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October 26
THE DIVINE SEED
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him.
1 John 3:9
The power of sin is not immediately destroyed in us. God has chosen to do this work gradually. This word “seed” is rather significant. Does that not simply mean God’s method and plan in every realm? In the realm of nature you sow the seed, but it may be weeks and months and perhaps years before you get the full bloom. Why does God do it like that? My answer is, I do not know, but that is God’s method; it is His way, and it seems to me that is what we are taught in the Scriptures. We are taught about being “babes in Christ,” we are taught about growing and developing, we are taught about “growing in grace.” John has already dealt with that when he said, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
It is a process, a development, and surely if we do not interpret a section like this in that way, then it means that we are denying what he has already told us in the first chapter: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (verse 8).
John’s object in writing is “that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (2:1). But why is that if the Christian is immediately delivered and made perfect? This is a great mystery. It is not for us to understand, but we must face the facts. We must realize that experience, the experience of the greatest saints, denies the teaching of sinless perfection, and we see that it is not in accordance with the teaching of Scripture.
John exhorts us to strive to purify and cleanse ourselves and to interpret Scripture in our daily lives. We do not just have to submit and resign ourselves in order to be made perfect; we are to understand the Scriptures and their doctrine. We are to see their implication and to implement them in our daily lives.
A Thought to Ponder
Sinless perfection is not in accordance with the teaching of Scripture.
From Children of God, pp. 79-80.
Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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