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Romans 7:7–25
“I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (vv. 21–23).
When the Lord draws us to Himself, He declares us righteous in our justification and from the point of our conversion forward works in us to conform us to the image of Christ just as He predestined (Rom. 8:29–30). This progressive sanctification is lifelong and never complete until we are glorified. Paul makes this clear in today’s passage.
The Roman Catholic and Wesleyan theological traditions teach a form of Christian perfectionism stating that believers can attain sinlessness before their glorification. The full witness of Scripture cannot sustain this position, however. We as Christians fight an ongoing war against sin, and sometimes we will break the law of God even after we have been regenerated (Rom. 7:7–25). James 5:16 assumes our ongoing need to confess our sins to others when we have wronged them, and 1 John 1:8–9 commands believers to confess our sins to the Lord. These teachings would be unnecessary if sinless perfection were possible before death. As we strive against sin, we should not be surprised when we fall into transgression at times. When we do, we should not lose heart but should confess our sins and continue seeking to obey the Lord by the power of His Spirit.
Importantly, while our sanctification is incomplete until we are glorified, Scripture does recognize that we can make true progress in holiness. First Corinthians 6:10–11 indicates that people can go from being defined by all manner of different and even grievous sins to being marked by holiness. Moreover, many figures in the Bible, including Noah, Zechariah, and Elizabeth, are described as righteous or blameless (Gen. 6:9; Luke 1:5–6). Yet we must understand that these descriptions do not entail absolute perfection. Francis Turretin writes that the descriptions of people (except Jesus) as righteous, blameless, or wholehearted lovers of God are not to be understood absolutely as if they have no failure whatsoever. We must understand these descriptors “relatively and restrictively concerning an evangelical obedience (which marks a sincere and unfeigned . . . obedience); or comparatively, both with respect to the wicked (who lie wholly in sin) and with respect to those less holy.”
Some of us may become holier than others, but that fact should never become an occasion for sinful pride. Ultimately, none of us stands before God unafraid except in the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us in our justification.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Our growth in sanctification is a useful measure of how the Lord is working in us, but it should never be the absolute basis for our assurance. We stand before God unafraid only in the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us through faith in Him alone. We will fall short in our service to the Lord, and when we do we must repent and enjoy a fresh sense of His forgiveness, all the while remembering that we are saved not by what we do but by what Christ has done.
For further study
- Leviticus 19:2
- 2 Peter 3:18
The bible in a year
- Jeremiah 11–13
- 1 Timothy 5
- Jeremiah 14–19
- 1 Tim. 6–2 Tim. 1