CANNOT SIN
1 John 1:8-10, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 3:9, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Skeptics love to seize on passages like these and insist the Bible contradicts itself. And, indeed, at first glance, it does look like a contradiction. But we can be sure that, if we ever perceive any contradiction in the Bible, the problem is in our own perception—it is not in the Bible. The Bible is one harmonious fabric throughout; it never teaches in one passage what it denies in another. Most of those supposed contradictions in the Bible are simple to explain, once we realize what the two passages are talking about.
For instance, somebody may tell us, “That car looks like it just came off the showroom floor. It is bright and shiny, and that red paint just catches my eye. Another person may say, “That car looks like it has gone its last mile. I really wish you would not park it in front of my house.” It becomes clear there is no contradiction, once we realize they are looking at two different cars. Most of the supposed contradictions in the Bible are like that. They are talking about two different things.
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
There is a kind of dividing we must do in studying the Bible. We cannot take every verse in the Bible in which the same word happens to be used, throw them in the same pot, stir them all up, and imagine that every verse is talking about the same thing. Words are used in different ways, and often indicate different things.
Paul advised the young preacher Timothy to, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” 2 Tim. 2:15.
He was not talking about dividing truth from error. We must, indeed, divide truth from error. That is one purpose of study. But Paul is here talking about rightly dividing the word of truth. The Bible is all truth.
There is another kind of division we must make in studying the Bible. That division has to do with dividing between different subjects under consideration. What is the Bible talking about when it uses a particular word? If we do not know what the Bible is talking about in a particular passage, there is little likelihood we will know how a word is being used.
To give just two examples, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior. The angel told Joseph that he would “save his people from their sins,” Matt. 1:21. And yet, Peter told the people at Pentecost to, “save yourselves from this untoward generation,” Acts 2:40. And Paul told Timothy, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee,” 1 Tim. 4:16.
One verse has the Lord doing the saving; another has the hearer saving himself, and the last verse has him saving himself and his listeners. Unless we want to believe man can be his own Savior, in which case he does not need the Lord, we have to realize those verses are talking about different things.
The word saved does not always refer to being saved from eternal damnation. The fact a person has been redeemed, and quickened by the Spirit, does not mean that he will never again face danger in this life. Having been once and for all saved from eternal punishment, he will still sometimes need saving from other dangers.
You and I cannot assist in redeeming any person from sin, and we cannot quicken him into divine life, but there are innumerable other dangers we can save him from—after God has done all things necessary to bring him safe home to heaven. In that sense, it is our pleasure, and our duty, to save ourselves, and those who hear us.
To look at one more illustration, Paul tells us we are justified by the blood of Christ (Rom. 5:9), and he tells us later that we are justified by faith (Rom. 3:28). James then tells us we are justified by works (James 2:24). The Bible never contradicts itself. It is obvious the three passages are not talking about the same thing.
Man is indicted, and needs justification, in three different arenas—or three different courts, if you prefer to say it that way. What justifies him in one court is insufficient to justify him in the other two.
Adam’s sin condemned us and brought us before the court of God’s eternal justice. The only thing sufficient to justify any man in that court is the shed blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else could satisfy the righteous demands of God’s broken law.
But, being justified before God by Christ’s sacrificial suffering and death, and imputed righteousness, we still stand condemned in our own conscience, until by faith we are able to embrace his imputed righteousness as our own. Until we are able to see the Lord Jesus Christ as our one and only sufficient Savior, we still see ourselves as condemned sinners, deserving nothing but the wrath of God in our eternal damnation. It is in that sense, and in that court, that we are justified by faith.
Again, though we may be justified before God by grace, and justified in our own conscience by faith, we will never be justified in the court of public opinion, if our conduct does not match our profession. There is nothing that will justify us before the watching public but a godly life. Your neighbors are not nearly so interested in what you say you believe as they are in how you live. If your conduct is ungodly, your neighbors will conclude you are ungodly. It is in this sense, and in this court, we are justified by works.
We are, indeed, indicted in three different courts—three different arenas—and we are justified differently in each of them. Nothing could be simpler when we rightly divide the word of truth.
And so, when the Bible tells us, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” at the same time it tells us, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar,” it is obvious it is talking about two different things. It is using the word sin in two totally different ways. There is a sense in which the child of God cannot sin, and there is a sense in which he can and does sin.
The first thing we need to do is to define sin; what constitutes sin? The same chapter that tells us the born again person cannot sin also tells us what sin is. Vs. 4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Two Different Laws for Two Different States
So sin is the transgression of the law, but before we can fully understand that expression, there is a division that needs to be made, and the Bible makes that division for us.
Rom. 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Here, Paul talks about two different laws—two entirely distinct laws—and he shows that one law makes you free from the other. Every person born of Adam is under one or the other of those laws; but no one is under both. If you are under the one, you are not under the other. If you are under the law of the Spirit of life, you have been made free from the law of sin and death—and that distinction is the key to the imagined contradiction before us.
The moral precepts of both laws are identical. It is wrong to lie, kill, and steal under either law; but the administration is totally different.
The law of sin and death is judicial and punitive, and its consequences are eternal. It has to do with divine justice.
The law of the Spirit of life is parental and loving, and its consequences are timely. They are limited to this life. It is the difference between a judge dealing with a condemned criminal, and a loving parent dealing with an erring child.
“Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). In order to transgress any law, you must be under that law, and subject to its penalties.
You are subject to the laws of the state you are in. I am presently in the state of Tennessee, and I am subject to the laws of this state. I am not presently in the state of California, and I am not subject to the laws of that state. If I should go to California, I would then be subject to the laws of that state.
Paul talks about these two different laws for two different classes of people—people in two different states. The law you are under depends on the condition or state you are in. There is the law of sin and death. If you are in sin and dead, that is the law you are under.
The Law of Sin and Death
The penalty of the law of sin and death is eternal damnation.
Adam sinned and transgressed under that law, and brought condemnation on himself and all his posterity.
The law of sin and death deals with two things. It deals with sin and it deals with death. Its sentence is, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
God told Adam, “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” That is the first record of the law of sin and death. Adam fell under that law, and he carried all his posterity with him.
Adam did not die a spiritual death; he did not have spiritual life to lose. He was devoid of spiritual life, but he was devoid of spiritual life before he sinned. If he had spiritual life and lost it, we might lose our spiritual life. He was a good, upright, natural man, but he sinned, and he became a wicked, sinful, depraved natural man. Before he sinned, he was not a proper subject to live in heaven. If he had been, that is where God would have put him. God put him in the Garden of Eden, and it was there he trespassed and sinned, and he died in trespasses and sins.
All mankind lay under the condemnation of that law until God brought redemption by the sacrificial death, and imputed righteousness, of his Son. But God did bring redemption. Now, because of his redemption, his chosen and redeemed are delivered from that law with its horrible penalty.
By the body of Christ (by his suffering and death) the born again child of God has been made free from that law.
Rom. 7:4, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
On behalf of his chosen family, the Lord provided everything that law demanded. It demanded a perfect righteousness; he provided his imputed righteousness.
1 Cor. 1:30, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
It demanded that the sinner must die; he took upon him our sin, and in our place he suffered and died. He perfectly satisfied every demand of that law on our behalf. It can ask for no more. The redeemed and born again child of God is no longer in danger of suffering its penalty. He is no longer in danger of eternal damnation.
2 Cor. 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Isa. 53:5-8, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”
The Law of the Spirit of Life
Then there is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If you are in the Spirit and alive, you are under that law.
The Bible refers to this law in a variety of ways. It calls it the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), the law of liberty (James 2:12), the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25), the royal law (James 2:8), and so on.
Gal. 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
James 1:25, “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.”
James 2:12, “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”
You have been made free from the law of sin and death, and while you cannot sin against that law, so as to be in danger of eternal damnation, you can transgress the law you are under. You can sin against Christ.
1 Cor. 9:21, “Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.”
1 Cor. 8:12, “But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.”
For the born again child of God to sin against Christ, to ignore and impugn the instructions of his Savior, and the impressions of his Spirit, will not place him in danger of ceasing to be born again, or to suffer in eternal damnation, but it will subject him to the chastening rod of God, and that chastening can be severe.
Heb. 12:6,7, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not.”
The born again person is in the Spirit and alive, and he cannot sin against the law of sin and death; he is no longer in that state, and is no longer under that law. So long as his seed remaineth in him, that is, so long as he continues to be born of God, so long as he continues to be in the Spirit and alive, he cannot transgress the law of sin and death. And since the born again child of God can never become unborn, he can never again transgress that law.
1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
A blessing or a curse
The law of sin and death is a curse, and Christ has redeemed us, delivered us, from the curse of that law.
Gal. 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed us every one that hangeth on a tree.”
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ is a blessing. It is a great blessing that God has given us this law written in our hearts and minds in order to direct our steps and guide us in the ways of righteousness. We are delivered in order to serve him.
Psa. 1:2, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate all the day.”
Psa. 119:97, “O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.”
God has written that law in the hearts and minds of his born again children that we might know how to serve him properly.
Heb. 10:16, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.”
Heb. 8:10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.”
Jer. 10:23, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
Psa. 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”
Psa. 119:130, “The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
Even the chastening we receive under this law is a blessing. It is far different from the curse of the law of sin and death.
Heb. 12:6, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”
Psa. 119:67, “It is good that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.”
Psa. 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept thy word.”
We are delivered from the law of sin and death and brought under the law of the spirit of life in Christ in order that we might be able to serve God, in order that we might live righteously. When we were dead in sins, we were not capable of serving God acceptably. We did not have the Spirit of God in our hearts, and so were not capable of living after the Spirit. Now having been made free from that law, and alive to God, we are capable of serving in a way we were not able to serve before.
Rom. 8:7-9, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”
Rom. 7:6, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Rom. 8:4, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
One other thought on this before we close. When John says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” he is often interpreted to mean that there is a part of man—the new man, the spiritual part of man—that does not sin. That explanation sounds reasonable, and that is the way I used to explain it. I do not believe that is right, even though there are many good and well informed brethren who disagree.
Over one hundred years ago, Elder William Mitchell of Alabama explained the question far better than I am able to do, and rather than venture any explanation of my own, I have attached his article as an appendix to this booklet. I hope you will read Brother Mitchell on the subject.
Appendix
by Elder William Mitchell
1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Various have been the views and comments of brethren concerning the time, meaning, and proper application of the above text. And while we have had no particular objection to the doctrine presented by some of our beloved brethren on this text, we have had serious doubts as to whether they had given the proper application of the text, or presented the main and special point of doctrine contained in the text. We have thought it possible that one might speak or write the truth, and yet not expound or give the meaning of the particular text he claims to be expounding.
It is generally conceded by nearly all whose writings we have seen upon this text, that the words “cannot sin” refer to that divine nature and holy principle implanted and received by the sinner in the new birth, and that it doth not commit sin, and that it (and not the man) cannot commit sin, because it, and not the man, is born of God. But does not this view of the text pervert its meaning and conflict with the plain wording of the text itself?
If it is something else than man, that is born of God, why should the word whosoever be used in the very beginning of the text? Why not have all parts of the text agree, and say, “Whatsoever is born of God, (or as one brother did say, that thing which is born of God), “doth not commit sin, and it cannot sin, because it is born of God.”
It is true that this perverted wording of the text would be in harmony with the views which some have given upon it. But is this right? The Holy Ghost in the holy Apostle has made no mistake in saying, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” and why should any faithful steward of the mysteries of God wish to change the words, whosoever and he to make them read whatsoever and it? Would it not be better that our views harmonize with the text, rather than to change its wording to make it harmonize with our views?
If it is not the man, a real person, an accountable human being that is born of God, and cannot sin, because he is born of God, who is it, and what is it? Some say that part that is born of God does not sin, but the body, or flesh, or the Adamic man, sins continually. Now, this may all look very plausible and consistent with our daily experience; but, after all, is this the correct solution and meaning of the words, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin?”
We think it is not. There is nothing said in the text about that part of man that is born of God, nor of that thing, or spirit, that is born; but the words whosoever and he in the text show that it is a real person—whether Jew or Gentile, wise or ignorant, rich or poor, old or young—who if born of God in the sense of the text, cannot sin, because he (not it) is born of God.
But before proceeding further, we wish to remind the Christian reader, that the proper application of the text we are considering does not, in any way, conflict with any other text in the Scriptures. Nor does it conflict with the daily struggle that each believing child of God has in striving against sin. It does not conflict with what the Apostle Paul has expressed and what each believer has experienced more or less every day of his Christian life. Each can witness that, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” And further, each may say in truth, “I know that in me dwelleth no good thing,” Rom. 7. And again, the very same Apostle who wrote the text which we are considering, also said, concerning the same characters embraced in the text, that, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,” 1 John 1:8. And again, he saith, “My little children, I write unto you that ye sin not; but if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.”
Now, when we take into consideration that all these last quoted texts are in perfect harmony with the words, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” we are forced to the conclusion that, as it is man that is and must be born of God, there is some scripturally qualified sense in which “he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
About 40 or 50 years ago, we remember seeing a published article from an aged minister, in which he quoted the words of Jesus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” John 3:3. After quoting this, he said, “If this birth refers to the man mentioned in Genesis 1:26, then I know nothing of any such birth.” This was a startling expression to me, and one that I had never heard or read from any Primitive Baptist before; and though he was an aged and orderly minister of good standing, we could not well refrain from calling the attention of our brethren to the remark, and expressing our dissent from the sentiment contained in it.
In Genesis 1:26, it is written, “And God said, Let us make man in our image.” Now, this is the only man that we know anything about, whom God, the Creator of all things, ever made, and in whom all other human beings were embodied; and he is the only man to whom God ever gave a law having a bearing upon all human beings that ever should be in the world, and he is the only man whose sin and transgression became the sin and transgression of all the progeny of Adam, who were created in him, and represented by him in his act of transgression. Death passed upon all when it passed upon him, for in him they all sinned, and in him they all die. And the law of God that was thus given to Adam and to all his posterity in him is the only law ever given to man, which has a bearing on his future and eternal destiny beyond this world. It is the first and original law ever imputed to man. That law, in all its force and perfections is the same today as when first given to man. It has never been repealed or modified in any particular. If it required perfect and perpetual obedience at first, when Adam was a pure, good, and innocent creature, it requires the same perfect obedience up to this very hour, and will so require it forever, if not fulfilled and its curse removed by our Lord Jesus Christ as the Surety, Husband, and Redeemed of His chosen people.
Now, to be begotten and born of god, is to be begotten and born of the same Spirit, power, and life that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. And none are thus born but those whose sins are put away by the sacrifice of Christ. He has fulfilled the law and redeemed His people from the curse of the law, by being Himself made a curse for them. It can curse them no more, neither can they ever again commit sin, in the eye of that law, from the curse and condemnation of which their blessed Surety has redeemed them. (The law, or the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made all who are born of God free from the power of sin and death.) And if thus free from the power of sin and death, it is because they are born of God into the kingdom of Christ, and raised up with Him above the penal demands of that law. “And if we be dead with Him,” it is not unreasonable nor unscriptural to believe that “we shall live with him,” 2 Tim. 2:11.
And now, as we must bring this article to a close, suffice it to say that when it is said, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and cannot sin,” it is nothing more nor less than we find, in substance, in quite a number of other texts, such as, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life,” John 5:24. None but those who are born of God are true and genuine believers in God the Father and in Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son of the Father. They cannot sin any more under that law from which they are made free, and as they cannot commit sin in the eye of that law, they shall never more come into condemnation under the curse of that law, neither in time nor in eternity. “Christ hath obtained eternal redemption for us.” “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” To be born of God is to be born from the dead; it is to pass from death to life. But let us remember it is the sinner that is saved, the man that is born of the Spirit, and it is the work of the Spirit and not of the flesh.
According to the view we have long entertained concerning this text, and which we have been trying to present to our readers in this article, it harmonizes with every other portion of the word of the Lord, and does not require that we should say “that part of man that is born of God, and it is man that cannot sin, because he is born of God. This is the plain declaration of the text.
But let us remember that this man that is born of God, is also said to be “delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son,” Col. 1:13.
And while he cannot sin so as to ever again come under the curse and condemnation of the law from which he is redeemed and made free by the blood of Christ, yet he can and does sin and violate the law of Christ, because he is born into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, and is, therefore, under law to Christ. Hence the Scriptures speak of those who are born of God sinning against Christ— sinning against the brethren—sinning against the church and against their own souls. “When ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ,” 1 Cor. 8:12.
We see, therefore, that the Scriptures do recognize the fact that, in some qualified sense, even those who are born of God can and do commit sin; but this sin is against Christ, because they are under law to Christ, and it subjects the offenders to be beaten with many stripes. God dealeth with them as with sons, and they have the blessed privilege of claiming that relationship, and in prayer say in truth, “Our Father, which art in heaven, * * forgive us our sins.” As sons they sin, and mourn, and repent, and plead in the name of Jesus “forgive us our sins.”
If, therefore, there is not some scriptural sense in which those who are born of God cannot sin, and also a sense in which they do sin, why should both these things be ascribed to them? If they cannot sin in any sense whatever, why should it be said by the Apostle, “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death?” This is disciplinary, and applies to Christians in their church relations; but is shows conclusively that in their relations one to another in the church they are under law to Christ, and that according to the requirements of that law they are to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ,” Gal. 6:2.
To do what the law of Christ forbids, or to fail to do what it commands, is sin; but it is not sin of an eternal bearing—or, in other words, there is no sin that a child of God who is under law to Christ can commit that the consequences of it will follow him any further than this mortal life. Our God and Father will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities He will remember no more. But it is the law of His gospel kingdom that “He that doeth wrong shall suffer for the wrong that he doeth, and there is no respect of persons.”
We regret that this article is so lengthy, and now we close by quoting the words of Paul to Timothy, “Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” W.M.M
THE END