BIBLICAL EVIDENCE THAT YOUR HEART MAY BE IN THE WRONG COVENANT- 1John3:4-9

By Edward O’Hara

This portion of scripture seems to give a lot of people great difficulty understanding. But, it is not really that hard if we understand how to rightly divide the word of truth. And if we haven’t been deceived with the strong delusion of original sin and sin nature.

But, some have made shipwreck of their faith by that strong delusion. So that this passage makes absolutely no sense to them. Unless they make it to say something the plain language shows it does not mean. Because it seems to be saying a person that is born again can not sin.

Which is a bewilderment to most people who call themselves Christian. Because the doctrinal narrative they have accepted is not consistent with the plain language of the Bible.

But, when in anecdotal form they lay it up against their own personal experience, and the fact that they believe all men have a sin nature and have Adam’s sin imputed to them, the notion that those who are born of God can not sin as John plainly says here in John3 is to them preposterous.

I have people asking me after hearing a message I give on this subject, “so are you saying you never sin?” Because of course according to their doctrinal construct that would be a lie. When what they should be asking is, “Is John saying he can not sin?” Which is exactly what John is saying in this passage.

In this chapter John speaks about sin saying,

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”

In these verses John says plainly that sin is the transgression of the law. And says that Jesus came to take away this transgression. Saying He was manifested for this specific purpose.

But, if sin is the transgression of the law, so that any time a man does this he is sinning. How is it possible for Jesus to take away sin once for all as the scripture plainly says, without also taking away the law? Because as John said in vs.5 sin is the transgression of the law. Which would mean that any time anyone transgresses the law he is sinning.

Can people today do this? Of course. So the taking away of sin must be the taking away of the law itself. The covenant God made with Israel through Moses.

So we see that for Jesus to take away sin He must take away the law itself. Which is exactly what Paul said Jesus did in Heb.10:9 when he wrote, “He taketh away the first that He may establish the second.” So that this creates the circumstances in which a man can not transgress it. Because a law that doesn’t exist can not be transgressed. Which is why Paul also said in Rom.4:15 “where there is no law there is no transgression.”

Paul also tells us in Rom.7 that Israel has been “delivered from the law.” Making them now free to marry another, “even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” This is Paul’s explanation for Jesus taking away the first to establish the second.

The first was the law part of the Old Covenant God made with Israel through Moses. The second is the New Covenant that was given power by the death of the testator who is Jesus. His death that made His will and Testament, the New Covenant, begin to have power.

Which is the fulfillment of the promise God gave to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. And not just the Israelite nation. Because John3:16 says the New Covenant is available to “whosoever will believe in Him.”

This covenant is for all men as Paul said in Acts 17 where he wrote, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” “That man” being none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

And in calling all men to repentance the salvation message in the gospel has been made available to both Jews and the rest of the nations(gentiles) equally. Because the law, which Paul in Eph.2:15 says was an enmity between Jews and the rest of the nations, has passed away. Just as Jesus said it would in Mt.5:17,18 after He fulfilled it.

You would agree that Jesus accomplished everything He said He came to do, right? So then having done so the law has now passed away. Because in Mt.5:17,18 Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away before the law will if it has not fulfilled.

And having passed away the law’s ministration of death and condemnation no longer keeps the Jew “shut up unto the faith.” So that he is now free to be joined with Jesus by grace through faith without works. Never again to be condemned by transgressing sins defined by the law because it is no more. And free to love Jesus with his whole being. Because of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the spirit he now has that he never had before because he is born again.

This is why after John said Jesus was manifested to take away sin, which we now can see happened by His taking away the law, he could say in vs.6 “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.”

Because when the man who was under the law comes to know Jesus he has been delivered from the law. So that for him there is no law. Which is also why Paul said in 1Cor.6 and 10 that “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” Because as Paul said in Rom.4:15, “where there is no law there is no transgression.”

It is only by the taking away of the law so that there is no law that it is made possible for a man not to transgress it. Not that he must transgress it if there is law. He could if he chose to. And he could not if he chose to. There is nothing in man that makes him sin. No sin nature and no sin imputed from Adam.

But, John says here that even the possibility of sinning is gone for the man who is born of God. Because “where there is no law there is no transgression.” Now we can see what John meant when he wrote saying,“whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.”

Because John has just got done telling us that Jesus was manifested to take away sin defined as transgression of the law. Doing so by taking away the law itself. So that sin defined as the transgression of the law will no longer be defined that way when someone knows Jesus. Because he who knows Jesus is delivered from the law.

So that sin is now to be defined by what Jesus said it would be defined by in John16:9. And how John is showing it is defined as in this portion of scripture. For example, where there are no speed limits, there can be no speed limits to transgress. Go as fast or slow as you want to. Because where there is no law there is no transgression.

Jesus told the disciples in John16 that when the Holy Spirit comes He will reprove the world of sin. And then gave this sin He referred to a definition the disciples were not yet familiar with. Jesus defined this sin as “They believe not on me.”

So sin is no longer be defined in the New Covenant as transgression of the law. Why? Because the law, its entire system with all of its sacrifices for those sins, has been taken away. Which is why John the Baptist said “Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”

And in Heb.9:8-14 we see how completely taken away the law is in the New Covenant since Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul says here “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;… For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

So in the New Covenant the Jew’s conscience is completely purged from the thinking of works they were commanded to do under the law. These are the dead works Paul is speaking about here. And he says that with them purged by the death of Christ they now are empowered to “serve the living God”.

And have been given access to the “holiest of all”. Which is also attested to in Heb.4:16 where Paul says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Does this mean the Jews were not serving God while they were under the law? Not necessarily. Unless But they were keeping the law because they thought doing so is what made them right with God, as those Paul was teaching in Rom.7 had. Because being right with God has always been by faith without works.

Which is why we see Paul teaching in Rom.4:1-4, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

This righteousness by faith without works ran side by side with the law given through Moses for Israel. So that their keeping of the law was never to be misconstrued by them to mean it’s keeping made them right, or righteous, with God.

And their experience with both covenants running side by side then must not be misconstrued by people today so they think this is how it is to be in the New Covenant. Believing that works play any role in how we are saved.

Because the law was always to be understood only as the temporary means by which God would preserve them as a people, and their bloodline, for the Messiah to come through. So that Jesus would be fully human just like they were. And has never been meant to be a part of how we are saved. Or how we stay saved.

This is why Paul said in Gal.3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”

The first question I want to address is what kind of transgressions could have made it so Jesus would not have been fully human? The same transgressions we are told about that brought about the Nephilim of Gen.6. Transgressions that brought the flood to purge the world from those whose DNA was no longer completely human. So that those who were still fully human would be preserved in the ark to bring the messiah through their bloodline.

And secondly when we see the word “till” in this verse we see that the law had an expiration date. That it would expire after Jesus fulfilled it and it passed away.

So that when He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who trust in Him, sin as defined by the law, would have no place in the believer’s thoughts and his conscience. That kind of thinking, that doctrinal belief, would be purged as the Hebrew grew in his relationship with Jesus.

This is why John continued in 1John3:7 saying, “7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” This righteousness John was referring to is the same righteousness that Jesus had.

A righteousness that Gal.2:16 says comes this way- “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

So this righteousness men who have trusted in Jesus have comes from believing in Jesus just as He believed the Father. Expressed when like Jesus we also say with our whole heart, “not my will but thy will be done”. Just as Jesus said to the Father when He was in anguish about the cross. So it is believing that is our righteousness. And not any works of the law. Or even the consciousness of those dead works.

This is why John then wrote that “8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” Again adding in the next verse what he said earlier about Jesus being manifested to take away sin by saying, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Concluding in vs,9 by telling them that, 9 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.”

Here John shows them that the conscience once purged from the kind of thinking that made sin the transgression of the law, can not sin or transgress the law. Because the law is not what defines sin in this covenant. Unbelief does.

So we can now see that the sin John is talking about here is the sin Jesus spoke of in John16:9. The sin of unbelief. The sin Jesus said in the New Covenant would be the only sin the Holy Spirit would reprove the world of when He comes.

So in the New Covenant righteousness is being in right relationship with Jesus by believing in Him for eternal life. And sin is not being in right relationship with Jesus by not believing in Him for eternal life. So that in the believer’s doctrine neither sin nor righteousness has anything to do with keeping or not keeping the law. Or any works we may or may not do. Because that thinking has been purged from the believer.

We also see in vs.9 John saying it is because God’s seed remains in us that we can not sin. In Mark 4:14 and 1Peter1:23 we see that this seed is the word of God. And when mixed with faith in them that believe Peter says they are, “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

And now because His word in us lives and abides forever, we can not sin. Because His seed in us makes it impossible for a believer to not believe in Jesus. Which by definition is what makes a man a believer. Because by definition a believer is one who believes in Jesus for eternal life.

He does not believe in his law keeping for eternal life. Nor does he believe in Jesus’ law keeping for eternal life. He believes in Jesus for eternal life. And that apart from works done by anyone at any time.

So now we see that unbelief is the only sin in the New Covenant that Jesus said can keep us from eternity in heaven with Him. Which is why it is the only sin Jesus said the Holy Spirit reproves the world of.

So when you are asked if you sin you can comfortably and without any reservation answer that with confidence saying, NO I do not sin. Why? Because your definition of sin is in relation to your believing in Jesus. And not to the keeping of the law.

Because as a believer you do believe in Jesus for eternal life. And you never do not believe in Him for eternal life. It’s impossible for you to not believe in Him for eternal life because as John said, “his seed(God’s eternal word) remaineth in him: and he cannot sin(unbelieve), because he is born of God.”

When we know someone, especially someone we are intimately related to by birth, we can not not know them. It is impossible to not know them because we do know them. And going a step further, knowing Jesus is eternal life.

Because you are born of God when He creates a spirit in you when you trust in Jesus for eternal life. A spirit that never existed until God creates it in you when you believe in Jesus for eternal life.

This is what happens to a person when they are born again. Until this happens Jesus said men are only flesh. And only when we trust in Jesus for eternal life does God create a spirit in us that joins us to Him for eternity.

This is why Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” This is why He said, “What is born of the flesh is flesh. And what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Because it is this spirit that is eternal and joins us to God as His children forever. And it is only when we trust in Jesus for eternal life that we are given this spirit. Our believing in Jesus is an absolute requirement for God to make us His children.

This spirit is what Paul says in Rom.8:16 is what the Holy Spirit “beareth witness with… that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

A spirit in us that is the result of God’s word mixing with our believing Him that makes it impossible for us to sin. Because this spirit is how we relate to the Holy Spirit who shows us we are God’s children. And knowing Him means that we can not transgress the law. Because knowing Him means we are not under law in the Old Covenant. But, are under grace in a New Covenant.

The law has been taken away and the grace has been established. Just as Jesus said it would after it has been fulfilled. So that no one thinks in terms of law keeping when they know Jesus. But, now lives in the love of God that has been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in Rom.5:1-5.

So when someone says that the believer is not under law but he still must keep the law, he shows that his conscience has not been purged from those dead works required of those who are under the law. And is not yet delivered from them as Paul said those are who have been made free to be joined with another. Even Him who is raised from the dead.

So if you are someone who has not understood what John was teaching here. Or have understood it to mean something other than what it plainly says. Or if you are someone who continually feels condemned because you can’t seem to do what the law commands all the time. And you want to be free from those dead works of the law. And misunderstandings that cause feelings of condemnation.

Then turn from the ministration of death and condemnation that is the law to be delivered from it. To love and serve the living God. As John shows here in 1John3:6-9 we must. So that knowing Him you are delivered from that ministration of death and condemnation. To the liberty that is in Jesus.

A liberty that is not one that leads us to be unloving either to God or other people. But, one that frees us up so that we can now love with a real love. One that shows God’s love to others as James said our faith in Jesus should in chapter2 of his epistle. A love for God and others that makes us one with each other and shows to the world that we belong to Him. And who our savior is.

If you want this kind of love, with a conscience that is purged from the old man who lived by works by its appeal to the flesh. Always under the fear of condemnation and death. Then with your mouth confess the Lord Jesus. And with your heart believe that He has raised from the dead. And you will be delivered from those things. Into His love that is life abundantly.

Trust in Jesus and abundant life will be yours. A life that comes from God by way of a spirit He creates in you that was never there before. A spirit that hears Him when He speaks. A spirit that communes with His Spirit. As evidence that you are a child of God.

And as a child you are His heir. Heir to His kingdom. Having eternal life now. And immortality at the resurrection. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!