Lanolin said:
In the spirit yes we are perfect. But in the flesh, no.
Bingo. Please prayerfully consider these essential Bible doctrines: standing and state (position vs practice); imputation; progressive sanctification.
Our
standing (
position) before God as saved Christians = (for example, not exhaustive) perfect, sealed unto the day of redemption (secure), seated in Heavenly places with Christ (even though I'm still walking around the earth in this body of flesh). He sees us as pure, holy and sinless because He sees us through the blood of Christ, Who is pure, holy and sinless. Christ's righteousness was
imputed to us when we asked Him to save us; our sin was
imputed to Him when He died on the cross. Our
standing before God is no longer that of sinner, but of saint (see the introduction to Paul's letters to the Ephesians, for example.)
Our
state before God refers to the present, ongoing condition of our
fellowship with Him and it is not always one of perfect fellowship because of the occasional
practice of sin in our lives. Obviously if we're living for the Lord as we should be, we won't live a lifestyle of sin. We'll seek to please Him with how we live day to day, knowing we will give account to Him for the works done in our body at the Judgment Seat of Christ
, whether good or bad 2 Cor 5:10 KJV. If we're incapable of sinning after our conversion, why will Jesus be judging the bad works we've done in the body since we were saved at the JSOC? He won't be judging our sin there: that was judged at Calvary and remember our
standing before God since our salvation is one of being pure, holy and sinless.
Now onto
progressive sanctification:
Here's a personal example:
I worked in automotive, which was a male-dominated field when I was saved, and my swearing and the language I used was one of the first things the Lord dealt with me about after He saved me. I stayed in automotive for another nine years, but as the years passed I swore less and less to where I don't use foul language anymore. However, I also know I still have the capability to swear because I'm not Home yet: I'm still in my natural body (1 Cor 15:44 KJV). That it was a gradual change in my life makes it an example of
progressive sanctification.
We become new creatures in Christ when we're born again (2 Cor 5:17 KJV), but we have to put on the new man ("die daily:" 1 Cor 15:31 KJV). Completely losing our old nature is obviously not an instantaneous thing or our natural body would die and we'd be Home with the Lord as soon as we were saved: hence the instruction to action to ''put off the old man'' and ''put on the new man'' in verses and entire chapters such as Eph 2:15 KJV, Eph 4 KJV, Col 3:10 KJV, Gal 5:16 KJV and Gal 5:25 KJV. I've heard the struggle between the flesh and the spirit; the old man and the new man after salvation likened to carrying around a corpse because the Bible does say our old man was crucified with Christ. The old man died, but he doesn't seem to want to stay dead. (Even Paul's old nature must have reared its head once in a while or he wouldn't have told the Corinthian church that he dies daily.)
How many sins must a person commit (
practice) to be a sinner? See James 2:10 KJV : one. So when I was saved in the delivery truck alone at work that November morning, if I went back to the shop, found a delivery I had to take to a garage I disliked visiting and thought "*&^%*&&%$#" because I swore like a sailor back then, does that mean I wasn't truly saved? That one thought was sin because it elevated self above God (idolatry) and disobeyed 1 Cor 10:31 KJV. It didn't show much in the way of loving my neighbour as myself, either.
It doesn't mean I wasn't truly saved: it means I was a newborn babe in Christ who didn't yet know any better.
Fast forward about five years, so I'm now a young'un in Christ and I'm at the point that I still use foul language occasionally, but I only use it to vent when I'm really, really, really angry about something. Let's say an incident happens at work while I'm on delivery that gets me really, really, really angry and as a result of that angry impulse, I curse a blue streak.
As soon as the last swear word exits my mouth, I'm instantly convicted and have to pull into a random parking lot because I'm in tears asking God's forgiveness (and trying to compose myself before anyone sees me get out of the truck at my next stop).
Because I've spiritually grown over five years, a similar situation elicited a very different response from the Lord. Newly saved, He let my swearing slide at first but as I got into church, read my Bible, prayed and began to really establish a personal relationship with my Saviour, He had higher expectations of me in the area of the language I used. I knew what those expectations were, and when I messed up (messing up = sin), He let me know it. As more years passed, if I got so angry that I swore, He'd convict me again. So I learned over a period of years to swear less and less as the Lord reinforced to me how much it offended Him. Now I'm 20 years old in the Lord and no longer want, or need to swear to vent my anger because the Bible clearly gives instruction that the Lord expects me to obey as to how I'm to act in anger-inducing situations (in Ephesians 4).
Spiritual maturity is a result of
progressive sanctification.