Life #26 - Toward Life and Incorruption: Are We Born of God? (1 of 3)



006/2011-07-30

• No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9 NIV).

Christians have great difficulty applying this truth personally. We are doubtful that a time will ever come when we will stop sinning and admit to it. Why?—because there are counter-scriptures that appear to support us in our very doubts!

• “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John l: 8).
• “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).

No Christian would ever knowingly want to be deceived, or make God out to be a liar. Therefore, you won’t hear us saying “we have no sin”. Instead, we safely admit to sin…after sin… after sin…after—.

Then do we continue to ignore the Scripture that says “we cannot go on sinning”? No. If God’s seed remains in us, then we cannot continue to sin. We share in the Apostle Paul’s desire to count on Jesus to complete our salvation:

• “…that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3: 8, 9 NIV).

We are to “gain” Christ through faith in him and in his completed work.

Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; excerpts from our book to be released next year.