o us in their flawless perfection in so far
our faith clings to him. But to attain personal purity of such
perfection requires a daily effort on the part of Christ, until the
time shall have come that he has wrought in us a flawless perfection
like his own.

So he has given us his Word and his Spirit to aid us in purging out
the remaining old leaven, and in holding to our newly-begun purity
instead of lapsing from it. We must retain the faith, the Spirit and
Christ; and this, as before said, we cannot do if we give place to the
old carnal disposition instead of resisting it.

18. Note, one thing the text teaches: Even the saints have weakness,
uncleanness and sin yet to be purged out, but it is not imputed unto
them because they are in Christ and occupied in purging out the old
leaven.

19. Another thing, it teaches what constitutes the difference between
the saints and the unholy, for both are sinful; it tells the nature of
sins despite the presence of which saints and believers are holy,
retaining grace and the Holy Spirit, and also what sins are
inconsistent with faith and grace.

20. The sins remaining in saints after conversion are various evil
inclinations, lusts and desires natural to man and contrary to the Law
of God. The saints, as well as others, are conscious of these sins,
but with this difference: they do not permit themselves to be overcome
thereby so as to obey the sins, allowing them free course; they do not
yield to, but resist, such sins, and, as Paul expresses it here,
incessantly purge themselves therefrom. The sins of the saints,
according to him, are the very ones which they purge out. Those who
obey their lusts, however, do not do this, but give rein to the flesh,
and sin against the protest of their own consciences.

They who resist their sinful lusts retain faith and a good conscience,
a thing impossible with those who fail to resist sin and thus violate
their conscience and overthrow their faith. If you persist in that
which is evil regardless of the voice of conscience, you cannot say,
nor believe, that you have God's favor. So then, the Christian
necessarily must not yield to sinful lusts.

21. The Holy Spirit is given for the very purpose of opposing sin and
preventing its reign. Paul says (Gal 5, 17): "For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ... that ye may
not do the things that ye would." And again (Rom 8, 13): "If by the
Spirit ye put to death