Evening Spiritual Diary for 1/9/2025 10:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Sin Is Incompatible With the Work of
Christ”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 3:5-8
Message of the verses: “5 You know that He
appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins;
no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one
deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of
the devil.”
It is true that Christ came to destroy sin, but that
is not just a future hope, but also a present reality, and that is wonderful
news. MacArthur writes that “John is not
saying merely that believers will be delivered from sin when they die, and in the
meantime will be as sinful as they were before their conversion. At salvation believers experience a real
cleansing of a separation from their sins (cf. Eph. 5:26; Titus 3:5; Heb.
10:22), which on a practical level continues to occur as they become more and
more conformed to the image of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Thess. 4:1; 2 Peter
1:5-11). Titus 2:11-14 summarizes well
the present and eschatological aspects of sanctification:
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, 12 instructing us
to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and
godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from
every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds.(cf. Eph. 2:10; 1 Peter 2:24).”
Let us look at those two
verses now: “For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that
we would walk in them.
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on
the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His
wounds you were healed.”
Let
us now look at how John concludes verse five with the phrase in Him there is no
sin. Now here is something that I spoke
of yesterday as being difficult to understand and so I think that it is best
that I quote from John MacArthur’s commentary.
“Jesus Christ is the absolutely sinless One (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15;
7:26; 1 Peter 1:19), a truth that has immense practical ramifications. ‘If you know that He is righteous,’ John
wrote earlier in this epistle, ‘you know that everyone also who practices righteousness
is born of Him’ (2:29). In 3:6 the
apostle reiterates the principle that no one savingly connected to Jesus Christ
can continue to live in sin: No one who
abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Years earlier Paul taught the same truth to
the Roman believers,
“4 Therefore we have been buried with Him
through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we
have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall
also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our
old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be
done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has
died is freed from sin.” (cf. vv. 20-22)
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were
free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then
deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those
things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you
derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
“Again, that outlines key provisions of
the new covenant, which Paul further elaborates: ‘But thanks be to God that though you were
slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to
which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of
righteousness” (Rom. 6:17-18). The
emphasis of the apostle’s statements is on sanctification, with true Christians
having the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12-17), receiving a new heart (acts 16:14; cf.
Ezek. 36:26; Heb 10:16-17), complete forgiveness (Col 1:14), and a transformed
life (Col. 3:5-10)—all evidenced in their new ability to obey the law of God.”
There
is more to answering the question as to what John is writing about when he
writes No one who abides in Him sins, and I hope to
finish this part in the next SD, and continue answering this question as I
believe it is very important for us to understand it’s answer.
1/9/2025 10:34 PM
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