Holiness and Perfection


“Be holy,
for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:16

“Be perfect, even as
your Father in heaven
is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48


Holiness Messages

The Christian and Sin



Several Scriptures in the New Testament indicate that the relation of the believer in Christ to sin can be described with the word:
freedom. Let us see some Scriptures to back this up:

First the well known John 8:34-36. “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides for ever. If the Son therefore shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

And then Romans 6:18. “Being then made
free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
And let us read what the angel said to Joseph. Matthew 1:21. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall
save his people from their sins.

What does freedom mean? Simply that we are no longer compelled to do what someone else wants. Sin does not have dominion over us, so we are not bound to commit sins.

Being a servant of sin means that we don’t want to sin, but an evil force, a power compels us to sin against our will. “For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15). This is slavery, which is a horrible, miserable state.

Jesus’ wonderful work is that He liberates us, saves us, sets us free from it. When Jesus delivers us from sin, He brings us out from under its evil power. He doesn’t take away the possibility of sin, because He leaves us our free will. But if we don’t want to sin, then we don’t have to.

1 John 2:1-2: “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”

God commands that we sin not. He does not give us commands that we can not obey, that wouldn’t be fair. Of course we couldn’t avoid sinning in our own power, but if we remain in Christ, then He keeps us from sinning. 1 John 3:6 “Whosoever abides in him sins not.”

The other thing He says is: “And if any man sin...” He doesn’t say
when, He says if. So it is not necessary that we sin. But if it happens, we have a wonderful advocate with God the Father: Jesus, who already made propitiation for our sins. Because of that, if we confess our sins, God will forgive us our sins, and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There remains no unrighteousness in us that would make us sin again.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” It’s time for the people of God to walk in the freedom for which Jesus has set us free. Amen.



“Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
“Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).