Bible Discussion Thread

It is important to recognize that in Matthew 5 Jesus is not teaching the doctrine of justification. In other words, He is not teaching that if one would go to heaven, he must have greater righteousness than the Pharisees, in the sense of having the imputation of Christ s righteousness at salvation which makes a believer righteous in the spirit realm of his being . Rather, Jesus is teaching soul perfection, which is the idea of living completely righteous, in conformity to God s will, both inside and out unlike the Pharisees, who were primarily focused on the outside. Again, perfection doesn t mean sinless it simply means not sinning. That may sound perplexing, but perhaps it will become clearer when examining two seemingly contradictory verses in John s first epistle.