No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (1 John 3:9)
As I go on sinning, then, according to a literal reading of the two verses of scripture above, I prove that I have never seen God, never known God, and have never been born of God. Yet the judgment in the literal reading of the verses above is not supported in my experience:
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (1 John 4:13)
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (1 John 4:15)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. (1 John 5:1)
I have experienced the indwelling Spirit of God. I continue to sense the Holy Spirit within. I do acknowledge Jesus as God's only-begotten Son, the Messiah of God. According to a literal reading of the three verses of scripture immediately above, God lives in me; I am born of God; I live in God; God and I love one another.
How are these incongruities to be reconciled?
Maybe it's more of a process than seems to be implied in 1 John 3-5. The issue of sin is dead in me, because of the atoning work of God in Christ Jesus. But the residue of sin continues in me, dying a slow and frequently-contested death.
- Do I sin continually? No.
- Do I act righteously continually? No.
- Is some sin finally ended in me? Occasionally.
- Is some holiness eternally planted in me? Occasionally.
- May I know, may God reveal more about sin? Yes.
- May I know, may God reveal more about righteousness? Yes.
- Has God finished with me; have I finished with God? No.
- Will God finish with me; will I finish with God? Yes, according to the grace given.
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