The Possibility of Perfection
In Genesis 4:7, God tells Cain, "If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must rule over it.”
The scriptures present an idea that is often treated as though it were impossible: that an ordinary human being can live righteously before God. God was not lying to Cain. Scripture does not merely tell Christians to try to sin less. It repeatedly commands human beings to be perfect, blameless, holy, righteous, and obedient. It even gives us examples of ordinary human beings whom God Himself describes in precisely these terms.
The question, then, is not whether human beings commonly sin. Scripture plainly teaches that they do. The question is whether scripture teaches that it is impossible for a human being to live his entire life without ever committing sin. Scripture commands us to consider the possibility of perfection rather than assuming its impossibility.
Perhaps the clearest place to begin is with the words of Jesus:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Jesus did not say, "Attempt to be perfect, although perfection is impossible." He commanded His disciples to be perfect and He grounded that perfection in the same perfection as the Father. There is no doubt what is meant here by the statement. In fact, Jesus is drawing on Leviticus 19:2 where Yahweh told Moses to tell the Israelites, "You shall be holy: for I, Yahweh your God, am holy."
The same concept appears throughout scripture. God said to Abraham:
"I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect."
The Hebrew word translated "perfect" is תָּמִים (tāmîm), carrying the idea of completeness, blamelessness, or integrity.
Moses likewise commanded Israel:
"Thou shalt be perfect with Yaweh thy God."
David repeatedly speaks of walking before God in integrity:
"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way."
And Jesus told the rich young ruler, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17) The young man responded, "All these things have I kept from my youth up." (Matthew 19:20) Jesus did identify something that was lacking in him, but notice what Jesus did not say. He did not tell the man, "You are mistaken. Nobody can actually keep God's commandments." Instead, Jesus gave him another command, exposing the man's attachment to his possessions. "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor..." (Matthew 19:21)
Perfection is therefore presented as an intelligible category of human obedience.
The most significant evidence comes from the people whom scripture itself describes as blameless or perfect.
Very little is said about Enoch in scripture. What little we have is found in Genesis 5:18-24:
"And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
There are a couple of other mentions, but they are not relevant to our study here. Enoch walked with God. He was pleasing to God. He did not see death but was translated for being pleasing to God. No sin is mentioned and that alone might be an argument from silence, but we have a man who the scriptures imply was so pleasing to God that God did not allow him to face even physical death. What does it mean to walk with God? Over and over again God, through the prophets speaks of walking in all the ways of God, doing all that He has commanded, to love Him and serve Him with all your being. (Deuteronomy 5:33; 10:12; Joshua 22:5; 1 Kings 8:61). Enoch did this and was rewarded for his perfect faithfulness in a way only one other man was in all of scripture.
"Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."
God did not describe Noah as merely "less sinful than the people around him." He called him perfect. In fact, in contrast to Abraham and many other faithful men where God saw their obedience, their faithfulness, and righteousness is imputed to them, Noah is different. God looks down on Noah in Genesis 7:1 and SEES righteousness before Him. He did not have to impute righteousness to Noah in spite of Noah's sin. He sees the righteousness already. In fact, there is no record of Noah ever sinning.
"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."
Noah had just witnessed the literal end of the world (2 Peter 3:6). No doubt his hear was heavy. So he drank and forgot his poverty and misery. This alone is sufficient to exhonerate Noah. However, we can go even further and point out that nowhere in the Patriarchal Law is drunkeness sinful. We know that certain laws were given under Moses that were not sinful before. Take for example incest. Cain and Seth could marry sisters without sin. Abraham could marry his half sister and be blessed. Lot's two daughters raise up seed to their father (Genesis 19:30-38) that became the Moabites and Ammonites whom God protected when Israel came from Egypt and took over Canaan. Yet in Leviticus 18, the Israelites were forbidden from having sex with near kin. So without a specific command against drunkeness for the Gentiles under the Patriarchal Law, Noah has no sin given. Instead he is described explicitly by these phrases:
"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he."
"And Noah did according unto all that Yahweh commanded him."
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil."
"And Yahweh said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man..."
God Himself called Job "perfect." This is especially important because Job was not Jesus. He was not an angel. He was not a supernatural being. He was a man. And scripture does not qualify God's statement by saying, "Job was perfect except that, like every human being, he necessarily sinned." Job is described as:
That is a remarkably high biblical description of an ordinary human being. In fact, the whole point of the book of Job is God showcasing a man who was sinless even in the face of great adversity. Job lost everything, even his health, and he still praised God without sin.
"In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."
"...In all this did not Job sin with his lips."
At the end of Job's story, Job repents but no indication is given that he repents of any sin. God repents (Genesis 6:6-7; Exodus 32:12-14; Judges 2:18; 1 Samuel 15:11, 35; 24:16; etc.). So it is not sufficient to say Job repented therefore he sinned. The whole point of the book of Job is that Job did not sin even in all his calamity.
Joseph may be one of the strongest examples in Genesis for the possibility of a human being living without sin. Unlike Enoch, about whom we are told very little, Joseph's life is described in considerable detail. From his youth, through betrayal by his brothers, slavery in Egypt, false accusation, imprisonment, and eventually his elevation to power, scripture gives us an extensive account of his conduct. Yet despite all of this information, scripture never records Joseph committing a single sin. This is particularly significant because Joseph lived in circumstances that provided him with abundant opportunities to sin. He was mistreated by his brothers, sold into slavery, tempted sexually by Potiphar's wife, unjustly imprisoned, forgotten by someone he had helped, and eventually given enormous political power. Yet throughout the entire account, Joseph remains faithful to God.
Joseph's first major test comes when Potiphar's wife attempts to seduce him. Joseph does not merely say that adultery would be socially unacceptable. He recognizes it as a sin against God:
"There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
Joseph understood that he had a genuine choice. He could either commit the act or refuse. He refused. When she persisted, Joseph fled (Genesis 39:11-12). Joseph's response is important because he did not treat temptation as an irresistible force. He recognized the temptation, understood the moral consequences, and escaped it. God had provided Joseph with a way out, and Joseph took it. This is precisely the principle Paul later articulates in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Joseph is an Old Testament example of that principle in action.
Even when Joseph was falsely accused and imprisoned because of his righteousness, there is no indication that he responded with sinful hatred, vengeance, or rebellion against God. Instead, God continued to bless him:
"But Yahweh was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and he gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison."
The remarkable consistency of Joseph's character continues when he is eventually elevated to power in Egypt. Joseph does not use his authority to take revenge upon his brothers when they finally stand before him. Instead, he recognizes God's providence and tells them, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good..." (Genesis 50:20) Joseph had every human reason to retaliate. His brothers had betrayed him, sold him into slavery, and effectively destroyed the life he had expected to live. Yet when given the opportunity to exercise vengeance, Joseph chooses forgiveness and providence rather than hatred and revenge. Perhaps most significantly, when Joseph's brothers fear what he might do to them after their father's death, Joseph reassures them. (Genesis 50:17-19) Joseph understood that vengeance belonged to God rather than himself. His conduct throughout the narrative is remarkably consistent with the righteousness scripture later commands.
Think how much scripture tells us about Joseph. We are given his dreams, his relationship with his brothers, his father's favoritism, his sale into Egypt, his service in Potiphar's house, the temptation from Potiphar's wife, his imprisonment, his interpretation of dreams, his rise to power, his administration during the famine, his encounters with his brothers, his dealings with Benjamin, the revelation of his identity, his reconciliation with his family, and his final years in Egypt. His story occupies Genesis 37 through 50, with only Genesis 38 interrupting the narrative. We therefore have far more information about Joseph's life than we have about Enoch, Noah, or even Job, and considerably more continuous narrative concerning his moral conduct than we have concerning many other patriarchs.
Yet despite this extensive biography, there is no recorded sin of Joseph anywhere in scripture.
If someone claims that every human being necessarily sins, Joseph presents a serious problem for that claim. We have an extraordinarily detailed account of his life, including multiple occasions where his character is tested, and the inspired narrative never gives us a single instance of Joseph violating God's will. He is even a type of Christ in many ways. Logically, a person is innocent until proven guilty. With all the evidence we have of Joseph's life, there is no evidence of sin in a book that calls out the sins of its greatest heroes all the time.
Joseph therefore belongs in the same category of evidence as Noah, Job, Enoch, Elijah, Zechariah, and Elisabeth: human beings whom scripture portrays as righteous, blameless, perfect, or faithful. Joseph is particularly significant because his life is so extensively documented. We are not dealing with a man who appears in one verse and disappears. We are watching Joseph live through decades of temptation, suffering, injustice, responsibility, and power, and scripture gives us no recorded moral failure. The lesson is not that Joseph was somehow less human than the rest of us. Quite the opposite. Joseph was tempted, suffered, worked, exercised authority, experienced injustice, and faced circumstances much like Jesus. Yet he repeatedly chose righteousness. His story therefore provides a powerful biblical demonstration that being an ordinary human being does not, by itself, make sin inevitable.
From 1 Kings 17 up through 2 Kings 2 we read of the prophet Elijah who famously went up against Jezebel and the 450 prophets of Baal and won. In the end of his days on Earth, like Enoch, Elijah had served so faithfully that God did not allow him to see death. Instead, he was taken from the Earth in a fiery chariot in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). It is more than just not reading of Elijah ever sinning. It is the implication of his being taken up without death in similar manner to Enoch that shows us that Elijah was perfectly faithful in all his ways.
The New Testament gives us another striking example.
Luke writes concerning the parents of John the Baptist:
"And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
Notice the language carefully. They were both righteous before God. They were walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. They were blameless. Luke does not say that they were righteous merely because God pretended they had obeyed when they actually had not. Nor does he say that they were imputed as righteous because of their faithfulness. He describes their actual conduct: "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
This is precisely the kind of language that should prevent us from simply assuming that scripture defines human sinlessness as impossible.
Jesus became one of us as Paul describes in Romans 8:3 and 2 Corinthians 5:21:
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:"
" For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
As the Hebrew writer claims in Hebrews 2:14-18:
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Jesus isn't an exception. He's the standard. He became human, was tempted as a human, and lived without sin showing that it is humanely possible. To claim "well, Jesus is God" is to say that Jesus cheated and therefore His incarnation, His life, His offering to God, His mediation between God and man all are a sham. Either Jesus faced sin as we do and showed we can live our whole life without sin, or Jesus is a liar, a fake.
Consider the language God repeatedly used concerning His people. Even if they had sinned, they could repent and live sinless afterwards.
Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 18:13:
"Thou shalt be perfect with Yahweh thy God."
Hezekiah prayed in 2 Kings 20:3:
"Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight."
God Himself said concerning David in 1 Kings 15:5:
"David did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
That last statement is particularly interesting. scripture explicitly identifies an exception in David's life. The text does not say that David necessarily sinned every day in some unspecified way. It identifies a particular matter in which he transgressed.
Likewise, Asa is described as having "done that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as did David his father." and "the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days." (1 Kings 15:11, 14)
Biblical perfection is therefore not an exclusively divine attribute. scripture repeatedly applies the language of perfection, blamelessness, integrity, and righteousness to human beings.
In this section, I will deal with the common objections to this position.
Someone will immediately and invariably bring forward Romans 3:
"There is none righteous, no, not one."
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
I have already answered these two objections in the article entitled Objections to Romans 3 Answered. For an expanded view of that, you can read that article. The short version is that neither of those verses is universal in context. They are about a much smaller set of people. If they were not, then Jesus would be included in the 'all'.
"For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."
This is one of the strongest passages that must be addressed honestly. However, notice the wording. Solomon is describing the universal condition of humanity in his observation of life "upon earth." It does not state that God has created human beings with an inability to refrain from sin. Furthermore, Solomon's book often contains hyperbole. "All is vanity" and "the dead don't know anything" are both obvious hyperbole as we know many things that are not vanity such as worshipping and serving God, and as Jesus reported in Luke 16, the dead know things. So to take Solomon's statement in 7:20 as an absolute statement rather than hyperbole is not contextually just. Furthermore, making it an absolute statement that applies post cross makes it a contradiction to Jesus's explicitly stated sinlessness.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Again, John writes propositionally, that is, he writes in terms of propositional premises that are either true or false. He begins this series of three propositions by highlighting who he is considering. "We" is again representative of Christians. In essence, he is saying "if Christians say".
If a Christian says they have no sin. What does John mean by this? It cannot mean that a faithful Christian walking in the light and continually cleansed of their sin says they don't currently have sin on their soul because then John would be contradicting himself in the very last verse! Instead, I believe that John is saying that we who have been saved from our sins claim that we have never sinned in the first place, that we have always been sinless
For a person who has been saved from sin and are now sinless to claim that they never sinned in the first place is a self deception. They have convinced themselves that the holiness of Christ that has washed them clean is instead their own holiness, which removes the glory from Christ and puts it on themselves.
...and the truth is not in us.
John, including himself in this with the words "we" and "us", says that anyone who has been saved that tells you they have never sinned does not speak the truth. Furthemore, since truth is light and light is Christ in this context, John is saying that Christ is not in them (see Ephesians 3:17). In other words, the person who believes such is walking in darkness and is lost in the very sin they claim never to have committed.
John continues by contrasting this claim of never having sinned by writing about Christians confessing their sins. In this context, I believe this is more about Christians owning their past sins in contrast to claiming they never sinned to begin with. If we confess that we have sinned in the past, then when we sin in the present, we are walking in the light and thus are continually cleansed of those sins. John is not saying that if we sin, we first have to go confess that sin to a priest or a fellow Christian or to the church or even to God in order to receive that continual cleansing. That would make the cleansing happen in discreet moments, not continual. But if we are walking in the light, part of that walk is the acknowledgement of our past sins to others, a powerful teaching tool and testimony of what Christ has done for us that we can use to convert others.
Verse 10 is an iteration of what John is saying and I believe is a bit clearer in showing that what I was talking about. If we say that we have not sinned as opposed to saying yes, I've sinned, but I've been washed clean in the blood of Christ, then we make Jesus a liar. The reason for this is because Jesus is the one that taught that those who have been baptized, have thusly come into contact with His blood and been cleansed of all their sins. If these people had been baptized and are in Christ but claim they never sinned, then they are contradicting all that Jesus said about them being cleansed in the first place. This is the word, the gospel message in full, that Jesus died for sinners and we find cleansing by being baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6; Galatians 3:26-27). If we deny that this is what happened to us because we have never sinned, then His word, His teachings are not in us. His light is not in us and we have only darkness.
But John immediately follows this with:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not."
John has just finished writing to them about being continually cleansed of all unrighteousness if they walk in the light, and then telling them that if they say they don't have sin, they are walking in darkness and are liars. Now, he writes and says that he is writing this letter so that they don't sin! Again, John is an inspired writer here. His words are God-breathed. Therefore, he cannot contradict himself, especially here in the same few lines of writing so close together.
This then is support for the premise that John is not telling the Christians that they are guilty of sin now, or that sin is somehow inevitable and unavoidable. In verses 8 and 10 of the last chapter, he was only telling those who were saved not to claim they had never sinned at all.
He is writing these things to encourage them not to sin. This means that it is entirely possible for a Christian to stop sinning. The word in the Greek is in the aorist tense rather than the present tense. This means John is not telling them to stop continual sin, but to stop sinning altogether. As a newborn babe in Christ, that might be very difficult as habits are hard to break. It takes conscious effort over a significant period of time to make a new habit of doing righteousness to replace the old habit of sin. Thankfully, as John says here, we have an advocate with God the Father, the righteous one, Jesus Christ. When we do sin, even though we are working on not sinning, His blood cleanses us of those sins on a continual basis. He is our advocate before the Father declaring our innocence on the basis of His righteousness until we can conform to Him fully and make His righteousness our own.
How then does one stop sinning? You start by prayer and meditation, spending more time with God, spending more time with your fellow Christians and less time in the world. If you are praying or studying scripture, it is not likely at all that you have room for sin. If you are spending time with your fellow Christians, you are less inclined to sin, and if you do, they are there to gently and lovingly correct you. Then, you focus and work your way up. Can you go a minute without sin? Five minutes? Can you go a whole hour of worship on Sunday without sin? How about two? As you grow and mature, perhaps you can go an entire day, then a week, then a month, then a year and as you truly realize in your life what it means to be crucified with Christ and have Him live in you as Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, what it truly means to walk in the light of truth, to be reconciled to the Father, sin will become abhorrent to you, a disgusting thing that no longer has any appeal for you. Temptation will hold not power and finding that way out that always exists according to 1 Corinthians 13:10 will become so easy it will be natural to you.
Still, when you stumble, the blood of Christ is washing you continually and you remain unblemished as part of His bride.
John continues in John 3:6-10:
"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 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. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."
This is the so called "worm theory" destroyed in a single passage. If you remain in Christ, you don't keep on sinning. If you do, you are of the Devil. Now, there may be some who are righteous people who have an improper definition of sin and so they think they sin when they don't. That's a different conversation. John emphatically writes to mature Christians that they stop sinning, abide in Christ, if you stumble, the blood of Christ covers you, but if you continue in sin, you are of the Devil. That should just about cover the idea in a nutshell. If you can stop sinning after you have been saved, there is no reason you could have not lived without sinning in the first place just as Jesus did.
Paul says of those who are now in Christ:
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded."
There were Christians whom Paul described as perfect. Paul is not writing to nobody here. He also writes:
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
Is Paul exhorting them to do the impossible? Of course not. Why command people to perfect holiness if holiness cannot actually be perfected?
Romans 6 is also devastating to the idea that sin is unavoidable. Paul tells Christians:
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof."
He does not say, "Sin will inevitably reign in your mortal body." He says, "Let not sin therefore reign" then "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (6:14) The Christian has been liberated from sin's dominion. Paul continues in verse 16, 18, and 22:
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey..."
"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."
"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
Finally, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
This does not sound like Paul is teaching that a Christian has no meaningful ability to resist sin. Every time you are tempted to sin, God has given you a way out. You can take that way out ever time. Sin is not inevitable.
Paul gives an even stronger statement concerning the Christian's ability to overcome sin: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Notice the certainty of Paul's statement. He does not say that Christians will inevitably fulfill the lusts of the flesh but that if they walk in the Spirit, they "shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." God would hardly give such an instruction if the Christian were inherently incapable of obeying it. Paul continues by explaining that "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). The Christian life is therefore not presented as an inevitable cycle of committing sins, asking forgiveness, committing the same sins again, and repeating the process until death. Rather, the New Testament presents genuine victory over sin as the Christian's calling. Christians are commanded to walk in the Spirit, crucify the flesh, and refuse to allow sin to reign over them. If sin were an unavoidable necessity for every human being, these commands would lose much of their force. Paul's language instead presents obedience as a genuine possibility for the Christian.
Jesus repeatedly connected obedience with discipleship. He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15), and again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). Jesus certainly kept His Father's commandments perfectly, but He did not present obedience to God as something fundamentally impossible for human beings. Instead, He commanded His disciples to keep His commandments and told them that doing so would cause them to abide in His love. John expresses the same principle when he writes, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3). He then goes even further: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6). The standard given to Christians is therefore Christ Himself. John does not say that Christ's manner of life was impossible for ordinary human beings to imitate. Rather, those who claim to abide in Christ are commanded to "walk, even as he walked." If Christ's sinless obedience were inherently impossible for a human being, this command would make little sense. scripture instead presents Christ's life as the pattern Christians are to follow, and obedience to His commandments as something they genuinely can do.
This objection reduces Jesus down to a singular purpose, that of saving us from our sins. A huge part of this is due to the transactional nature of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement model which reduces everything about Jesus to His death on the cross. This is absurd on its face. Jesus is God. The sinless need God as Creator and Sustainer of creation. They need Jesus as example of how to live sinlessly. They need Jesus's teachings. They need His kingship, His providence, His victory over physical death and so much more.
The existence of innocent children demonstrates why it cannot simply be assumed. If a baby dies before ever committing sin, there is no personal sin from which that child needs to be saved. scripture says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son" (Ezekiel 18:20). Moses likewise says, "Every man shall be put to death for his own sin" (Deuteronomy 24:16). Sin is attributed to the person who commits it, not inherited as personal guilt from another. Jesus' own teaching concerning children is consistent with their innocence. When His disciples asked who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus called a little child and said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:2-3). He further said, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4). On another occasion He said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). Jesus does not describe these children as condemned sinners who have inherited Adam's guilt. Instead, He holds them up as examples of the character required in His kingdom.
So if a baby dies, that baby dies without sin or need of salvation. Would we then argue that baby did not need Jesus? Of course not!
The question before us is not whether human beings commonly sin. They do. The question is whether scripture teaches that sin is inevitable, that an ordinary human being is constitutionally incapable of living without committing sin, or that perfection is something God commands while knowing it can never actually be attained (which would make Him unjust). The evidence presented throughout scripture does not support that conclusion. Instead, scripture repeatedly commands human beings to be perfect, blameless, holy, righteous, and obedient; it repeatedly describes ordinary human beings in those very terms; and it repeatedly tells Christians that they can resist temptation, walk in the Spirit, crucify the flesh, refuse to let sin reign, keep Christ's commandments, and walk as Christ walked.
We have seen Enoch, who walked with God and pleased God so completely that he was taken without seeing death. We have seen Noah, whom God called "perfect," who walked with God and did everything God commanded him. We have seen Job, whom God Himself called "perfect and upright," and concerning whom scripture explicitly says that he did not sin even in the midst of his trials. We have seen Joseph, a type of Christ, who though we have a huge amount of information bout, never has a sin recorded against him. In a book that records the flaws of its heroes, Joseph's are conspicuously absent. We have seen Elijah, a man "subject to like passions as we are," whom God likewise took without allowing him to see death. We have seen Zechariah and Elisabeth, who were "righteous before God," walking "in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." We have seen David described as having done what was right in God's eyes and not turning aside from God's commandments, with scripture identifying a specific exception rather than teaching that he necessarily sinned in every other area of his life. We have seen Asa, whose heart was "perfect with Yahweh all his days." These are not descriptions of angels or matephorical ideals. These are descriptions of real human beings.
The usual proof texts do not overturn this evidence. "There is none righteous, no, not one" and "all have sinned" must be understood according to their contexts rather than turned into philosophical statements that make human perfection impossible. Ecclesiastes 7:20 is a statement made within Solomon's wisdom using hyperbolic statements and cannot simply be elevated into an exceptionless declaration that no human being can ever live without sin. First John 1:8-10 warns Christians against claiming that they have never sinned, while the very next chapter tells them, "these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." The same John later says, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not" and commands Christians to walk "even as he walked." Paul tells us that God provides a way of escape from every temptation, that sin shall not have dominion over us, that we have been made free from sin, and that those who walk in the Spirit "shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
None of this means that Christians can't sin. Scripture plainly teaches that they can. It means that just because Christians can sin doesn't demand the conclusion 'therefore no one can live without sinning'. The existence of a remedy for sin does not prove that sin must necessarily occur. The existence of an advocate does not establish that sin is unavoidable. God's willingness to forgive sin demonstrates His mercy; it does not demonstrate that He has made sin a necessity of human existence.
Nor does the possibility of living without sin somehow make Jesus unnecessary. Jesus is not merely a mechanism for paying a penalty whenever someone commits a transgression. He is the Son of God, our Lord, our King, our Teacher, our example, our mediator, and the one through whom we have access to the Father. A human being who never sinned would still be God's creature and would still owe God perfect love, worship, obedience, and submission. The innocence of a baby who dies without sin demonstrates precisely this distinction. That child does not need salvation from sin because there is no sin to be forgiven. Yet that does not make the child independent of God or make Christ irrelevant.
Ultimately, the burden of proof belongs to the person who says that human perfection is impossible. It is not enough to say, "Everyone I know sins," or "Everyone normally sins," or "I have never met a sinless person." None of those statements establishes impossibility. If scripture commands perfection, describes human beings as perfect and blameless, commands believers not to sin, promises a way of escape from every temptation, says that sin shall not have dominion over them, and gives Christ Himself as the standard by which they are to walk, then we have no right to add an unstated limitation and declare that God has commanded something no ordinary human being can ever do. Such would make God unjust to command something humans, by design, aren't capable of accomplishing.
The question is therefore not whether you have sinned. You may have. I definitely have. Many people certainly have. The question is whether God has revealed that every human being must sin. That is a much stronger proposition, and scripture never teachers it. What scripture does say is this:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
"Thou shalt be perfect with Yahweh thy God."
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body."
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not."
"He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Scripture does not tell us to redefine perfection as something impossible. It tells us to pursue it, practice righteousness, overcome sin, walk in the light, and become like Christ. Whether every human being actually achieves a completely sinless lifetime is a separate question from whether such a life is possible. Scripture gives us abundant reason to affirm the latter. Perfection is not presented in scripture as a divine privilege that God commands humans to admire from a distance. It is presented as a standard toward which human beings are commanded to walk, to strive for. The question is not whether we are willing to believe that perfection is possible. The question is:
Are willing to believe that God has said and shown that it is?