Thoughts on Sinfulness and Claiming Sinless Perfection

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I am definitely not a sinless person. I need his grace and mercy every day and acknowledge that I can be extremely sinful. I'm not vain enough to say I have no sin. Through Christ I am saved, am being saved, and will be saved.


Life is a journey and we are the journeyman traveling through it. Passions are not easy to break and sanctification doesn't just happen in entirety the moment Christ comes in. It's a gradual progression to holiness instead. And a tough road that requires a lot of confession and continual repentance hence why every day I try to pray at least once "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" even if I don't think I've sinned that day. I suggest everyone else take this mindset in case you've unknowingly sinned against God and require his mercy and grace which we all do.

We are "joint heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17) and everything Christ is by nature the Father gives to us by grace. We see contrast in 8:18 between sufferings and glory. As Christians we have gods glory in us though his glory is not fully revealed in us (Col 3:3,4). We live in a constant tension between our present and future expectations of the kingdom of God.

 Paul said himself in the Scriptures that he struggled with thoughts of coveting and coveting himself. This should give us some comfort in our own fight against sin to know that the great saint dealt with it just as we all must try to do. I think he conquered it and came close to theosis however, yet, nonetheless, the contrast is there. It's also found written by Paul in Romans 7.

St. Paul understands that he is saved by grace, is being saved by grace, and will be saved by grace. Where sin abounds and abides, God's grace and mercy abounds all the more. And does this give us a license to sin? Certainly not.

It takes a special pride in someone's heart to claim they are sinless. The saint's mindset is not so. They will be marked with a humbleness. In other words even if they have not sinned they will still pray "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" because they are humble and experiencing right glory.

The opposite is a prideful heart and vain glory. I don't pretend to understand how someone can honestly twist it so bad that they believe they are sinless through Christ completely now. Makes no sense. Christ inside of us should make us happy and fill us with joy but also fill us with an emptiness of sorts. In other words Christ in us sinners is a conflict. How is it resolved? By us focusing on Him.

Still... Some teach a doctrine called instant sanctification and that is false doctrine from the devil and often comes from a misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures and zero adherence to the Church Fathers, Tradition, and history.

Christ's atonement was a gift to mankind. We have free will and we have sin and death still exists in a fallen not yet fully redeemed world. There is a conflict between Christ and us because of this. The doctrine of instant sanctification is a farce. Sanctification comes progressively over time as we let the Spirit of God teach us and guide us. Learning requires discipline and is tough work. You will not get an A+ on the report card every time. And we will not be perfect nor complete until Christ's return.

Thus, St. Caesarius of Aries' commentary of 1 John 1:8 rings very true that "The worst kind of sin is not to acknowledge that you are sinful".

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