Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
How do you Christians that believe that they can continue to sin and be "of God" reconcile the following into your beliefs? Or do you just pretend that it doesn't exist?
1 John 3:4 -9:
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in hi ...[text shortened]... commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.[/b]
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Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
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And the very same author in the very same book teaches us this:
"My little children I write these things to that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous; And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for those of the whole world." (1 John 2:1,2)
Obviously John knew the
"little children" his Christian audience, still had the possibility to sin. Obviously also he is discouraging sinning. But if they should they have an Righteous Advocate, an Attorney, Jesus Christ who saved them and continues life long to keep them in good fellowship with the Father.
John also wrote in the same epistle
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1:9)
Daily confession of sins and daily cleansing of the blood of Christ keep us in the divine fellowship and cause the divine growth in spiritual life.
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5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
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There is no argument here. He was manifested to take away sins and sinning. And by abiding in Him we are in a realm in which there is no sinning. The problem for the Christians is to log more and more time in that realm. We go in and out of His indwelling presence. We need to learn to abide there continually for we are use to living in the old man with the old fallen nature.
Paul prayed that the believers would be
"strengthened into the inner man". The bond needs to be strengthened, made stronger so that we do not occasionally dwell in His presence but abide there, not easily moved out.
In Christ as a spiritual realm is a sphere where we overcome our tendency to sin and live in union with Him.
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6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
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I think if you read the entire epistle, taking into account ALL that John writes there should not be any problem. By isolating passages in a biased way you may abuse John's style of absolute like statments to push a warped and unbalanced view.
Abiding in Him (Christ the life giving Spirit) we can and do overcome the fallen sinful nature.
Do I see Christ today ? Yes, But Oh how much MORE I need to see of Him. For my whole life my seeing, my appreciation of what Christ is in me and what He has done for me must ever deepen.
I have seen Him. But how so much more I need to see of Him. This is how I understand John's utterance.
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7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
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These are obviously the utterances of an apostle who was very deep in the experience of Christ. He enjoyed Christ very deeply. And his whole epistle is to encourage his audience not to discourage his audience.
His tone is not one of playing "king of the hill" where no one can attain to his level of spiritual growth. Rather it is full of encouragement to continue to grow.
Only a foolish mind would take these passages as John's intended discouragment for Christians to love Christ and grow closer in their walk with Him.
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8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
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What is the problem? When I do or say certain things I know that it was of the devil. I have no problem with that exposure. When I purposely do not abide in the Holy Spirit and sin, sure, I'm of the devil.
If you pull the plug out of a refrigerator all the food inside will eventually rot. And if I do not abide in Christ, step by step,moment by moment, sure something rottenis going to come out.
So we have 27 books of the New Testament much of which taken up with how to abide in Christ.
Were you expecting a magical instantaneous switch to perfection ? Then perhaps we would have a very skinny New Testament. As it is we have epistle after epistle to edify the Christians and teach them about living Christ.
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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.
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Here is a translation problem. This should read
"Whatsoever is born of God doth not commit sin."
It is a what and not a who. The innermost being of man can born of God. Man's spirit is the part of him that is regenerated, born of God. In that part of man there is no sin. There is no footprint of Satan at all on man's regenerated spirit.
That part of man is sinless. The problem is for man to set his mind on the spirit where the Spirit of Christ is after regeneration, so that the sinless living can be lived emanating from his innermost being.
The part that has no sin is the human spirit which in regeneration is joined to the Holy Spirit -
"He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17)
My regenerated spirit has no sin and cannot sin. Christ is one with my innermost spirit. There there is no sin. My task is to
"set the mind on the spirit". My task is to be strengthened into the inner man. My task is to abide in my mingled spirit where the Spirit of Christ has joined Himself to that part of my being.
So this verse is about a WHATSOEVER that is born of God, the human spirit, the innermost kernel of the Christian.
In that realm she must learn to abide moment by moment. And it is a life long exercise to learn to talk in spirit, think in spirit, walk in spirit, even sleep in spirit, and live in spirit. We Christians must learn to log more and more time in the realm of that sinlesss
"WHATSOEVER"
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