary to the will of God, he will promptly give that up also. God will see to it that throughout the Christian life here on earth, there will be deeper insights into the sinfulness and selfishness of our own natures. There will be increased dependence, increased repentance, and prayer for forgiveness. The believer will never come to the place where he will not pray the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” By this increased insight, we shall continually need an increased “looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.” There are no limits to God’s power. He is always willing and able to give us the victory. But man limits God by virtue of his lack of insight and lack of surrender. In proportion to the maturity and completeness of his knowledge will be the completeness of his surrender and victory.

By Grace Alone: True Meaning

    The basic doctrine of the Christian faith is salvation by grace alone. This doctrine represents the final renunciation of either human effort or the human claim to perfection. Christ is our sole perfection, our sole righteousness. In ourselves we are never sinless. But so long as we look to Christ, sin and self cannot prevail.
    The pretension to sinless perfection at any time in this earthly life is the root of spiritual pride and self righteousness. The Christian does not deny that the new life in Christ is capable of a new righteousness, of victory over sin. He only insists that it is not his righteousness, not his victory, but Christ’s.
    There will be no point in spiritual achievement in this life where one may rest with the certainty that he will sin no more, or that he does not stand before God as a sinner in need of divine grace and power. The Christian knows that there still remains in him a fountain of evil, a depraved nature.
    Salvation by grace alone means that absolute perfection and sinlessness cannot be realized here and now. Righteousness by faith means that we look continually and exclusively to Christ; that we look away from ourselves and any hope in ourselves altogether in order to live out of Him alone. Genuine salvation directs us at once to Christ, to the only perfect life lived here on the earth, and to His redemption through the Cross. What is absolutely central is Jesus Christ. Man’s victory over sin is exclusively the work of God in Christ, the continual control of the life by the Holy Spirit; that through daily union with Christ we actually participate in Christ’s holy life.
    The righteousness of Christ that saves is not the beginning of a new self-righteousness, but the perpetual end of it. It is a perpetual living in Christ from a center and source beyond us and our wisdom and power. We live continually out of a risen Christ and never out of ourselves. Victory is through the continual operation of the Holy Spirit, because the Christian life consists in the fruits of the Spirit and the power of God.