1 John 3:7-10

Born of God

“Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

1 John 3:7–10 NA28

7 Παιδία, μηδεὶς πλανάτω ὑμᾶς· ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην δίκαιός ἐστιν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος δίκαιός ἐστιν· 8 ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν, ὅτι ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει. εἰς τοῦτο ἐφανερώθη ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα λύσῃ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου. 9 Πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἁμαρτίαν οὐ ποιεῖ, ὅτι σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει, καὶ οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτάνειν, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται. 10 ἐν τούτῳ φανερά ἐστιν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὰ τέκνα τοῦ διαβόλου· πᾶς ὁ μὴ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

OPENING REMARKS

Many theologians have called this epistle, ‘the epistle of assurance’. It’s one big test of faith from beginning to end.

This is the Apostle John’s litmus test for what a true Christian ought to be like

RC SPROUL made the following observations:

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Outline of 1 John

II. THE FIRST EXPOSITION OF TRUE SALVIFIC COMMUNION WITH GOD (1:5–2:27)

A. Communion with God is demonstrated by acknowledging sin and Christ as the provision for sin (1:5–2:2)

B. Genuine faith is discerned by the end-time tests of righteousness and love (2:3–11)

C. Genuine faith is discerned by the end-time test of correct belief in Christ in contrast with the world and the antichrists’ view of Christ (2:12–27)

III. THE SECOND EXPOSITION OF TRUE SALVIFIC COMMUNION WITH GOD (2:28–4:6)

A. Divine sonship of believers is discerned by the test of righteousness (2:28–3:10a)

At the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter three the apostle begins to touch on the issue of righteousness; of right living in the Christian.

1 john 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Why will a Christian live a life of righteousness? Because Jesus is righteous, and they have been born of Him - γεγέννηται in the Greek. A perfect verb which tells us that something has taken place in the past but that the state concomitant with this past event is a present reality. You have been born of Him, you are born of Him still.

What is it to be a Christian? To practice righteousness. How and why does a Christian practice this righteousness? Because they have been born of God .

BORN OF GOD

We can’t move on without first taking a moment to dwell on this great Christian doctrine of regeneration. That is; the doctrine of the new birth. There’s nothing commensurate with the doctrine of regeneration in any other world religion and it’s really the lynchpin of our salvation.

Debate has raged over the centuries about this doctrine; it is and always has been scandalous to the naturally minded. That God would effect a critical change in an individual; not in response to anything they have done, said or believed but simply because He wants to.

john 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I used to think that being a ‘born again’ Christian was like being a Christian 2.0. As if there were Christians who were not ‘born again’ and then there were those who were. That being ‘born again’ was a kind of post salvation thing, that you needed to press in for/become.

Then I remember thumbing through a theology book one day and reading something that stunned me! I called my friend into the room and said ‘Hey, look at this. It says here that God makes us born again; that he gives us a new heart even before we give Him our hearts!.’ And he said, ah well, we don’t believe that. But the more I looked at this doctrine of regeneration the more it became clear to me that the new birth is something that God does, and only He can do. It’s not something that we can make happen or bring about my our own will or activity.

john 1:11-13 - He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Well, doesn’t it say that they believed in Him first? Wasn’t their belief what initiated their regeneration?

The apostle Paul has this to say to those claiming that one’s faith is what makes you born again;

Ephesians 2:1-9 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So, you were once dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. Sure you could breath, you had beating heart but you were dead to God; you COULD not respond to Him. It wasn’t just that you would not come to Him, it’s that you COULD NOT. Not without His intervention.

1 corinthians 2:14 - The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

romans 8:6-8 - For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

I want you to see how dependent you are today on the grace of God and the grace of God alone! He was the first mover in your salvation, it was Him who chose you before you chose Him; Romans 5:6-8 ‘For while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. NASB

1 Pet 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF THIS NEW BIRTH?

The Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us! The Holy Spirit; the third person of the Holy Trinity who searches the deep things of God

(1 Cor 2:10-13 -these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.)

He comes into us and transforms us, gives us life! Not just any life but ETERNAL LIFE, the same life which makes Jesus alive. The new birth is incurruptible, never ending. If you’ve been born again, even though this outer shell will be cast off, will never die, you’ll live forever with Him!

The Holy Spirit works in us to produce fruit, we have faith where we once had unbelief, love for God where we once had hatred. Many will say ‘well, i never hated God.’ I’ve always been open to the idea of God. But anything other than worship is hatred of God. Indifference is hatred towards God. He is singularly worthy of our everything so to deny Him that is to manifest our contempt of Him!!

You begin to hate your sin and desire righteousness, you want to be rid of your sin. You can’t live in it any longer. This is the great point the Apostle Paul makes in Romans 6, rebutting those who accused him of something called antinomiansim.

Romans 5:20-6:2 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

ANTINOMIANISM

So what is antinomianism? Well, imagine a dial, like a speedometer, on one extremity is legalism and on the other is antinomianism and in the middle is the sweet spot. If legalism is the idea that as Christians we are to now go back and adhere to the law in a legalistic manner antinomiansim is the idea that ‘well, since we’re in grace it doesn’t matter how we live.’ God loves me so much he doesn’t care that I like to take drugs, sleep around and blaspheme. I can’t sin they might say.

These people who John is warning his readers about are antinomians. We can deduce a few things about there beliefs from these opening few chapters;

That they believed they had true fellowship with God

They believed they had no sin

They didn’t abide by Jesus’s commandments but still claimed to be Christians

There is a very popular form of antinomianism at large in the west today; progressive Christianity. It’s main teachers people such as Rob Bell, Rachel Held-Evans, Brian Maclaren and Nadia Bolz-Weber. Essentially what they say is that Biblical teachings particularly about sexuality, gender, order and morality are outdated and must be reimagined for the modern world

“we should not be more loyal to an idea, a doctrine, or an interpretation of a Bible verse than we are to people. If the teachings of the church are harming the bodies and spirits of people, we should rethink those teachings.” Bolz - Weber

These teachers take Biblical words like Holiness, sin and righteousness and redefine them to mean things other than what they mean in the Bible. So unsuspecting Christians can easily be tricked because they use the same words that we do, but they mean very different things by them:

“Holiness is the union we experience with one another and with God. Holiness is when more than one become one, when what is fractured is made whole. Singing in harmony. Breastfeeding a baby. Collective bargaining. Dancing. Admitting our pain to someone, and hearing them say, "Me too." Holiness happens when we are integrated as physical, spiritual, sexual, emotional, and political beings. Holiness is the song that has always been sung, perhaps even the sound that was first spoken when God said, "Let there be light. Holiness happens in those moments when we are blissfully free from our ego and yet totally connected to our self and something else.” - Nadia Bolz-Weber

These teachers affirm all manner of sexual sins; from homosexuality through to polygamy yet for them this isn’t sin but holiness. John is warning of this type of so-called Christian. A true faith will always beget good works, it will always look like a life of increased purity. faith without works is a dead faith.

"a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. - Luther

Martyn Lloyd-Jones always used to say that a good Gospel preacher would always be accused of antinomianism just as Paul was, simply because of the crazy, super-sized grace of the gospel. But we must always be aware of this doctrine of regeneration without which salvation is not possible. The Bible teaches that regeneration involves a living seed (sperma) His seed which is implanted into us and it continues to grow and brings forth fruit in accordance with the seed.

If an apple seed grows into an apple tree it will produce apples, if a pear tree grows into a pear tree it will produce pears, if a God seed grows it will produce what kind of fruit? Godly fruit!

As Spurgeon Said

Good works are not the root of faith but they are its fruit.

AND HE CANNOT SIN

This new birth is so powerful that the apostle goes so far as to say that those born of God CANNOT SIN. It literally incapacitates us.

This verse is the subject of lots of atheist blogs since at first reading it appears to be a direct contradiction of what is written in 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

It’s also frightened a lot of Christians who like me can freshly remember our sins; does this mean I’m not a Christian then?

There are some theologians who have simply accepted this as a direct contradiction; that the apostle simply contradicts himself. Still others have tried to claim that what he says in verse 9 is in effect a quotation of the beliefs of the secessionists, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for this. Still others have claimed John means what he says idealistically though this doesn’t seem probable given the way he writes it. The ESV gives an idea of the majority view; that his usage of the present tense verb ‘sin’ means a ‘continuing in sin’. Though I think this is definitly a possibility i think that John’s earlier usages of the greek present participle in verses 7 and 8 ‘the one doing’ definitely convey a continuing pattern of behaviour and therefore its likely that we should understand verse 9 in that light too.

There is an even more radical Biblical truth to this, though it’s not necessarily what I think John is referring to here. It is that in our union with Jesus we are crucified with Him, we are dead to sin. The new life that’s in us is alive to God in Christ Jesus. When we sin now; in a very real sense it’s not us that’s sinning but sin itself present in our physical bodies; or as Paul calls it ‘the body of sin or body of death.’

Romans 7:14-25 - For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

There’s lots more to say on this topic which I can’t get too caught up in today!

John’s final argument for why a Christian will not make a practice of sin is that those who do make a practice of sinning aren’t of God but are of the Devil, and Jesus came to destroy or undo the works of the devil.

You can’t be making a practice of the things that your Lord expressly came to destroy. If you are, then John says you are no child of God but you are a child of the devil. Strong stuff, but worth remembering that there’s no such thing as neutrality according to the Bible! You’re either a child of God or a child of the devil, you’re either a slave of righteousness or a slave of sin (Romans 6).

Are you making a habit of sin? Are you allowing it to reign in your life? Don’t carry on that way, that path only leads to one destination;death. eternal death. Turn to Jesus, repent and be born again!

Have you slipped into bad habits again? Then confess your sins, as John says earlier on in this same book;

John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And - 1 John 2:1-2 - My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 6:8-14 - Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Prayer and close