The Berean Expositor
Volume 46 - Page 115 of 249
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Stage one. The deposit of the egg.
When a natural man becomes a believer, a new life commences:
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him: and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (I John 3: 9).
We remember that John has previously said:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us"
(I John 1: 8, 9).
Here the "truth" and the "Word" abiding in us does not mean that we never fall into sin.
It should be noticed that I John 3: 9 does not say whosoever is born of God never
falls into sin, but does not COMMIT sin, and an examination of John's use of the Greek
verb poieo will be helpful here. We find that John in his epistle is but expanding and
applying what the Saviour said and what John himself recorded in his "Gospel".
Poieo
in John 8: 34 - 44.
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."
"I speak that which I have seen with My Father: and ye do (commit) that which ye
have seen with your father."
"If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do (commit) the works of Abraham."
"This did (committed) not Abraham."
"Ye do (commit) the deeds of your father."
"Ye are of your father the Devil, and the deeds of your father ye will to do (commit)"
(John 8: 34, 39, 40, 41, 44).
So in I John 3: 8, 9, the same doctrine is maintained, "He that committeth sin is of
the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil". "Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him." "In this the children of God
are manifested, and the children of the devil." Here we are face to face with the "two
seeds" once again, a subject of profound difficulty that meets us in the primeval prophecy
of Gen. 3: 15, and in parable form in Matt. 13: 36-42.