Chapter 3 opens with the love of God, the imitation of Christ, and that we are children of God. Chapter 3 also picks up where chapter 2 leaves off. Verses 28 and 29 of chapter 2 exhort us to abide in Christ and practice righteousness. The outcome is explained in verse 28 to be the confidence that we will have when we stand before Christ at the judgment seat.
When we speak of salvation, 1 John 2:28 is the object of salvation. Our salvation is being able to stand before Christ confident that we are His children, acceptable in His sight, and we place our confidence in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Without salvation, we will fear the day of judgment and shrink back in shame.
Thus, we are exhorted unto the imitation of Christ throughout chapter 3. For example, in verse 5 John states that there is no sin in Christ, and verse 6 exhorts us to not sin. Salvation is not without its expectations. We cannot have confidence before Christ in the day of His coming if we are practicing sin or attached to the world. Thus, John takes the first part of chapter 3 to exhort us to deepen and strengthen our confidence before Christ by putting off the practice of sin and putting on the practice of righteousness.
The immediate focus of verses 3 through 10 is sin contrasted against righteousness. There are two important concepts we should review which will help us understand these verses as a whole.
First, verse 1 opens with us being called children of God, and verse 9 says that the seed of Christ abides in us. To help us understand this, we can turn to John 3:1-21 (the gospel of John) and read the account of Nicodemus. There, Jesus begins with the requirement that we be born again, and expounds on this by telling Nicodemus that we must be born of water and of spirit. Being born is related to “seed.” Throughout the Bible, family lines and offspring are referred to as seed.
Can a marigold seed produce a tomato plant? Can a dog give birth to a skunk? So can someone who is born of the spirit, as Jesus said, bear the fruit of sin? Like reproduces like, and if we are in Christ, we will reproduce righteousness. This is the argument John makes both in chapter 3 of the gospel of John and 1 John 3. The seed of Christ produces Christlikeness. The fruit we bear must be consistent with our birth, and if our birth is in Christ, we will produce fruit consistent with the imitation of Christ.
So, how can we bear the fruit of sin when we are in Christ? This leads us to the second concept, the word “cannot” in 1 John 3:9. In the NASB, this verse reads, “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.”
What does “cannot” mean? There has been a modern resurrection of an old heresy originally attributed to Buddy Robinson. The heresy is we have been so entirely sanctified that we cannot sin even if we wanted to. This is grave error on two accounts. The first is that Buddy Robinson never said such a thing. In his short book, My Objection to a Sinning Religion, what he actually said is that the world claims we cannot sin even if we wanted to, but he was not advocating for such a false teaching.
The second reason this is a heresy is that we’ve already sinned if this is what we believe. Where is the humility in it? There is only pride in such a statement, and pride is a most deadly sin, in part because it is so subtle and blinding. The truly righteous person will be clothed in humility, and our humility will lead us to avoid making such heretical statements.
“Cannot” in 1 John 3:9 is used elsewhere in the New Testament. See Matthew 5:14, 6:24, 9:15, Mark 1:45, 2:4,7, 3:23, Luke 6:39, John 3:2, 5:19, Acts 27:15, 1 Corinthians 10:21, Revelation 9:20. We come away with the understanding that “cannot” means we do not have the power to do something. We see, for example, a city on a hill “cannot” hide its light, Jesus “cannot” enter the city without being recognized and thronged, the friends of the lame man “cannot” enter the house because of the crowd, so they cut a hole in the roof, and the ship carrying Paul to Rome “cannot” overcome the wind.
Ordinarily, we are capable of sin and a lot of it. However, the power to sin is canceled when we are born of the Spirit of Christ. We are now given power to produce the fruit of Christ, which is contrary to sin. In Christ, sin will not be our practice and will be out of the ordinary.
Put another way, before we are born of Christ, we only had the power to produce the fruit of sin and had no power to produce the fruit of righteousness. After we are born of Christ, we now have the power to produce the fruit of righteousness and to imitate Christ. The power of sin is canceled. How can we go on sinning if the power to sin is canceled?
“Cannot” does not mean it is impossible to sin, or else John would not have exhorted us to avoid sin. “Cannot” means sin is contrary to our nature when we are in Christ, and the power of sin and to sin is canceled. We’re not going to practice sin. Instead, we are to abide in Christ, imitate Christ, and practice righteousness, and we are given the power to live in this manner.
If we do sin, it is because we assign and allocate the power to do it. This makes it an intentional decision and a deliberate act.
Our baptism is a symbol of our death to sin. Ephesians 2:1 (if we cannot choose God while in sin, how can we choose evil and sin after having died to it?), John 3:3, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:2,7, Psalm 17:3 How can something live when it is dead? Although our old nature has died, sin lives only because we call it back to life. John is exhorting us not to call it back to life.
In Christ, sin is contrary to our nature, just as before Christ, righteousness was contrary to our nature. Let us put on the practice of righteousness, strive to abide in Christ, bear the fruit of righteousness, and live to imitate Christ. What I know about this is that it is hard, we question it in the face of difficulty, and we want to retain a taste for the world. This is the primary sticking point for most people who would otherwise follow Christ. This is also why following Christ is a life of surrender and submission. These are also contrary to our human minds, and if we are truly serious about living as Christians, we must settle today that we will surrender all to Christ, no matter the cost. Luke 9:62
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