1 John 3:1-9 - Perfected Towards Sinlessness

1 John 3:1-9

1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Sin and the Child of God

4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 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.

We are called towards sinlessness in our sanctification, yet we are still battling against sin as sinners saved by grace until the day we shed this mortal coil and stand before our Lord as sinless in more than the state of imputed righteousness (Romans 4:22-25, 2 Corinthians 5:21) we currently possess in Christ.  We are called His children who have been saved by grace while still sinners (Romans 5:8-9, Ephesians 2:5) and are not being told here that if we sin at all that we lose it all; no, rather, that we no longer make pursuit and practice of sin an ongoing habitual thing.  The world looks at us, changed by grace in a new birth as new men and women, and cannot grasp that we can still stumble and fall yet get back up by repentance in faith to be forgiven (1 John 1:9) and continue on to avoid sin and put it to death one little step at a time in our sanctification by God’s working in us (Philippians 2:12-13, 1:6).  We ourselves who have so much of scripture revealed to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit have great difficulty seeing the final outcome of His work in the resurrection to come, understanding only that we will have bodies that are not corrupted by sin as evidenced by a lack of death to them as a result of sin which will no longer be present within or without in His presence.  We shall be made like Him in sinlessness!  The image marred in Eden’s Garden will be restored as originally designed and created (1 Corinthians 15:54-56)!  Therefore, we look ahead to sinless perfection in eternity and work towards preparing ourselves by avoiding and mortifying it in this present life until we stand before Him forever among the tree of life’s healing leaves (Revelation 22:2) beyond the curse of sin at last.  Continuing to practice sin reveals our unregenerate state and not our lack of earning and keeping our salvation.  Jesus came to take away our sin (John 1:29) that we might live in His righteousness and imitate that righteousness by abiding in Him and putting sin to death (Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5).  This direction of the life is our proof that we have truly seen and know Him and is not a flawed attempt to earn or keep our salvation.  The bottom line is spelled out here that we are not deceived into working to maintain our salvation nor abandoning any attempt to perfect our pursuit of righteousness.  If we continue in wanton abandon to sin and lean on the unbiblical phrase, “once saved, always saved” as a license to sin, we do not know Him.  Just like the devil who deceived Eve in the beginning, such can easily be led to believe going against God’s word and His commands for holiness is somehow acceptable.  God tells us something different here.  If we continue in sin without resistance, it usually means that we do not have His seed, namely Christ, in us to be able to resist and therefore cannot continue to practice sin as before our conversion.  It does not mean that we who are His are entirely incapable of sinning.  We are being perfected towards sinlessness in eternity when we are finally apart from the presence and influence of sin in the presence of Him who promises to perfect us (1 Peter 5:10, Hebrews 13:20-21) in ongoing sanctification until that day as we participate by putting our sin and its desire to death day by day.  We have not yet arrived, but have a certain hope of this process of sanctification.