ved. If the
conception is that of a state of sinless perfection into which the
believer has been suddenly lifted and of deliverance from a sinful
nature which has been suddenly eradicated, we must {116} consider this
doctrine as dangerously untrue. But we do consider it possible that
one may experience a great crisis in his spiritual life, in which there
is such a total self-surrender to God and such an infilling of the Holy
Spirit, that he is freed from the bondage of sinful appetites and
habits, and enabled to have constant victory over self, instead of
suffering constant defeat. In saying this, what more do we affirm than
is taught in that scripture: "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16).

Divine truth as revealed in Scripture seems often to lie between two
extremes. It is emphatically so in regard to this question. What a
paradox it is that side by side in the Epistle of John we should have
the strongest affirmation of the Christian's sinfulness: "If we say
that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us";
and the strongest affirmation of his sinlessness: "Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin because he is born of God" (1 John 1: 8; 3: 9). Now heresy means a
dividing or choosing, and almost all of the gravest errors have arisen
from adopting some extreme statement of Scripture to the rejection of
the other extreme. If we regard the doctrine of sinless perfection as
a heresy, we regard contentment with sinful imperfection as a greater
heresy. And we gravely fear that many Christians make the {117}
apostle's words, "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves," the
unconscious justification for a low standard of Christian living. It
were almost better for one to overstate the possibilities of
sanctification in his eager grasp after holiness, than to understate
them in his complacent satisfaction with a traditional unholiness.
Certainly it is not an edifying spectacle to see a Christian worldling
throwing stones at a Christian perfectionist.

What then would be a true statement of the doctrine which we are
considering, one which would embrace both extremes of statement as they
appear in the Epistle of John? _Sinful in self, sinless in Christ_--is
our answer: "In him is no sin; whosoever abideth in him sinneth not" (1
John 3: 5, 6). If through the communication of the Holy Spirit the
l