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How can we go on to perfection if we have already been perfected?
As a gift of grace, sanctification is conferred on each Christian as soon as he believes. But there is the sense that it is “hid with Christ in God.” It is “held on deposit.” We appropriate it through daily communion and gradual apprehension of Christ.
Does that mean we are already sinless? No. We have not reached a state of practical and realized sanctification in our personal lives. On the daily practical side what has been crucified must be mortified. We die daily to sin and what has been buried must be kept buried. It is still true that “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We simply have not reached holy perfection as long as we dwell in this body. We will be without sin only when we appear with Him in glory. Only then shall we be fully conformed to Christ. All our holiness is in Christ and from Him. It is only in the open vision of His face and in His light that our likeness to Him will be rendered perfect.
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