Mission Venture Ministries

No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. (1 John 3:6) 

If a person claims to be a Christian but lives in defiance of God’s Word, then that person is showing the world that they are unsaved. No one who continues to live in deliberate sin knows God. Because, continual sin is incompatible with new life in Christ since living in unrepentant sin is proof that no regenerative work of the Spirit has yet taken place in the heart of that person, regardless of whether they try to prove otherwise. 

John continues by giving us the reason why believers do not continue to sin: “No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). Here we have the biblical answer why a genuine Christian will not deliberately, knowingly, and habitually sin. 

In his first epistle John describes various qualities of the genuine believer. If a person knows Christ and is growing in grace, they will be generally marked by the following qualities. 

• They enjoy fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ and His redeemed people (1 John 1:3). 

• They admit and confess their sin because, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). 

• They obey God’s Word and walk just as He walked. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3–6). 

• They love God rather than the world. “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). 

• Their life is characterized by doing what is right because, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been born of Him” (1 John 2:29). 

• They seek to maintain a pure life (1 John 3:3). 

• They maintain a clear conscience and in doing so “have confidence before God” (1 John 3:21). 

• They experience victory in their Christian walk because “whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith” (1 John 5:4). 

We need to understand that a born again believer is a person who has responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44) by putting their whole faith in the finished work of Christ for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:15-18). Christians are those who have repented of their sin and have made Jesus Lord of their lives (Romans 10:9-10; Acts 2:38). They are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:6-7). 

We, who believe in Jesus Christ, have been saved through God’s mercy.  We have been cleansed, sanctified, and justified in and through Jesus, our Savior. And the indwelling Holy Spirit is constantly cleansing us and renewing our minds as Paul states: “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God”  (1 Corinthians 6:11).

We need to keep our mind focused on what the Scriptures tell us that, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7). 

We come to the Lord in need of salvation and forgiveness and He accepts us in our sinful state and cleanses us by His shed blood, sanctified by the Spirit, and justified by God.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  

Remember that the evidence of conversion is a changed life because conversion without change is no conversion at all. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

First Peter 1:15-16 tells us: But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 

Being holy isn’t natural, and it isn’t something we can do under our own strength. Walking in holiness requires receiving the Holy Spirit, and when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our heart, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Holiness is only possible when we put on the new self and live life as the new creatures God ordained us to be. Although holiness isn’t natural to us, we are instructed in Scripture to pursue holiness. 

As a result of being born again and given a new heart, a true Christian loves God and their brothers in Christ. A true Christian is not dominated and controlled by the sin nature, but wages war against sin with the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and pursue righteousness and holiness for the love and glory of God because without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). 

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