The Oberlin Evangelist
Holiness of Christians in the Present Life--No. 4
February 15, 1843
HABITUAL HOLINESS THE TEST
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.
Modernized by Cliff
Collins
“Whoever
has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot
sin, because he has been born of God.”
(1 John 3:9)
In this message I will address the following
questions.
I. What isn’t sin?
II. What is sin?
III. What isn’t being born of God?
IV. What is being born of God?
V. What isn’t the seed that our passage mentions?
VI. What is the seed?
VII. What doesn’t the statement, that whosoever is
born of God does not and cannot commit sin, mean?
VIII. What does this phrase mean?
IX. How can we distinguish a Christian from a
sinner?
I. What sin is not.
1. Sin is not a part of our soul or body.
2. Sin is not something that is infused into either
our soul or body. Some talk as if they
believe our whole being, body and soul, is saturated with sin. Nothing can be more absurd than this.
3. Sin is not a moral corruption of our physical
constitution, nor is sin a fallen state of our physical constitution. The Bible does not define sin this way, and
our reason certainly tells us that sin is something completely different from
this.
4. Sin is nothing that is or can be transmitted from
parents to children by natural generation.
This would contradict the Biblical definition of sin, and the
supposition is, all by itself, ridiculously absurd.
5. Nor does sin consist in any natural or moral
weakness or inability to obey God. The
Bible nowhere makes sin consist in any inability to obey God, and certainly,
our common sense tells us that sin does not consist in this.
6. Nor does sin consist in any appetite, passion, or
mere feeling. I shared with you, in a
previous lecture, that our appetites, passions, and feelings are
constitutional. They are involuntary,
and they have absolutely no moral character all by themselves.
7. Nor does sin consist in any degree of excitement
of our appetites, passions, or feelings under the appropriate circumstances;
because, in the appropriate circumstances, they are naturally excited.
8. Nor does sin consist in any act or state of our
mind. Acts or states of our mind are involuntary,
and we can only be responsible for any act or state of our mind as far as we
can regulate it by willing.
9. Nor does sin consist in any outward physical
actions. Our supreme goal in life, that
we have already chosen, is the source from which our physical acts are
produced. Our physical actions have no
moral character all by themselves.
II. What is sin?
1. As I mentioned in a previous lecture, the primary
faculties of our soul are our mind, our will, and our emotions. We are consciously aware of this. Our mind contains the power to think, affirm,
reason, and reflect. Our emotion is the
power to feel. All our appetites,
desires, passions, or feelings belong to our emotions. Our will, is the power that freely wills or
chooses.
2. Motives that originate either in our mind or in
our emotions influence our will. Our
will, will choose an object, or it will act in reference to some motive. Either this motive is a duty that our mind
sees, or it is a duty that our appetites, desires, or passions present to
us. Our appetites and desires are always
trying to get us to gratify them for their own sake. Now, I am not saying that our mind and our emotions are so
isolated from each other that they act independently of each other, because we
know that a certain amount of emotional feeling always accompanies our
thoughts. On the other hand, every
feeling stirs up thoughts. But, what I
want to say is that some motives originate in our mind, while other motives
originate in our emotions, and from there, they influence our will. The distinction that I am trying to make is
one that everyone makes, when they speak about the difference between being led
by feelings or passions, and being led by reason. Our mind and our emotions mutually influence each other, but one
or the other will take the lead. In
other words, our soul, which is a unit, in thinking feels, and in feeling,
thinks. When our mind reveals and
imposes our obligation, our emotions will always echo those thoughts; and when
some appetite or desire is emotionally excited within us, it causes our mind to
think about it. In the first situation,
our emotion follows in the wake of our mind.
In the second situation, our mind follows in the wake of our
emotions. However, in both situations,
the action of both our mind and our emotions are indirectly under the control
of our will, which, by its sovereign power, always determines which one will be
in charge.
3. Our mind reveals to us that we are under an
obligation to obey the law of our reason just as I am sure that God’s mind
imposes an obligation on Him. In order
for God to be holy, He must obey the law that His own infinite
and eternal reason imposes on Him. The
holiness of all moral beings must consist in voluntarily or willfully
conforming to whatever their own reason tells them they should do. Therefore, holiness is that state of our
will or heart which consists in willfully consecrating our whole being to God.
4. Sin is the exact opposite of this. Sin consists in consecrating with all our will or heart, our whole being to self-gratification. This is selfishness. Selfishness is the substance of all the sin in the universe. Whatever, we willfully do that does not conform to the law of love, as revealed by our reason, is sin, whether it is the omitting our duty or committing something that we know is wrong. Therefore, complete conformity of our heart and life to all the truth that we know about is holiness, and nothing short of this is, or can be holiness. If anyone denies this, it is because he doesn’t know what he is talking about, and he has no clue what holiness truly is.
The law of God is one, that is, the law of God is a
unit, and to talk about being partly conformed to God’s law, and partly not
conformed to it, is to overlook the very nature of God’s law and the very nature
of how we conform to God’s law. The law
of God requires us to conform our heart and life to all the truth that we
perceive, and this is moral perfection.
In fact, this is the only sense in which one can be morally perfect in
any world. Suppose there is a moral
baby whose standard of truth is only one law, let’s say law No. 1. That is the only truth that he knows
about. Now if that baby fully conforms
to that law, he does his whole duty.
Now, as time marches on, his knowledge of truth may increase to 2, 5,
10, or perhaps even 20 laws, and moral perfection will still consist in
conforming to the light he possesses.
Suppose you increase the scale to ten thousand or a million, it is still
the same until you arrive at God Himself, and this is just what constitutes the
moral perfection of God. God knows all
the truths in the universe with absolute certainty, and He conforms to
everything He knows. Since God’s
knowledge is infinite, his knowledge will not increase. Neither will His holiness. However, the knowledge and holiness all
finite beings do and will increase throughout all eternity. Angels, no doubt, sustain innumerable
relationships that they are totally ignorant about, and to which they are not
morally conformed, but their state of will is such, that as soon as they learn
them they conform to them, and therefore their holiness is constantly
increasing. Therefore, this must be
true, not only for those who have the lowest degree of moral capacity, but also
for those who have the highest degree of moral capacity. Everything, then, short of living up to the
light we have, is sin, and every moral act is either right or wrong.
III. What the phrase ‘to be born of God’ does not
consist in.
1. Being born of God or regeneration does not
consist in the creation of any new abilities.
We have enough abilities. We
have more powers and abilities that we can use properly and don’t need any
more.
2. Nor does being born of God consist in any
constitutional change. A constitutional
change is totally different from a moral change, and it would be hard to tell
what good it would do.
3. Nor does regeneration consist in implanting, or
infusing any piece, parcel, or physical principle of holiness into our
soul. What can a principle of holiness
possibly mean, when people use this phrase to designate something that’s
different from holiness itself?
4. Nor does being born of God consist in a change of
our constitutional appetites and tendencies.
Our constitutional appetites and tendencies have no moral character all
by themselves and therefore they don’t need to change. They only need to be properly regulated.
5. Nor does being born of God consist in introducing
or implanting of a new taste, or a new
ability to discern what is aesthetically excellent or appropriate.
There could be no virtue in regeneration if it consisted in any of these things, and they are all errors that overlook the true nature of virtue. But,
IV. What does it mean to be born of God?
1. To be born of God means to have a new heart.
2. We saw that the old heart or the wicked heart
means the same as the term, carnal mind, and that the carnal mind or wicked
heart is willfully devoted to self-gratification. Self-gratification is the ultimate goal that a wicked heart or
carnal mind chooses.
3. Now, to be born again, or to be born of God, is
to make a radical change in one’s ultimate intention, or to make a radical
change in one’s choice or purpose in life.
It is called being born again because it is a change of a person’s entire
moral character and course of life. Christ says, “Unless you are converted and become as little
children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”. (Matt 18:3)
What Christ says here is figurative and emphatic, because when a moral
being changes his purpose in life, he will automatically live a completely new
life, the complete opposite of what it was before.
4. We call it, being born of God, or born from
above; because sinners are influenced to make this voluntary change by the word
and Spirit of God. I said that this is
a voluntary change because everyone is perfectly aware that he is voluntary in
deciding to change. In fact, if it has
any moral character in it, it has to be voluntary. And, I might add, that unless it is voluntary, backsliding from
it would be naturally impossible, and obedience would be automatic. But saying that this change is not voluntary
is as false in fact, as it is absurd in theory.
V. What isn’t the seed that our passage mentions?
1. This seed that remains in Christians is not some
kind of physical germ, root, sprout, or taste, that is planted into our
soul. If this were true, then falling
from grace would be naturally impossible, and perseverance would be naturally
necessary. That theory robs religion of
all virtue whatever.
2. This seed is neither love nor any other holy
exercise. In other words, it is not
religion at all. Religion is
voluntarily conforming to the law of God, and you can’t say that this remains
in the Christian. The truth is, the
Apostle John, in our passage, is telling us why this voluntary conformity continues. Therefore, this voluntary conformity to
God’s law cannot be the seed.
3. This seed does not consist in any new principle
that is implanted into our soul.
VI. What is this seed?
1. This seed is the word or truth, which re-generated
the person who is born of God. In other
words, God’s seed is that truth, that when we received it, it changed our
heart. The Bible frequently calls truth
seed. Fore example, “having been born
again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which
lives and abides forever”. (1 Peter
1:23) “Of His own will He brought us
forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His
creatures.” (James 1:16)
2. We call this word or truth the seed of God, because
the Holy Ghost introduces this truth and plants it into our mind. As a result, we say that we are ‘born of
God’. His truth planted into our mind,
quickens us into making the right commitment.
Now every born again believer knows that this is the way he was born
again. Listen to a young convert talk
about his experience. He begins to tell
about some truth that grabbed his attention and convicted him. He tells about how he thought of one thing
after another. He shares how he
perceived this and that, and he realized that some other thing was true that he
never realized before. Finally, in view
of everything that he saw was true, he made up his mind to repent. Now what is he doing? Why, he is sharing the history of his
regeneration, and sharing it in detail.
But, does he know the history of his regeneration? As well as he knows anything else under
Heaven. Certainly, he did not see the
Holy Spirit, nor did he perceive that it was the Spirit, because the Spirit directed
him to Christ, but he is fully aware that he saw the truth as he never saw it
before. And he is aware that he was
perfectly voluntary under the Holy Spirit’s influence.
3. This seed, which broke the power of selfishness,
remains in him, that is, it remains in his mind, so that he can sin only by
letting it slip from his memory.
“Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the
beginning. If what you heard from the
beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the
Father.” (1 John 2:24) This truth, as I said before, is not a piece
of something that God puts into you, nor is it religion, nor love, but it is
that which once subdued your will and it will keep on influencing you, unless
you let it slip away.
VII. What doesn’t the statement, that whosoever is born
of God does not and cannot commit sin, mean?
1. This statement, that whosoever is born of God
does not and cannot commit sin, cannot mean that a holy being does not have the
power to commit sin. Adam was a holy
being and he sinned, and so did all those “angels who did not keep their proper
domain”. (Jude 1:6) If they had no natural power to sin, there
would be no virtue in their obedience.
Saying that a holy being does not have the power to commit sin would
contradict innumerable facts. Perhaps
very few have ever been born of God who have not been guilty of sin
afterwards. This is something we all
know. Most of the histories recorded in
the Bible of good men, show that they fell into sin, and the Bible everywhere
assumes that there is always a danger that this can happen. Eliminating the possibility of falling into
sin would destroy free agency and eliminate the possibility of being sinful or
holy.
2. Eliminating the possibility of falling into sin
would make John contradict himself, for he was writing to regenerate persons,
but he assumes all along that they could sin, and were in danger of
sinning. Nor can this statement mean
that one who is born of God never sins under the force of temptation. This would contradict the rest of the Bible.
VIII. What does the statement, that whosoever is
born of God does not and cannot commit sin, mean?
1. This statement means that the truth has once
broken the power of our passion and our appetite, and gained the consent of our
will, and since that truth remains in us like a seed, we are no longer willing
to indulge in any form of sin.
2. The word ‘cannot’ is used here in its popular
sense, as it generally is in the Bible.
We must not stretch this word to mean more than it does, nor shorten it
to make it mean less than it does. The
Bible uses this word the same way we use it in popular conversation today. Suppose I say “I cannot take twenty-five dollars
for my watch”. What do I mean? I am not saying that I don’t have the power
to take it, but I am saying that I am not willing to take it. If I say ‘I cannot throw this table across
the room’, the nature of the situation shows that I am using the word ‘cannot’,
to indicate a natural impossibility.
However, in the first situation, I use the word ‘cannot’ to indicate
that I was very unwilling to sell my watch for twenty-five dollars. It is in this sense that today’s passage
uses this word. This is how people
today use this word everyday in every store on Broadway.
3. God intended that with all Christians, holiness
would be the rule and sin would be the exception. That is, if there is any sin at all, that sin would only be
occasional as opposed to habitual, that sin would be so infrequent, that, in
the strong language of John, it may be truly said, that they do not sin. If sin is so common that sin becomes
habitual rather than occasional, then this passage must be completely
false. For example, suppose I should
say that a certain man is not an alcoholic.
People should not think that I am saying that he has never been drunk in
his life, but that I am saying that, at best, his fits of intoxication are
extremely rare. John, as a writer,
expresses himself very strongly. I
could read many passages from his writings, showing that he did not intend to
use phrases like this in an absolute sense.
John was merely trying to state that, in Christians, their aversion to
sin, and their purpose of obedience are so strong and fixed, that we can say
for all practical purposes that they cannot sin. “And everyone who has this hope
in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is
lawlessness. And you know that He was
manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known
Him. Little children, let no one
deceive you. He who practices righteousness
is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin,
for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of
God.” (1 John 3:3-9)
4. John must have meant that Christians only sin by
being sidetracked from their focus on the truth by the force of
temptation. This is the least that this
and similar passages can mean. John did
not intend to state what should be true of Christians, but John stated what is
actually true of Christians. He is drawing
the very portrait of a Christian and hanging it up for the entire Church
throughout all the ages to look at.
IX. How can we distinguish a Christian from a
sinner?
1. Sinners cannot be distinguished from Christians
by their profession of faith. For, no
doubt, many sinners make some kind of profession of faith and some Christians
do not.
2. Nor can they be distinguished by their observance
of the forms of religion, nor by their creeds or opinions, nor by their church
standing, nor by the emotions or feelings that they manifest. Emotions are as natural to the impenitent as
to Christians, and you can’t use them to distinguish between a sinner and a
Christian. But,
3. The Christian is benevolent, while the sinner is
selfish. They both have opposite
purposes or goals in life. With one,
the foundation of everything they do will be unselfish love. With the other, the foundation of everything
they do will be selfish.
4. Reason influences the Christian, while mere
feeling influences the sinner. If you
want to influence a sinner, you must appeal to his feelings, for nothing else
will move him. He has not learned to
yield his will to the dominion of truth.
However, the Christian devotes himself to truth, and it always influences
him. He knows that his feelings
effervesce, boil, or freeze, just as circumstances vary; while truth always
remains the same. Not long ago, a
brother said to me, “I am worried about my wife. She is very full of feeling, and can be affected by appeals which
are designed to stir up those feelings; but I can’t influence her by
truth.” I replied, that this was truly
a dark sign; and I now say, that I should have no hope for my wife nor anyone
else, who cannot be influenced to do their duty, by the simple truth, without appealing
to their emotions.
5. The Christian obeys all known truth, on all
subjects, while sinners conform to truth only on those subjects that public
opinion enforces. Truth is the
Christian’s law, and he conforms to it just as much when it opposes public
opinion, as he would if it conformed to public opinion. But listen!
A sinner will conform to some truths outwardly, but not to all, nor
really to any in his heart. Public
opinion is a god that most people today obey and worship.
6. Christians adhere to principle in the face of all
opposition, while sinners shrink back in fear before opposition. Let opposition rise higher and higher, and
you will see the true Christian stand like a rock, and face the onslaught. He will not shrink back in fear. However, this is not true with the
sinner. He will go along just fine as
long as everything is going smoothly.
As soon as the tide begins to rise, you see him yield to its force and
go along with it no matter which way it goes.
7. It can never be said of a true Christian, that,
“sin has dominion over him”. But, some
form of sin has dominion over each and every sinner. Sometimes it assumes one type and sometimes it assumes another
type, but sin is their master.
8. Christians obey the spirit as well as the letter
of the moral law, but sinners only obey the letter of the law, if they obey the
law at all.
9. Cause a Christian to see the truth on any subject
and he will obey it; but a sinner will see and acknowledge it, and continue in
his sins. His appetites and passions,
and not his conscience, are his masters.
REMARKS
1. Every real Christian lives habitually without
sin. Nothing is more common than to
find large groups of professing Christians who acknowledge that they are living
in sin. You ask them, “Don’t you know that this is wrong”? “Yes”, they reply, “but no one can be
expected to live without sin in this world.
We must sin every day.” Now, as
the Bible is true, such people are deceived, and are on their way to hell. If that is religion, what is Christianity? But, you will say, “I know what you say
about this passage can’t be the true meaning, because it is not my
experience”. You poor soul! That excuse won’t do you any good, because
God’s word is true, no matter what your experience is, and on the day you enter
into eternity, where will you end up if you rely on your experience rather than
on God’s word? Now, do you cry out and
say, “why this is awful; for if what you say is true, what will become of the
great majority of professing Christians?”
Let me tell you, God will save every true Christian, but God will judge
the hypocrites. Not long ago, a woman
said to a minister, “Do you confess your sins”? Confess your sins! What
did she mean by that? Why, she was
asking him if he confessed his sins every time he prayed, not that he had been
a sinner in times past, but, she was assuming that he was still constantly
sinning against God. She, along with
many other professing Christians, actually believed that Christians should sin
a little every day in order to keep them humble, and that they can have
something that they can confess. Indeed!
2. It is a dangerous error to assume that Christians
sin daily and hourly. It sets the door
wide open for false hopes, and the result is that deluded victims have
saturated the Church.
3. It is just dangerous to say that the holiest
duties of the Christian are sinful--that “sin is mixed in with all we do”. What!
Then John should have said, “Whosoever is born of God commits sin daily
and hourly, in spite of the fact that the seed of God remains in him, for sin
is mixed in with all he does!” It is an
obvious matter of fact that whatever is holy is not sinful. Holiness is conforming to what we believe we
should be doing. Holiness is an act of
our will, and must be a complete unit all by itself. If holiness is a unit, if holiness is complying with our
obligation to God, as far as we know what our obligation is, sin is not and can
not be mixed in with it. Christ says,
“You cannot serve God and Mammon”.
(Matt 6:24) And James says, “For
whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of
all”. (James 2:10) Therefore, a person who knows what he must
do and does not do it is living in sin and he is not a Christian. It is a waste of time to appeal to your
experiences instead of trusting in the Bible.
4. All who live, knowing that they are not doing
their duty, or those who live, doing what they know is contrary to the truth,
are living in habitual sin and are not Christians.
5. How infinitely different is the doctrine of
today’s message, from the common view of what is true Christian character, and
what is generally taught in Churches today.
One celebrated minister, in defining a Christian, said, “the Christian
has a little grace, and a great deal of devil”. Now where did a statement like that come from? Did it come from the Bible? No!
It came from taking the Bible and twisting it to agree with a false
standard. And yet, this sentiment is so
common that if you deny it, they look astonished, and say “Why, you must be some kind of fanatic”.
Read the language of the Confession of Faith of the
Presbyterian Church, right along side of what John says. The Confession of Faith says, “No mere man
since the fall, is able, either of himself, or by any grace received in this
life, perfectly able to keep the commandments of God, but does daily break them
in thought, word, and in deed”. And
almost all the standards of Church doctrine agree with this. This is the common sentiment of the Church. Now, I would ask you, how does this line up
with what John says, in today’s passages as well as in many other places
throughout his epistle? Let me say that
John is not talking about a few Christians who have made rare attainments in
faith, but John is talking about the common attainment of Christians. Now, who is right? Is it the Confession of Faith, or the Bible? Is it man’s doctrine, or the Bible? By which will you be tried at the
Judgment? Will you be judged by the
Bible or by the common standards? You
know very well which one you should choose.
6. Therefore, when anyone lives their lives fully
aware that they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, or in doing
things that they know are contrary to the truth, we have to say that they are
not Christians. We don’t say this
because we don’t love them, but because we do love them. This is not a lack of love but a love of the
truth. Suppose an unsaved person meets
you with a Bible in his hand and he points out how it describes a Christian,
and then he asks you, “Do you believe the Bible speaks the truth”? Now, what if he points to those Christians,
who daily and hourly live knowingly not doing their duty, who are daily
violating what they know God wants them to do, and he asks you if you believe
they are Christians? What would you
say? What would you have to say in
order to defend the honor of the Bible?
The answer is simple. The truth
is that today’s common views on this subject flatly deny the truths of the
Bible, and they destructively cater to the experience of carnal professing Christians.
7. Now, beloved, if this is true, it becomes very important for us to ask ourselves, whether our experience agrees with the Bible or with today’s popular standard. It does not matter whether we think we were converted some time ago. It does not matter what feelings we may have had. But what matters is, are we conformed to all the truth we know right now? Does the seed remain in us? We know if the truth is in us simply by looking at our own lives and examining our own hearts. He who has the seed, that is, the truth in his heart and not just in his head, is a Christian. He who does not have it is not a Christian. Now where are you? What would happen to you tonight if God summoned you to stand before Him in Judgment? Could you lay your hand on your heart and say, “Lord You know all things, You know that I love You”? Can you say, “You know that my life is a life of conforming to all Your known will”?