Theological term
Sinless Perfectionism
3 sermons · All terms
Being Strengthened
Colossians 1:11 describes one of four characteristics of a life that pleases God: being strengthened — a passive reception of divine power, not a self-generated act of will. The sermon expounds the action, the gift, the measure of the gift, and the goal of the gift, arguing that God infuses his people with all needed power according to the inexhaustible measure of his own glorious might. This strengthening is the mechanism by which believers endure patience and longsuffering under any and all circumstances of life. Sinners who have not yet come to Christ are invited to the only Savior who both grants entrance into the Christian life and sustains his people all the way to glory.
2LCF Chapter 13 - Of Sanctification
Sanctification is a work of God's free grace — not of human effort — wrought in the elect by the Word and Spirit through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection. The 1689 London Baptist Confession, Chapter 13, sets out the nature and cause of sanctification: its undeserving recipients (the effectually called and regenerated), the initial definitive act of sanctifying grace at conversion, the progressive ongoing work of the Spirit, and the instruments God employs (Word and Spirit). The confession guards this doctrine on two fronts simultaneously: against moral-improvement schemes that reduce sanctification to human effort, and against sinless perfectionism that denies remaining corruption in the believer.
Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God
Paul's charge in 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 to 'perfect holiness in the fear of God' rests on three covenant promises: the nearness of God, the favor of God, and the fatherhood of God. Because God has already fulfilled these promises in Christ, the imperatives to cleanse from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to press on toward complete sanctification follow as the fitting response of those already redeemed, not as conditions for receiving grace. The sermon traces the biblical-theological root of these promises from Exodus and Leviticus through Jeremiah and Ezekiel to their fulfillment in Christ, and applies the call to corporate ecclesial fidelity and to individual decisions — especially the prohibition of marriage to unbelievers — governed by the fear of God rather than emotion.