and in which his attention
tends to be drawn more to his perfectness than to his imperfections of
condition. That such views are held, and strongly held, by many
earnest Christians, is a familiar fact. As far as my own observation
goes, such views are not uncommonly attended, in those who hold them,
by a certain oblivion to personal shortcomings and inconsistencies; by
an obscuration of consciousness, and of conscience, more or less
marked, towards the sinfulness of ordinary, everyday violations of the
law of holiness in respect of "meekness, humbleness of mind,
longsuffering," sympathy, and other quiet graces.

In the present passage the Apostle's whole spirit moves in just the
opposite direction. His complete repose in Christ as the Righteousness
of God for him, and then his deep nearness to his Lord as the Power of
God in him, alike seem not so much to banish as utterly to preclude any
thought about himself but that of his own imperfection. He writes as
one whose very last feeling is that of complacency in his spiritual
condition. I deliberately do not say "self-complacency"; for all
Christians would repudiate that word; I say, complacency in his
spiritual condition. His spiritual _position_, in Christ, as he is
"found in Him," fills him with much more than complacency; it is his
glory and his boast. But when he comes to speak of his spiritual
_condition_, the possessing thought is that all is imperfect and
progressive. He has a perfect blessing; but he is an imperfect
recipient of it; he has "not attained." He is deeply happy. But he is
thoroughly humble. As we read the passage, we feel very sure that the
man who wrote it would lie very tenderly and candidly open to reproofs,
and to painful truths told him about himself. For his Lord, he is
ready to bear rejoicing witness to the whole world. For himself, even
as in Christ, he holds no brief; nay, he takes the other part.

He has had a vision of absolute holiness which has completely guarded
him from the delusion of thinking that he is himself absolutely holy,
even in the fullest state of grace. He is so genuinely "perfect" in
the sense of mature knowledge of his Lord that he is incapable of
thinking himself "perfected."

All the while, this does not for a moment leave him in the miserable
plight of acquiescing in sin because he knows he is still a sinner. If
he were merely going by a theory, it might be so. But he is going by
the Lord Jesus Christ