The Doctrine of Earthly Sinless Perfection Refuted
by Matthew Heyns

Sinless Perfection of saints on earth. Wonderful sounding, this doctrine. Does the Scripture support such a claim? Can any man attain such a place ) and would his wife and children, or boss, or friends agree that he is perfect? The unqualified answer is no.

The primary difficulty is the concept of the total depravity of man, a.k.a. the thorough inability of man. This doctrine teaches that man has been and is, in all aspects of his nature and character, depraved, or infected, beyond self-reparation. It means man is unable to do anything about his condition. While this doctrine is refuted among neo-theologians as unnecessarily cruel, or not in conformity with "what we know about ourselves," the Scriptures nonetheless support this doctrine. This totality is spoken of by God in these two sample pas sages:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, [I] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17)

These verses speak directly to the condition of the nature of man. This does not mean that man is as bad as he can be, but rather that if God, who restrains the evil of man were to cease from such restraint, man would indeed then be as bad as he could be. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." (Psalms 76:10) "For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he [is] now holding back until it comes out of the midst." (2 Thessalonians 2:7 MKJV)

The following Scriptures delineate the doctrine of the sinfulness of men, hopefully in a manner which will also describe the inherent errors of a doctrine of "Attainable Earthly Sinlessness."

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)

The verbs have, deceive, and is are in the present indicative active tense. This indicates an action occurring while the speaker is speaking. Thus, to expand the verb have . . .

"If we say that `At this moment I have no sin within me, my thoughts, my heart or my actions' we are fooling ourselves as we speak, and the truth is not, even while we say such a thing, in us."

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:10)

The verb sinned is in the perfect indicative active tense. This denotes the completeness of the action or the finished result, with the active voice indicating the speaker as having done the action. Thus, expanding the meaning of sinned . . .

"If we say `We have accomplished sinlessness' we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23)

The verb sinned (have does not appear in the Greek) is in the aorist indicative active tense, and the verb come short is in the present indicative middle tense. Aorist indicative active would indicate a definitive occurrence done by the subject, in this case all. Then the present indicative tense which means the coming short is occurring while the speaker is speaking with the middle voice applying the coming short to the speaker by the speaker. Thus . . .

"For all definitely sin and all are on a constant basis causing themselves to be less than worthy of the glory of God (which requires sin lessness)."

There are plenty of verses to support this. Let's look at a few of them:

"If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before [their] enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;" (2 Chronicles 6:36)

The `If they sin' portion is made rhetorical in its nature by the comment `for there is no man which sinneth not.' If no man does not sin then all men will eventually sin against you. The significance is that there is no man which sins not, not no man which can sin not.

"Who can bring a clean [thing] out of an unclean? not one." (Job 14:4)

We are inherently corrupted, as an inseparable part of us, the flesh, is corruptible. First Corinthians 15: 50 says corruptible things cannot inherit incorruptible things, such as sinlessness.

"Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (Proverbs 20:9)

This verse contains the same message as 1 John 1:8 and 10.

"For [there is] not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." (Ecclesiastes 7:20)

Again this is a confirmation of the inability of man to do anything truly good, that is, in a Godly (or perfect) manner.

"But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

This is a classic passage when used to convict of sin, but the reality of this verse is that the very best efforts we can make at any time, saved or unsaved, are nothing but (literally interpreted) bloody menstrual rags. Remember that the discomfort and uncleanness of the entire reproductive process for the women was a punishment for sin (see Genesis 3:16), hence the allegory.

"For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, [yet] thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. (Jeremiah 2:22)

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."(Jer.13:23)

Though we try desperately to alter or to purify ourselves, we end up with the same problem; we are filthy with both the cause and results of sin, and there is no way to change that fact. And so in these passages, "saith the Lord."

Is there an indication of the possibility of sinlessness in the earthly life? In 1 John 5: 18a says, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." A popular, but wrong interpretation is that if I am born-again, I will have no sin in my physical life and at that point we will be able to say "I am born of God." If the truth of the salvation program is known, that God has laid upon Jesus the iniquities of His people, and therefore through propitiatory intercession has designated all His people's iniquity to Christ, then God looks upon those who are born of God (see John 3:5) as never having sinned. This is what the Psalmist meant when he said, "As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us (Psalms 103:12)." Not only will I and my sin never meet again, we never have met! East never has met west in the past, nor shall they meet in the present or future, but recalling 1 John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

"24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 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." (Romans 7)

The flesh will serve the law of sin until the day of Christ, when "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:52) If we sleep before He comes, then we shall be sinless in the heavenlies with Christ: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)