The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Questioning God’s Greatest Commandment

One must distinguish between God's decretive will, i.e., that which God has eternally foreordained, much of which has not been revealed, and God's prescriptive will, i.e., that which God has revealed and which pertains to a person's duty.

It is assuredly not God's eternal decretive will that anyone in this life should be perfect except for the perfect righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to the true believer. This perfect righteousness is judicial in nature and not actual in nature. The passage in Romans 7 shows that although Paul was forensically declared righteous on the basis of Christ's imputed active obedience, he confesses that although he knows what he should do, he doesn't do. And that which he knows he should not do, that is what he does. Thus, he exclaims that he will serve the law of God with his mind (he knows what God has prescriptively revealed), but the old man, his remaining sin nature, aka: the flesh, wars against this knowledge and causes him to sin. Paul's words in Philippians 3:4-14 are most instructive. For there he admits that he is not and cannot be perfect in this life, yet he presses on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

In short, sanctification is a gradual progression which every true believer experiences and struggles with yet knowing that the perfection of holiness desired will only be attained in glorification. This truth humbles the true Christian constantly as he realizes just how corrupt and sinful he is in himself AND he proportionately becomes more and more dependent upon the indwelling Spirit to accomplish that which God requires, AND consequently, Christ becomes all the more lovely and His righteousness embraced by faith.

1. See above re: decretive will vs. prescriptive will. The true Christian is to always pray that God will provide all that is necessary through the indwelling Spirit to be holy as God is holy. John in his first Epistle also wrote:

IF, one could love God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength, then he would be essentially sinless, for that command is a summary of the first table of the Ten Commandments. IF, one could possibly do this then there would be no further need of Christ and His perfect righteousness.

The true Christian, having the indwelling Spirit who also resurrected the sinner's spiritual dead soul and in doing so created a new nature which is predisposed to love God and all that is good, does have a genuine desire to do that which he now knows is God's perfect (prescriptive) will for him. However, it is that remaining remnant of that sin nature which is not totally eradicated that prevents the knowledge of holiness and desire to be holy from doing it perfectly. Every single thought, word and deed in this life is still tainted with sin. So yes, there is an ability given in regeneration but ability does not equate with perfection.

Secondly, although ability in the Eph 4 passage is certainly implied, it makes no difference whether a person has the ability or not in regard to responsibility. ALL MEN are responsible to repent of their sins and believe upon Christ and to live a life of perfect holiness. Yet, only the elect of God whom the Spirit has made alive in Christ have the ability to even comprehend what that means. Again, sanctification is progressive and in this life is unattainable due to the remaining sin nature.