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NASB | 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. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God's seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again--who is reborn from above--spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him. |
Bible Question: How does I John 3:9, which states that the one born of God "cannot sin", line up with I John 1:8 which states that, "if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves?" |
Bible Answer: OK Hank, I posted earlier a background to 1 John, as I see it. I believe that John intentionally presented things in an absolute manner. Why did he do this? By insisting on this point, John was seeking to refute a false teaching going around at that time about sin. Sin is not, nor can it ever be, anything but satanic, evil. It can never spring from what a Christian truly is at the core of his inner regenerate being. (decetism - Cerenthus... which evolved later into gnosticism) Cerenthus' teaching is obviously heresy. It was related to gnosticism. Basically it taught: "flesh, bad; spirit, good." So then none of us really sins since we have this new nature. It resulted in believers saying that they could do whatever they wanted, since the flesh is not of God. It doesn't really matter, Cerenthus taught. You can live like the devil since it can't affect our inner being. So you can see why John wrote many of the things he did in this letter, including saying in chapter 2:22, 23 that anyone who denies the Son also denies the Father, and that this is the spirit of the antichrist. John taught that Jesus was sinless from eternity to eternity, but that we do all sin. If we try to refute that, as Cerenthus did, we are making God a liar. I included in the above vss. 1 John 2:25, 26 - where John explains why he write this letter: "And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you." He wrote it to deal with the docetists, and so that they would grab hold of that promise of eternal life which is claimed by faith, and faith alone. See 1 John 5:11-13. There he makes his other purpose clear: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn't have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." So then, John wrote this letter to deal with the false doctrine of the docetists and so that they would have assurance that they had eternal life. He spoke in absolute terms throughout the letter IOT deal with the docetism heresy. There are 2 basic approaches to 1st John - the "test of life" view and the "new nature" view. (There are a few others, but these are the most common.) The "tests of life" view sees such passages in 1 John as "tests" to use IOT determine if we really are saved - if we really are regenerate. John was writing to encourage his readers to examine their works to find out if they were believers or unbelievers. 3:10 is often taken as an indication of this: "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." Works distinguish the saved from the unsaved. The existence of "a pattern of" sin is also said to distinguish believers from unbelievers. 1 John 2:29 (see above) makes the new nature approach (I prefer) clear: If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. The children are righteous because we were not only declared righteous, but we are seated in heavenly places with Him, and in God's eyes, we have the righteousness of Christ. (IMO, John is saying somethingsimilar to what Paul did in Ephesians 2 regarding us being "seated in heavenly places in Christ." Don't know about you, but my posterior is planted firmly here - in a chair. I don't like the liberties that the "tests of life" approach takes - especially in chapter 3. Another name for the "new nature" view is "tests of fellowship." I like that, because 1:3 clearly tells us that John wrote this letter so that we would have fellowship with him and with God. How can we tell if we are in fellowship with God (abiding in Him)? John answers that question in this letter as well as dealing with the docetist doctrine. BTW, the fact that John was dealing with docetism is acknowledged by virtually everyone. As I said before, no The idea is that no believer ever sins as an expression of his new nature. To the degree that the believer expresses his new nature in his experience, he will not sin because God's seed remains (abides) in him. So whenever we sin that is not our new nature being expressed, and it goes against our new, regenerated nature. It's just not normal for us to sin. I like this approach, because it places the focus where it should be in 1st John - on Christians not sinning, instead of trying in our own weak little way to not sin too much. Sorry about the length of this post. Hope that clears it up some, though. BD |
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KenJ | ||
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kalos | ||
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kalos | ||
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halle1952 | ||
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jesus1km |