I want us to turn to the short
portion we've just read here in the first epistle general
of John. We were reading here in the opening
verses of chapter 3. We read up to verse 9 and I want
to direct you in particular to that ninth verse in 1 John 3
and verse 9, the words, 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. What a remarkable statement and
how he comes to us, I'm sure, as a very challenging word of
Holy Scripture. If we are those who are born
of God, born of the Spirit of God experiencing that grace of
regeneration. It's a description of such a
person. 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. We read the words and maybe we
have to question ourselves as to whether or not we have really
known that grace of regeneration because we do still sin. Well,
let us consider the content of this verse and try to ascertain
just what John is saying in these words. And the theme that I want
to take up then is that of the seed of the new birth, the relationship
between what he speaks of as regeneration and surely that
seed that must be implanted in that great work of regeneration,
the seed of regeneration. Does this text really declare
that believers are those who attain that condition where they
are all together without any sin? Does it really speak of
sinless perfection? well surely he can't be speaking
of that because of what we have previously at the end of chapter
1 John says there verse 8 if we say that we have no sin we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us and then again at
verse 10 if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar
and his word is not in us and we are well aware I'm sure that
there are no contradictory words here in the scriptures of truth. All, surely, are sinners by nature
and that sin that is in us is so contrary to God, it's contrary
to the Word of God, it's contrary to the Law of God. We're told
by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 that the law is holy and the
commandment holy and just and good. Now, sin is really lawlessness. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. we
have here at verse 4 of the chapter. Law then, or sin rather, is lawlessness. It is that that is contrary to
the law of God, it's against the law of God. But then vice
versa, we can say that the law is very much against sin and
contrary to sin. There is a ministry of the Spirit
in terms of the Lord of Gods, and Paul makes that so clear
in his various epistles, certainly writing to the Romans. He says
there in Romans 7 and verse 7, I have not known sin, but by
the law. Again, in chapter 4, where no
law is, he says, there is no transgression. Lord is the transgression, sin
is the transgression of the law and we're familiar with the language
that we have in the 19th verse of chapter 3 there
in Romans what things whoever the law saith it saith to them
who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world become guilty before God the law uncovers and exposes
our sin by the Lord is the knowledge of sin and Paul certainly knew
that experience he was so expert in the Lord of God he was a Pharisee
he was the son of the Pharisee he'd been brought up at the feet
of one of the great Jewish rabbis Gamaliel And he could say, touching
the righteousness which is of the law, he thought himself to
be blameless. And yet when he came to see how
that law was so much against him, contrary to him, because
of what he was in his very nature, he was a sinner in nature. I
was alive, he says, without the law once. But the commandment
came and sin revived. and I died. How sin is so contrary
to the law and how the law exposes what sin really is. But sin is
also contrary to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has come to answer that
law of God in all its holy precepts and in all its terrible penalties
and even in the short portion that we were reading at the beginning
of this third chapter he says does John at verse 5 ye know
that he that is Christ was manifested to take away our sins and in
him is no sin and then he says again at the end of the 8th verse
for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might
destroy the works of the devil. In the Gospel then we see that
God will deal with that law that is so contrary to us. It is Christ who redeems. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the Lord being made a curse
for us because it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree, or that awful thing that sin is, or thou hideous monster sin,
what a curse hast thou brought in, or creation grows through
thee, pregnant cause of misery, thou hast God afflicted too.
Nothing less than that would do. How the Lord Jesus is that
one who was suffered in the place of those who were the transgressors
of the law of God. And so, what are we to make of
the statement that's made in our text when sin is such a dreadful
thing and a reality in the lives of the people of God? 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. Well, as we
look for a short while at the verse, I want to deal with some
three headings, really. First of all, to say something
with regards to the believer's spiritual birth. And then in
the second place, the believer's spiritual nature. and then thirdly
and finally the believer's spiritual union, union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. But in the first place, the believer's
spiritual birth, because that is so prominent really in the
verse. Twice we have the expression,
born of gods, We have it at the beginning and we have it again
at the end of the verse. 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. And so we see here the great
necessity of regeneration, that great truth that is There in
the ministry of the Lord Jesus himself, of course, in the familiar
words of John chapter 3, we're dealing with a teacher amongst
the Jews. And in Codemus, how the Lord
emphasizes the great doctrine of regeneration. Ye must be born
again, says Christ, in John 3 and verse 7 you must be born again
and as I'm sure you're aware it was the great cry of the evangelist
George Whitfield preaching throughout England, Old England and New
England in the 18th century and there was such a remarkable anointing
upon his ministry that multitudes were converted to the Lord Jesus
Christ, but how he would proclaim that message of the new birth,
he must be born again. And again there in that third
chapter of John, the Lord says in verse 3, verily, verily, prefixes
what he's about to say with that double verily. except a man be
born again. Or as the margin says, born from
above he cannot see the kingdom of God. It is that that comes
from above. It's that that is really a visitation
from on high. It's God himself who does the
work. John the Baptist later in that
same third chapter of John says a man can receive nothing except
it be given him from heaven. And it is surely a remarkable
sovereign work of the Spirit of God that we experience when
we know that work of regeneration in our souls. The Lord compares
it to the circuits of the wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one. that is born
of the Spirit, it's sovereign, which were born not of blood,
nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It is sovereign, and as it is
sovereign, it is truly spiritual, because it is principally the
gracious work of the Holy Spirit. He is the One, is He not, who
makes a reality of the gracious purpose of the Father in salvation
and all that the Son has procured by His work. It is Spirit who
makes that real in the soul of the sinner. He is the one then
who works that great work of the new birth in the souls of
men. And as I say, here we certainly
read of of the new birth, a spiritual birth, 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. And so, following that
work of regeneration, that new birth, the believer now has a
spiritual nature. and so turning in the second
place to say something with regards to that spiritual nature he's born again Peter says being
born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by
the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever born of an incorruptible seed
And it's that seed that we read up here in the middle of the
text, his seed, the incorruptible seed. Now what is the incorruptible
seed? It is surely the life of Christ
that is now in the soul of that sinner. Paul says, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Those familiar words of Galatians
2.20. Christ is that incorruptible
seed. Remember those words of Peter that we just referred to.
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, he
says, by the Word of God, that is the Logos. It's that Word
that is used in John's Gospel, of course. There at the beginning,
in the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. and he is that one who is that
life which is the light of man. The incorruptible seed then is
the life of Christ in the believer's soul. And so Peter can also say
of believers that they are partakers of the divine nature. They are
partakers of the divine nature, the life of God, the life of
Christ. And yet, it is a truth that the believer still sins.
Although this seed remaineth in him, he is a new creature
in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he still sins. And if we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves. And if we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar. His word, His truth is not in
us. we have to confess our sins believing
that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness the believer then has this divine
life in his soul and yet he still sins and we might well ask how
could that be? how could that ever be? Well, the believer still has
an old nature. He still has an old nature. And
yet the believer is not a split personality. He's a new man in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But because he has that life
of God in his soul now, he feels that conflict with the old nature
and of course the Lord makes that clear where he is preaching
the necessity of the new birth there in John chapter 3 because
at the 6th verse Christ says that which is born of the flesh
is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit the flesh
is the flesh, the flesh never changes The flesh, says the Apostle,
lost it against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary one to the other, and he cannot do the
thing that he would. Right into the Galatians, Paul
makes that so clear. That that is born of the flesh
is flesh, that that is born of the Spirit is Spirit, the teaching
of Christ, but Paul goes on to amplify that under the inspiration
of the Spirit in the statement that he makes there in Galatians
5.17, how these are so contrary, the flesh and the Spirit, contrary
one to the other, and the believer feels it. We go back into the
Old Testament, and what do we read there in the Song of Solomon
concerning the Shunammite, the bride of Christ, really.
What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were, the company of two
armies. Two armies in the soul of the
believer. We see it so clearly, of course,
in what Paul says in the seventh chapter of his epistle to the
Romans, where he brings out that truth, the conflict. He writes
throughout that chapter in the present tense, so he's not speaking
of what he had experienced before he was a Christian or in becoming
a Christian, but what he is experiencing as a Christian. And he cries
out there at the end of that chapter, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? It feels the old nature like
a dead body that is continually dragging him down, a great burden
as it were, bearing him down to the ground. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? And then the answer is, I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself will,
with the mind, will serve the Lord of God and with the flesh,
the Lord of sin. On the one hand, there's the
Lord of God, on the other, the Lord of sin. But it's interesting,
the emphasis that he makes there, where he speaks of his true self.
With the mind, he says, I myself will serve the law of God. That's
the true me, the I myself, where there's the emphasis. He's not
a split personality. And so what we read in the text
is true. It's true of the child of God,
born of the Spirit of God. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. His seed remaineth in him. That
seed could never sin. That's the life of God in his
soul. He cannot sin because he is born of God. And so the third
thing that we have to observe is that there is a spiritual
union between this person, this man, this Christian man, there's
a spiritual union between him and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the scripture teaches us, of course, that there is an eternal
union with Christ in the covenant of grace. God has made choice of the people,
but he has chosen them in Christ. As Paul declares there in Ephesians
1.4, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. And so, the union stretches back
before ever time was created. But that eternal union is realized
in time in the experience of the new birth. In the outworking of the covenant,
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of
sons, whereby they cry Abba Father. They receive the adoption of
sons. It's the outworking of the covenant.
They come to experience what was purposed from all eternity. They know Christ, and they are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there is a union. He speaks
of it, doesn't he, this union? Back in verse 6, "...whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither
known him." Mark the difference how in the sixth verse Paul is
clearly drawing a contrast between two very different people. At
the end of that verse he says quite clearly, whosoever sinneth
hath not seen him, neither known him. Now what should we make
of that? Well, it's not a single act of
sin that is being spoken of there, but a continuous course of sinning. It's the present participle that
he uses here. It refers to a continual action. And this is the description of
that person who has no union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The
unbeliever, he has no spiritual nature, he's not experienced
a new birth, he has no spiritual seed in him, and therefore he
has no faith at all. And whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Whereas the person spoken of
at the beginning of that sixth verse is the one who is united
to Christ by faith. Whosoever abides in him sinneth
not. All the Christian is united to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what Christ says in
the 15th chapter of John where he, John's gospel where he speaks
of himself as the vine, I am the vine. One of those great
I am statements. And he says the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can
ye except ye abide in me. And he goes on to say, without
me you can do nothing. How vital is that union between
the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ, because that is the source
of all the believer's life, and all the fruitfulness of the believer.
The believer's fruit is from the Lord Jesus Christ, from union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, Without me, ye can do nothing,
says Christ. Christ is all. Christ is in all. And it is Christ who is this
seed that's being spoken of at the center of our text, his seed. Christ remaineth in him. All
that seed is Christ. Christ is that one who is the
seed of the woman. He is the seed of Abraham. He
is the seed of David. And the believer is one then
who is united to the Lord Jesus Christ and so in that sense he
could never continue in a course of sinning. That is not his life. His life is that in which he
is in the narrow way that's leading to life. It doesn't mean that he never
commits any sin at all, but he is one who feels his complete,
his utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wants
to experience more and more of the blessings of that spiritual
union. wonderful to contemplate the
truth of eternal union in the covenant but now we need to know
that experience of it as the spirit comes and reveals to us
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and settles us more and
more in those great truths of the gospel of the grace of God
in our Savior and so no suggestion at all really of sinless
perfection, but an emphasis upon all that we have because of the
grace of God, the believer's spiritual birth, the believer's
spiritual nature, and the believer's spiritual union. May the Lord
be pleased to bless His truth to us. We're going to sing a
second praise now. A lovely hymn of John Newton's
that brings out something of the truth of that conflict that
the believer feels between the old nature and the new nature. Strange and mysterious is my
life. What opposites I feel within.
A stable peace. A constant strife. The rule of
grace. The power of sin. Too often I
am captive-led, Yet often triumph in my head. The tune is sorely
231, the hymn 939.