3569 - Sinning No More by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 26, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 38.

3569 — Sinning No More

By Editor

Please harmonize John 8:11, last clause, with 1 John 3:9. J. R.

John 8:11, the last clause, reads, "Go, and sin no more." 1 John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he can not sin, because he is born of God." We see no inharmony between the scriptures. The first is the word of our Saviour to the poor, sinning woman who was brought before Him. He forgave her her sin, and simply told her to "go, and sin no more"—not to continue in sin.

1 John 3:9 declares that when one is born again, and his nature changed, he will sin no more. That is, he can not because he will not. He does not practise sin; that is not the object of his life; that is not its purpose. He has been freed from its power. It does not mean that it is physically impossible for him to sin, any more than it was physically impossible for the man who had married a wife, to come to the marriage feast.

He said, "I have married a wife, and therefore I can not come." He did not have it in his heart to come; he preferred to remain with his wife. So the man who is born again does not wish to commit sin; he has a higher object and purpose in life.