UNABLE TO SIN or THE IMPECCABILITY OF THE BORN AGAIN
By
C.D. Cole
“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” (#1Jo 3:9).
This verse of Scripture plainly states that the person who is born of God
cannot sin. It does not say, as some teach, that such a person is able not to
sin. It is one thing to be "able not to sin," and quite another thing
to be "not able to sin," for that would deny the doctrine of apostasy,
a doctrine they believe and teach. It is obvious that if a person is unable to
sin, he could not lose his salvation. There are those who teach that a person
may get sanctified—get the so-called second blessing—get to where he is able to
live above and without sin. But they also teach that the person who is able not
to sin, may also be able to sin and be lost. But our text says emphatically
that the born again person—the one born of God—cannot sin, that is, he is not
able to sin.
1. Our text
refutes several well-known and prevalent errors in present day preaching:-
1a) It refutes the
doctrine of apostasy, the teaching that one born again may sin and be lost. To
quote the text in any translation is sufficient to disprove that a saved person
may ever be lost again.
1b) It refutes the
teaching about a second blessing—a blessing subsequent to regeneration. This
text is not speaking of any second blessing by whatever name it may be called;
it is speaking of the new birth and of the one born of God. The inability to
sin is not because of any second work of grace, but because of the initial work
of the Spirit in regeneration.
1c) It is against the
idea that faith precedes and is the cause of the new birth. The new birth is
the work of God; it is the birth of the Holy Spirit, Who is the sole Agent.
There is no such thing as selfbirth, either in the physical or spiritual realm.
In the physical realm, the mother gives birth to the child; no child is
self-born. And in the spiritual kingdom—in the kingdom of God-the child is born
of God. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is (Gk. has been)
born of God" (#1Jo 5:1). "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth"
(#Jas
1:18). Speaking of believers, John says, "Which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (#Joh 1:13). Faith is
not the cause of the new birth, but rather the effect. Faith is a fruit of the
Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith" (#Ga 5:22).
2. Let us try
to get at the meaning of this text. Does it mean that a born again person
cannot sin in any sense whatsoever? To give it such a meaning is to turn
Scripture against Scripture. Moreover, it makes the apostle John contradict
himself.
In #1Jo 1:9, it is written, that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." But if we are not able to sin in some sense, there would
be no sins to confess, and there would be sin in confessing that of which we
are not guilty. In #1Jo 2:1, we are told of provision made for sinning saints: "And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." This must apply to the believer for no unbeliever has Christ
for an advocate. In "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them" (#Heb 7:25), we are told that Christ makes intercession for those who come
to God by Him, which means that they plead Christ as the ground of their
acceptance with God. "God accepteth no man’s person." Our salvation
is "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved," (#Eph 1:6). And
again, in "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto
death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for
it" (#1Jo 5:16), we are specifically exhorted to pray for a sinning brother.
It would contradict every book in the Bible and the experience of every
believer who has ever lived to affirm that no regenerate person ever sins in
any sense whatsoever. On the other hand, our text does teach unmistakably that
in some sense every regenerate person is impeccable, that is, he is unable to
sin; or rather, there is some kind of sin he cannot commit. So our task is to
discover what the sin is, or in what sense he cannot sin.
3. There are
various interpretations of the text before us, and something can be said in
favor of most of them. There is truth in these interpretations, but whether it
is the particular truth of the text is another question. We will examine some
of the interpretations and give our humble judgment of them.
3a) There are those who
teach that the born again person—the believer in Christ—is not under law, but
under grace; and where there is no law, there can be no sin. The thought is
that the born again person cannot sin because he is not under law. Now it is
true that the believer is not under law "For sin shall not have dominion
over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (#Ro 6:14), and it is
also true that "sin is not imputed when there is no law" (#Ro 5:13).
"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (#Ro 4:8). It is
gloriously true that the sins of the believer are not charged to him; if they
were nobody but a sinless person could be saved, which would preclude the
salvation of anybody. The writer rejects this interpretation of the text before
us, and this for two reasons. First, it is not a question of whether sin is
charged; it is a question of whether sin is committed. There is some
sense in which the regenerate person does not even commit sin. And in the text
it is not because of position in Christ, but of condition by virtue of being
born again. Second, the above interpretation smacks of antinomianism, which
means being against the law. The believer is not under law as a way of life or
means of salvation, but he loves the law as being holy, and just, and good; and
is under law to Christ: "To them that are without law, as without law,
(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain
them that are without law" (#1Co 9:21). Sin is by
whomsoever committed. As an illustration of antinomianism, a Baptist preacher
once proposed a shameful piece of conduct to another preacher, and when he was
rebuked for such a proposal, said, "That would be all right; you
know we are not under law but under grace."
3b) There are others
who interpret "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" (#1Jo 3:9) after this
fashion. They remind us that the believer stands sinless in Christ, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
This is a glorious truth, but we do not believe it is the truth of our text.
Surely this explanation is foreign to the apostles whole line of thought. John
is not dealing with imputed righteousness, but with human conduct.
3c) Then there is the
idea that the new nature does not and cannot sin. This view of the text makes
John have in mind what Paul did when he wrote of the conflict between the two
natures of the born again person. "Now then it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a
law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me" (#Ro 7:17-21); "For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would" (#Ga 5:17). But we are quite certain the apostle John did not have this
truth in mind. He uses the personal pronoun: "Whosoever is born of
God." He is not talking about what the new nature cannot do, but about
what the person, who has been born again, cannot do.
3d) A more likely
interpretation is that the born again person cannot sin habitually—cannot
practice sin as the rule or habit of his life. This was the view held by
Dr. A. T. Robertson, who insisted that the tense of the verb demanded this
interpretation. It is also the view of Dr. C. B. Williams, who says that
the verb is the present of continuous action. Now it is true that one born of
God cannot roll sin as a sweet morsel under his tongue—that he cannot cherish
any sin, hug it to his bosom, and take it with him to heaven. The seed of God
remains in him and he cannot live as an unregenerate. There is much that can be
said in favor of this meaning of the text. It is favored by the context as well
as by the tense of the verb. He that committeth (practices) sin is of the
devil; for the devil sinneth (practices sin) from the beginning. The devil
takes no vacation in his career of sinning.
3e) Dr. B. H. Carroll
gives the verse this meaning: "Whoever is born of God sinneth not unto
death." He thinks the context demands this explanation. The thought, as he
sees it, is that one born of God may sin, but not unto death; his sins are
pardonable. "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All
unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death" (#1Jo 5:16-17). The
writer cannot go along with this interpretation for this reason: the verse is
applicable only to one born of God while an unregenerate person may commit sins
that are not unpardonable.
3f) The writer has come
to regard the interpretation given by Andrew Fuller as the most probable of
any. Speaking of "If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us" (#1Jo 1:8) and "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" (#1Jo 3:9), Fuller
says; "It appears that the word "sin" in these passages is of
different significations. In the former it is to be taken properly, for any
transgression of the law of God. If any man say, in this sense, he has no sin,
he only proves himself to be deceived...But in the latter it seems from the
context, that the term is intended to denote the sin of apostasy. If we were to
substitute the term apostasy for sin, from the sixth to the ninth verse, the
meaning would be clear. Whoso abideth in him apostatizeth not; whosoever
apostatizeth hath not seen him, neither known him...He that is guilty of
apostasy is of the devil; for the devil hath been an apostate from the
beginning...Whosoever is born of God doth not apostatize; for his seed
remaineth in him; and he cannot apostatize, because he is born of God."
Fuller goes on to say that this sense of the latter verse perfectly agrees with
what is said of "sin unto death" in "If any man see his brother
sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for
them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he
shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto
death" (#1Jo 5:16-18). And he says it also agrees with chapter two, verse nineteen:
"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (#1Jo 2:19).
"Altogether," says Fuller, "it affords what we might presume to
call an incontestable proof of the certain perseverance of true
believers." The apostle is saying, that those who abandoned their former
profession of faith and departed from them, had not really belonged to them as
born again people. An if to say, that born again people do not apostatize from
the true principles of faith. The born again person never renounces his faith
in Christ, for he is "kept by the power of God through faith" (#1Pe 1:5).
"We know that any one born of God does not sin, but he who was born of God
keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him" (#1Jo 5:18 R.S.V.)
This is a better rendering than the authorized version, which makes the man
born of God keep himself. Satan would have the believer turn away from Christ
and renounce faith in Him, but he is kept by the power of God and cannot lose
his faith. The devil cannot make apostates from the ones who are born of God.
"Christ in you," says Paul, is "the hope of glory" (#Col 1:27). Christ
does not save the sinner and then abandon him to the devil. "My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life;
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand" (#Joh 10:27-28). The man born of God perseveres in faith; if
he should lose his faith, it goes without saying, he would lose his salvation.
Stony ground hearers have only temporary faith and endure for a while only,
because they do not have the root of the matter in themselves. But the one born
of God is not like that, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the
world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
(#1Jo
5:4) Glorious victory is assured for all who make their calling and
election sure!
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