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| PentecostalTheology.com
BELIEVERS DON’T SIN – JOHN – WHAT? – Ray E Horton
“Whoever has been born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). How is that? We all who are Born Again experience sinful thoughts and attitudes, and even actions from time to time, even though the “old man” is dead, simply because of our old habits and ways of thinking only gradually fall off.
Many translations try to help us understand by translating the Greek word “poieō” as “practice sin” for “commit.” If we are Born Again, we don’t make a practice of sin. There may be some validity to that since the Greek word, according to Strong’s concordance can mean: “a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do – “abide.” We do not abide or live in sin.
God’s Seed in Our Spirits
Yet that explanation may not even be necessary. The verse reads “for” – in other words, the reason – “His [God’s] seed remains in him.” When we are Born Again, as New Creations, it is by the very seed of God, and that seed is in our spirit.
God looks at our spirit, our identity in Him, and the seed of God, the very gift of the righteousness of God in Christ within our spirits, not our souls and bodies
That’s the secret many don’t get. We are a three-part being, spirit, soul and body. Your spirit has been made perfect and cannot sin. As we all know, our souls (mind, will and emotions) and bodies miss it sometimes – they are in process. But God looks at our spirit, our identity in Him, and the seed of God, the very gift of the righteousness of God in Christ within our spirits, not our souls and bodies.
Unlike our perfected spirits, the temple in each of us where the Holy Spirit dwells, our souls are being only gradually transformed, and as we renew our minds, seeing who we are in Christ in the mirror of God’s Word, we are thus being transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). And, someday, our bodies will be transformed – glorified, and our sanctification (which now is only complete in spirit) will be complete.
“May the very God of peace sanctify you completely. And I pray to God that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless/complete unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).
Meanwhile, we have the down payment of the Holy Spirit as a seal and guarantee (2 Cor. 1:22), Who can heal our bodies, remind us of our inheritance in Jesus, and who we are now in Him, and empower us for change and godly living. So, we persevere and go on to finish our race, since “He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Glory!
