Once again, I have been
writing about assurance. In John’s first letter, he gives us eight ways that we
can tell, or know, or have the assurance that we are a child of God; saved by
grace and walking in righteousness. What I would like to do this morning is put
together, or bring together verses six and nine of our text, and see if we can
decipher what John means when he says; “No one who is born of God will continue
to sin.” He basically says the same thing three times in these verses; “No one
who lives in Him keeps on sinning”…“No one who continues to sin has either seen
Him or knows Him” And, of course, “No one who is born of God will continue to
sin.” Then he tells us why this is so at the end of verse 9 - “because God’s
seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because
he has been born of God.” This is how we know! Says John.
In order to clarify something in our own minds, let me first explain what John does not mean; He does not mean that Christians do not or cannot sin…“never say never”. What I hope will come across is the difference between committing sin - and continuing in sin.
In order to clarify something in our own minds, let me first explain what John does not mean; He does not mean that Christians do not or cannot sin…“never say never”. What I hope will come across is the difference between committing sin - and continuing in sin.
What John is telling us
is not the impossibility of sin, but rather, it’s incompatibility with our “new
nature”. For you see, if we are born again, if we are a child of God, if we
have come to Christ, the Bible says we have “put on the new self” “Old things
have passed away, and all things become new.” What this new self, this new
nature, does not do, and cannot do, is “continue in” habitual and persistent
sin.
A believer may sin, even with the consent of
the mind and the will, but because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, he is always
overwhelmed with grief and repentance, and does not continue in sin. SIN AND
HOLINESS ARE INCOMPATIBLE!
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