Did he? I know that he said that he 'dies daily,' but that hardly means that his sin-nature was still alive and kicking to the end of his days. He also says "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded..." (Phil. 3:15)
I have to look at all of Scripture and realize that prophecies are given in the past tense in order to illustrate the certainty of what God will do. Not necessarily that it's already done, in our finite reality. God, being existent in the future as well as the past and present at the same 'time' - can say truthfully 'It IS done' when from our point of view, it seems not yet to be done. (e.g. being perfect.)
I fail to see how this applies to the very real command Our Lord gave us to "Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Mt. 5:48) nor the constant prayers of Paul that we "be filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:16-19) and that "the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely" (1 Thess. 5:23). These aren't prophecies that God will do this in the future--these are a command and prayers that we would be perfected in love and made completely holy (which, ethically, would exhibit itself in a loving of God and neighbor with the whole heart) now.