Living Without Sin While Still Living in Our Fleshly Bodies—Part One
Explaining 1 John 3:9 and Romans 7:14-15
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9, NKJV)
People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. (1 John 3:9, MSG)
The person who has been born into God's family does not make a practice of sinning because now God's life is in him; so he can't keep on sinning, for this new life has been born into him and controls him—he has been born again. (1 John 3:9, TLB)
The man who is really God's son does not practise sin, for God's nature is in him, for good, and such a heredity is incapable of sin. (1 John 3:9, PHIlLIPS)
No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because 1God's seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterised by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him. (1 John 3:9, AMP)
Preamble
First, I must make it abundantly clear that the theme of this series of articles is not mine. It originated from a comment on another article: "So, You Were Born a Christian?" in which I asserted that
To enter the kingdom of God, a person must first have his sins eliminated.
The commentator wanted me to speak to the theme in the light of 1 John 3:9. So, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we would attempt to give an explanation that should help many others besides, who may be struggling with the assertion that we can indeed live above sin in this world.
Indeed, I also struggled with the idea of living without sin while living in our fleshly bodies until I attended a Bible meeting in a remote village in one of the riverine communities in the Nigerian delta region about a decade ago. The takeaway from that meeting was that we can live without sin, which makes living as a Christian in every ramification—marriage, finance, business, etc.—possible.
In the beginning
To understand 1 John 3:9, we have included some translations that can help us appreciate what is being said. Also, and more importantly, we need to go to the root of Christian salvation.
When a person hears the preaching of the gospel and is convicted by the Holy Spirit, they become sorry for their sins and sinful living over the years. Following such sorrow for sin out of a deep conviction that they have sinned against God, they get to the place of confessing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Confessing the Lord Jesus Christ means that I have accepted the verdict of the Holy Spirit that I am a sinner and have been all my life, and thus, deserving of eternal death. I also accept the Holy Spirit's offer of the way out of this death sentence by accepting the death of Jesus on the cross as payment for my sins. In accepting the offer of the Holy Spirit as my way out of God's death sentence upon me in eternity, I am effectively accepting God's offer of eternal salvation!
In accepting God's offer of eternal salvation, thanks to the preaching of the gospel, I declare that I am a sinner who has sinned against God, but now I know that I have a way out of God's death sentence, through Jesus' death on the cross at Calvary. Jesus' death was for my salvation, and I now accept His death and resurrection for my salvation and make Jesus Lord of my life. I, therefore, repent of my sins and thoroughly repudiate them. Let us note that repentance connotes a change from sinful living to godliness. This begins in the inner being and manifests outwardly. Thus, if a person has truly repented of sin, they would not return to committing that sin again!
The making of a Christian
Based on my confession, which is my declaration or admission of Jesus' righteousness and thus, my salvation, something supernatural occurs in my life. First, I am declared righteous or pronounced justified—declared free of sin, just as if I had not sinned—by none other than God Himself! This declaration by God is His pardon and forgiveness of my sins.
At this point, people may experience joy, peace, realising how sinful they had been, hating evil, loving God, or a combination of some or all of these and more. This experience is usually a period of deep conviction during which we isolate ourselves from everyone else and be by ourselves sobbing for the awful things we had done and avowing our love for God.
The vital role of the Holy Spirit
Secondly, immediately following God's declaration of our righteousness and justification, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives—the inner man—and immediately commences a work of righteousness. This work of righteousness seeks to make us righteous so that we can live righteously henceforth.
The Holy Spirit's work of righteousness is not some cosmetic work but a thorough work of renewal of the mind. He goes to the root cause of the sin problem, which is the "flesh", and crucifies him. The flesh is also known by the following appellations: the human nature, the natural man, the carnal man or mind, the nature of man that loves to sin, the sinful nature. It is the crucifixion of the flesh along with its passions and desires that give rise to the experience of joy, peace, loving God, etc.
It is like having a man who had terrorised a community for decades, captured, convicted, and executed. The people in that community will rejoice greatly. Similarly, the soul rejoices greatly because the tyrant who terrorised it and made it to disobey God in time past has been eliminated.
If the flesh were merely captured and imprisoned, the soul could not rejoice because there is the eventuality that he might escape and cause more mayhem on those who had rejoiced prematurely; hence, the Holy Spirit ensures the crucifixion of the flesh and his cohorts. Then, we can freely serve God and His purpose. John the Baptist's father prophesied about this at John's naming, thus:
The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. (Luke 1:73-75, NKJV)
Another way of describing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to liken it to what happens when one buys a home or takes possession of his house following a protracted legal battle. The first thing the new homeowner or the landlord who has successfully evicted his tenants would immediately do is to begin a renovation by removing the toilets, bathrooms, fittings, etc. In some instances, walls are torn down and new walls erected.
Afterwards, the entire building is fumigated and painted; the lawns are mowed, hedges are trimmed, etc. When you come into the renovated home, if they told you how horrible it was, you would not believe it because of the transformation that has taken place!
This work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, immediately following our salvation, is commonly called sanctification. During sanctification, which is a continuous process, all our past sins are taken away, not covered—but eliminated—along with their consequences for eternity (we can no longer be judged for those sins); all is forgiven and forgotten (Hebrews 10:11-18)!
The new life
Now, we begin a new life where the Holy Spirit is in charge. A point to note here is that the human spirit cannot navigate the new life on its own, so it needs the Holy Spirit. Although the flesh and its passions and affections were crucified, there would soon be a breakdown of law and order without the Holy Spirit.
It is like what happens after the military has eliminated a tyrant from a community; they must maintain a presence there to ensure there is no resurgence of tyranny from those who may have been oppressed and now want to take vengeance on those weaker than themselves. Hence, the new life is lived in the power of the Holy Spirit!
The new man who had once lived under the tyranny of sin had been traumatised. Now he must learn to live under the authority of Jesus, whom he had accepted as his Lord during his confession. This training is undertaken by the Holy Spirit (through teachings and instructions), albeit without compulsion or coercion.
Living without sin
With this rather lengthy background, let us begin to address the issues raised in 1 John 3:9. We are re-created from within at the new birth; now, we live in the power of the Holy Spirit. As long as we follow the Holy Spirit's leading, we cannot sin!
If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires. The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should. But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you. (Galatians 5:16-18, CEV)
One of the challenges of living as a Christian is wanting to live according to Mosaic law. Unfortunately, Mosaic law is how sin gets to us (Romans 7:7-11)! So, it is important that if we, as Christians, are to live as God desires, we must follow the Holy Spirit's leading, not the Mosaic Law!
If there are two ways to do something—manual and automatic—, you could decide which way you prefer. In our case, we can live by the Law (manual operation) or by the Spirit (an automatic process). If you choose to live by the Mosaic Law, you will get into trouble because sin will utilise the Law to bring you to guilt even though you have done nothing wrong. But if you choose to live by the Holy Spirit, you will be directed aright, and sin will have no occasion to bring you into guilt.
So long as the Holy Spirit leads you, you cannot sin. But then, we get entangled with strange ideas from the world—concepts like democracy, the world's form of freedom, feminism, racial injustice, conservatism, etc. These ideas on face value seem to be supported by the word of God, but the truth is that God's word does not endorse any! And so, before long, we are no longer living by the power of the Holy Spirit, but by these new ideas we have subscribed to, and then, we begin to sin, and sadly, justify it by saying that no one can live without sinning.
If only we had remained under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we would not have slid away unto such entrapment from Satan. Therefore, to live without sin after salvation, be sanctified and always follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
But do we still sin after this? We shall discuss this in Part two.
Explanation from the Amplified Bible: “i.e. in human terms, God’s seed is like a divine “genetic code” which is passed on to His children and produces in them the desire to live in a way which pleases Him.”