Everyone who remains in Him…

​“Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him. 

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭6‬, ‭9‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Why do we not see these verses playing out in our lives? Have we Americanized Christianity and we fail to meet the requirement of God’s seed remaining in us? Have we failed to see God? When we take our minds off of God and place them on other things we fail to remember who God is and what He has done for us. We hear people say that their soul is saved and sanctified but their flesh is not. Do these verses point to a Christian who can also save and sanctify their flesh so that they no longer sin? I am not there yet either!

Some people will quote Romans 3:23 and say the Bible tells us we cannot not sin.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭23‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

But this verse does not say, “For all will sin”. It says, “For all have sinned”. That is past tense. It happened in the past and is covered by the blood of Jesus.

“If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

John even seems to contradict himself in the same letter. How can we have no sin and yet also not sin at the same time? For if we say we have no sin we are a liar but yet we are to remain in Him and not sin.

I don’t have the answer of how we are to accomplish this but I do believe it is possible to live day by day and not sin, but when we do we have Jesus who pleads with the Father on our behalf. We have to make sure that we don’t continue to practice the same sin that tripped us up yesterday. We have to get up and keep pressing forward toward perfection when we finally see Him face to face. 

Keep up the good fight!