1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Like verse six, this verse seems to describe a state that no man can enter. I haven’t met anyone who is without sin and anyone who has met me soon comes to know that I am a sinner. Yet I believe I am born again and I know people that would say they are children of God. As I’ve said before, the person described here, the perfect man without sin who cannot sin, is Jesus. He is the one born of God who we celebrate at Christmas. If these verses describe Jesus, why are they addressed to people. Following the grammar in verse nine, when it says ‘he cannot sin’ the he is the person being addressed in this letter. Now, that seems to be quite a problem. How can I call myself a child of God and yet find it really easy to sin? Now, John isn’t trying to say that all who are adopted into God’s family will immediately stop sinning and become perfect goody little two shoes. Chapter one gives great assurance that while Christians struggle with sin, they are forgiven of their sins. John said ‘If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.’ Along with this, remember what was said in verse two, ‘We know that when He appears, we will be like Him.’ John is showing us a picture of what we will be like. We are assured in chapter one that we are forgiven, and here we see that in our forgiven state, we are to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach and train us as we seek to live as God’s children. I find the book of Romans really helpful in understanding this difference between the Spirit of Christ working in me and my struggle with sin. In Chapter eight it says:
Romans 8
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
At Christmas we celebrate Christ’s coming. With His coming, we know He also gives the Spirit. The works of Christ and the works of the Spirit are sinless. We have Christ’s righteousness freely given to us. We have the Spirit helping us spiritually and physically to follow Christ. How am I listening to the Spirit? How is Christ’s dwelling in me seen in the way I live?
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