Perfect, Yet Vile

These two things are constantly set before us and must be constantly remembered by us (Romans 7:14-23; Galatians 5:19-23). The believer is a person constantly at war with himself, a person who must, as long as he is in this body of flesh, endure an internal warfare between the flesh and the Spirit that cannot be understood except as it is experienced and cannot be understood until these two things are clearly established.

1. In Christ, by his blood and righteousness, we are before God altogether without sin and perfect, complete, and fully worthy of God's acceptance, "holy, unblameable and unreproveable" in his sight, without one spot of sin or wrinkle of infirmity.

2. But in ourselves we are just the opposite of perfect. — We are utterly vile.