No Sin In Him
No Sin In Him
1 John 3:4-10
Social media is an interesting theological playground. People with all sorts of views about Christ, about the Bible, and about the Church feel free to express themselves, and often reveal a profound ignorance of it all. The church is full of hypocrites, the Bible is full of contradictions, and Jesus was a nice man who just wanted everyone to be loving and nice. Forget about the hundreds of thousands of martyrs who are so sure of their faith in Christ that they are willing to die rather than deny. Forget about the fact that most haven’t read beyond Genesis 10 and can only parrot what they’ve heard other people say. And forget about Jesus kicking over tables, wielding whips, and cursing the Pharisees for being hypocrites. If there’s anything Jesus wasn’t, it is nice. Truth is often the opposite of nice. Jesus was known for confrontations. He was known for making claims for himself that sounded to his audience as if he were either a lunatic or a blasphemer. Forget that Jesus confronted sin and demanded change – “Go, and stop sinning,” he said more than once.
One person (and probably many others) claimed that Jesus never called anyone to repent and never spoke about repentance. If you would, turn to the gospel of Mark, chapter one and verse 14. Jesus has faced temptation and emerged from the wilderness. John has been imprisoned. The very first thing Mark records Jesus saying is this: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ...” Turn to Matthew, chapter 4 and verse 17. The very first word Matthew reports Jesus saying is this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus’ first public utterance was “Repent.” MetanoeÃte (metanoeite), be of transformed mind; change the way you think.
As John has already told us, Jesus did not come to accommodate sin, affirm sinful lifestyles, make sin acceptable or pretty, or cover it up. John use the word cleanse, or purify in regard to sin. Jesus came to do away with sin, to eliminate it, and as I said then, to get the dirt out. In our text today, John continues that thought, first with a definition of sin.
Now, I have said, wrongly I understand, that people don’t need to be told they are sinners; they already know. I was wrong. People need to know what sin is and that they are sinners in need of a Savior. A vital point: we have defined salvation negatively - as being saved from something, sin, death, or hell. But we need to define salvation positively - as being saved for something, for God, for heaven, for the Holy City. But being saved for means that something has to be eliminated. Isaiah wrote (35:8), And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. He then goes on to call it (40:3) a highway for our God. If the unclean cannot journey on it, the uncleanliness will have to be cleansed. If the wicked cannot go on it, wickedness will have to be cleansed. That is, sinners must be aware of their sin, repent and leave their sin, and follow Christ if they are to have a hope of heaven. Because we are being saved for something, we must also be saved from something.
So John – Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. Or, sin is breaking the law. What law is that? It is the command of Christ that we love one another (Jn 13:34-35). That kind of Christ-like love is the mark or the evidence of one’s allegiance to Christ. John will have more to say about that later on. So what do we do about sin?
Well, John says, that, in fact, is why Christ came. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And here is where we need a bit of Old Testament. Israelites were commanded to bring a lamb for a sin offering. But not just any lamb. Leviticus 22:21 – When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. Any offering brought to God must be without blemish. The only offering acceptable to a holy God was a perfect sacrifice. So, John tells us, that in order for Christ to take away our sin, to be that sin offering, he had to be without blemish, without sin: And in him is no sin.
Here’s another thing you might see on social media, or hear from certain people – that Jesus must have sinned because he needed to be baptized. They point to Jesus’ baptism as evidence that Jesus sinned and needed cleansing. But Jesus’ baptism was not a baptism of leaving, of repentance, but a baptism of entering, an inauguration, equivalent to the washing of the high priest before he entered the Most Holy Place. And Scripture testifies repeatedly that Jesus was, in fact, sinless. Not only John, but Paul - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). The writer to the Hebrews – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin (Heb 4:15). Jesus is able to atone for sin because he himself is without sin.
I’ve heard the next verse used out of context, but context here is vital. Remember what has just come before: the sinless One came to take away sin. The broader context is purification from all sin (1:9). If Jesus came to take away our sin, that should be the end of it. Paul was writing about people who claim that since grace deals with all sin, it shouldn’t matter if we go on sinning. The more sin, the more grace. Right? Paul says no. Paul asks the rhetorical question in Romans 6:1 – What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? He answers in the strongest way, but our translations are weak: By no means! In the Greek, we might translate that as Don’t even begin! Or, may it never be! Or, better yet, NEVER! Verse 2, my translation: Don’t even go there! How is it even possible that we who died to sin should go on living in sin? Since repentance means transformation, we have to stop thinking that sin is okay; that any sin is acceptable before God. We’ve changed our minds about sin. Therefore, we stop sinning. And if we go on sinning, or in John’s words, if we continue to sin, that’s pretty strong evidence that we haven’t repented and we don’t really know Jesus at all. If we continue to sin, if we remain in our sin, we may believe ‘til the cows come home, but there is no salvation. We haven’t really been to the cross. You can’t follow a sinful life and follow Christ at the same time, because they are going in opposite directions.
John now picks up a theme he’s introduced earlier, and applies it to continuing in sin. Do not let anyone lead you astray. Do not let anyone deceive you. Those who tell you sin doesn’t matter, or that more sin brings more grace, or that one can be a sinning Christian, are lying to you. They are leading you away from the holy life that John advocates and that Jesus taught. And here’s the application:
Whoever does not just what is good but what is righteous – whoever acts righteously is righteous, following the example of the Righteous One. And who ever does not just what is wrong but what is sinful, is following the example of the one who has been sinful and evil from the beginning. John names him diabovlou (diabolou - the divisive one), the devil. That’s not just his title, that’s his description. Devil means divider, the one who divides husband from wive, child from parent, man from God. When you sin you do the devil’s work. And, again, the reason Christ appeared (John calls him here the Son of God) ... the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. Not to accommodate it. Not to work around it. Not to leave it intact while giving people an escape. To destroy it. Jesus came to destroy sin, to purify us from all unrighteousness. Not just, as I said before, to get the dirt out, but to eliminate the dirt altogether.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin. Notice that he did not say that one born of God will never sin, or that one born of God is incapable of sin. The Greek structure is interesting. It says, basically, that no one who is born of God will be doing sin. Will be doing. Will be practicing sin. There is an end of sin, but not of the ability to sin. Now, please keep this in John’s context. Remember what he wrote back in 2:1? My children, I write this to you so that you will not sin, but if you do ... Children of God are not intended to live in sin, not intended to go on sinning. You wash your children’s clothing hoping they won’t get it dirty again, but knowing that, in all likelihood, they will. You don’t want them dirty, and if you could keep them clean, you would. You warn them, “Now, stay out of the dirt.” And they are perfectly capable of staying out of the dirt, but they are children, so you know the possibility, even the likelihood, is still there. Just so, we live in a corrupt world. We are surrounded by temptation of all kinds.
Brief detour: the writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus was made fully human in every way (Heb 2:17), and that he suffered when he was tempted ( Heb 2:18). That writer goes on to say that he was tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin (Heb 4:15). Jesus was fully human, just as we are. Jesus was open to temptation, just as we are. Jesus experienced all kinds of temptations, just as we do. Jesus resisted every temptation, just as we are able to when we have been purified, washed by the blood, and empowered by his Spirit. Paul told the Corinthian church that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9) and then listed a few of the sins that keep people out of the kingdom. Then he celebrates their liberation: And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:11). You used to be that way, but Jesus has set you free, made you righteous, changed your way of thinking about sin, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to say a giant NO to those many temptations. Surrounded by temptations of all sorts, but given the righteous ability to resist them, just as he did.
Because God’s seed remains in them ... What is God’s seed? It is Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ remains in you, you cannot go on sinning. Because you are a child of God through Jesus Christ, you cannot continue in habitual sin. You still have the free will and you still have the ability to sin, but John says you cannot go on sinning and remain in him. You cannot continue in the old ways if you want to go a new way.
I told you earlier that John has a couple of introductory phrases he uses often in the letter. The first we’ve seen: I am writing this because ... The second we’ve also seen, and will see more: This is how we know ... It’s this one that John uses so that we can identify the true disciple of Christ and know the difference between what is true and what is false. This is how you identify false teachers and how you know the correct ones. John is copying Jesus. When Jesus gave his “new command,” the third part of that was this: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another” (Jn 13:35). This is how they will know who Jesus’ disciples are. This is the identifying mark of a true disciple.
And John employs that in the final verse of our text: This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. 19th century preacher D. L. Moody said, “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.” John is laying down the crooked stick, so that we can know if ours is straight.
Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother. If we are following John’s meaning, it is not just to do what is right, but to live righteous lives, to live according to the commands of Christ. Doing good is not evidence. Doing right things is not evidence. Living a righteous life is. The phrase is does righteousness or acts righteously. Anyone who does not act righteously is not a child of God, John says. Let’s be honest with each other. We all know a lot of so-called Christians, even pastors, who live one way on Sunday in front of the congregation, and live a completely different life the rest of the week. I’ve known pastors and others, who embezzled from their church, had affairs with their secretaries, abused their children, cursed their neighbors, and lived wickedly. By John’s measure, no matter what they’ve called themselves, they are not children of God – meaning they are children of the devil.
Why does John tell us theses things? He’s trying to encourage Christians to actually be Christian. If you claim the name, obey the commands. If you claim the name, live so that people will believe you. If you claim the name, the world should be able to see Christ in you