The Gospel in Ten Words (19 page)

So what is John talking about when he says no one who lives in him
keeps on sinning? There are two ways to read this. Someone schooled in the
sticks and carrots of the old covenant will interpret these words as a threat.
“If you want to remain in him
and stay saved
, you had better stop
sinning.” This terrifying demand will usually be followed by a religious rant
that will leave you feeling anything but new: “Don’t be deceived. God is holy
and intolerant of sin. Slip up once and you’re outta here!”

What an awful distortion of God’s
unconditional love. Can you imagine being married to someone who threatened to
kick you out every time you made a mistake? You would be an emotional wreck.
You would walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting your hyper-sensitive and
ungracious partner.

Come to think of it, this is
exactly how many Christians live. Since they are not aware of the grace that
both saves and keeps them, they are filled with performance anxiety. They are
ever fearful of enraging a temperamental God.

Look to the cross! If God loved
you enough to die for you when you were a sinner, he surely loves you now. He
didn’t stop loving you after you got saved and he will never kick you out. Your
union with the Lord is not conditional on your behavior. In case we had
forgotten this, John gives us a timely reminder:

Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1
John 4:15, NKJV)

John says he
abides
, he
dwells
, he
stays
. The
moment you acknowledged Jesus as Lord
—
literally, the saving Son of God
—
he moved
into your life and he will never leave. How do we know? How can we be sure he
will stay given there are so many grim preachers making threats? Because he
promised:

For he [God] Himself
has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without
support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless
nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not! (Hebrews
13:5b, AMP)

John’s remarks about not sinning should not be read as a threat
but a promise. He is describing the new reality of the life we have in Christ.
Jesus didn’t sin and
he never will. If you let him live his life through you, then without any
conscious effort on your part you’re going to start talking and walking just
like sinless Jesus. It’s inevitable.
Live with someone long enough and
you begin to resemble that person in manner and thought.

I
am not saying your behavior will attain a level of sinless perfection this side
of eternity. I am saying that living in fellowship with the sinless Son
produces desires in us that are informed by his righteous nature. You are
Sonful not sinful.

This is how John explains it:

No one who is
born of God
will continue to sin, because
God’s
seed remains
in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been
born
of God
. (1 John 3:9)

This is not about your performance but your
pedigree. Look at the verse again. Three times John refers to your parentage;
born
of God, God’s seed, born of God
.

John is trying to tell us that while Adam
breeds sinners, God does not. This point comes out clearly in the Message
Bible:

People conceived and
brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s
seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of
the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. (1 John 3:9, The Message)

Origin
determines destination. In your old life
you followed in the faithless footsteps of
your father Adam. You walked after the desires of the flesh because they were
the only desires you had. But you have been taken out of Adam and placed into
Christ. You have become a partaker of his divine nature. The evidence of this
is the new desires and new ambitions you now have. As far as sinning goes, you
are just not that interested anymore. Sure, you still have the capacity to sin.
But you don’t enjoy it like you used to. Sinning makes you miserable because
you know who your Father is, and when you know who your Father is (not a
sinner), then you begin to know who you are (not a sinner).

In the next verse John adds, “This is how we know who the children
of God are” (1 John 3:10).
Who are the children of God? It is those who practice
righteousness, not because they have to, but because they carry the righteous
DNA of their righteous Father. You don’t practice righteousness to become
righteous but because you are righteous. You are a righteous branch on a
righteous vine doing what comes naturally.

With our new identity
securely grounded in our union with Christ, we can begin to understand why the
Bible draws big fat lines between who we are and who we used to be:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. (1 Corinthians 6:9
–
10
)

This
sounds like God hates slanderers and swindlers. He doesn’t. He loves slanderers
and swindlers! When Jesus walked the earth, he spent time with slanderers and
swindlers.
[64]
However, slanderers and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Indeed,
they cannot. Why not? Because slanderers and swindlers who come to Jesus don’t
remain slanderers and swindlers. They become new. A good thing that is too,
otherwise the kingdom of heaven would be empty.

But
the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral,
those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be
in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
(Revelation 21:8)

God
has high standards—no liars admitted. And indeed, there are no liars in the
kingdom, only former liars who have been made new. Neither are there any
fornicators in the kingdom, only former fornicators who have been made new. (Do
you see it yet?) This is why the good news is good. The good news is the happy
announcement that God is in the business of turning old, damaged people into
new, holy people. He turns slanderers and swindlers into saints and sons.

If
this is too much to swallow in one go, take a detour to the Bible’s own Hall of
Fame in Hebrews 11. Here you will find a list of Old Testament men and women
who were all commended for their faith. These guys were so impressive their
names got recorded in
both
testaments. Who are these heroes, these
figures of renown? Well there’s Noah (a one-time drunk), Abraham (he slept with
the maid), and Jacob (a swindler if ever there was one). There is also a
murderer (Moses), a prostitute (Rahab), and a double-dealing king (David).

David,
as you know, got another man’s wife pregnant and then had that man killed to cover
up his crime. So what does that make David? In the eyes of the law he is
condemned as an adulterer and a murderer. Such a man will not inherit the
kingdom of God; the Bible says so. And yet I am certain we will meet David in
eternity. How do I know? Because David trusted in the One who makes all things
new. In God’s eyes, David is not a sinner but a son and a co-heir with Christ.
So am I. So are you.

There is a world of
difference between a sinner who sins and a saint who sins. Finding sins on a
sinner is like finding lemons on a lemon tree. It’s no big surprise. But a
saint who sins is like a rich man stealing coins from parking meters. It’s not
something you expect to see. At least that’s the theory. In practice sinning
saints are fairly common. But the reason some saints continue to act like old sinners
is not because there is something defective about the new life they have been
given. It is because they have not yet learned to walk in the newness of their
new life. They’ve got the car but they haven’t learned how to drive.

Therefore
we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life. (Romans 6:4, NKJV)

When
you received the life of Christ and were made new, the change was instantaneous.
To use an old metaphor, it’s like you were born again. And like a newborn you
have to learn how to walk. No one comes walking out of the womb on brand-new
legs.

Learning
to walk takes time. It’s not easy at first and you may stumble and fall. When
that happens an old covenant preacher will point to your failings and say,
“There, you see? Your falls prove you are still an old sinner by nature.
Nothing’s changed. You had better ask God to crucify you afresh. Life’s a
struggle. Next time try harder.” Heed this advice and the prophecy will become
self-fulfilling. Your life will indeed be a struggle because you are trying to
walk in your own strength. You will wear yourself out going nowhere fast and
you will end up a miserable advertisement for Jesus.

But
listen to the new covenant preacher and you will hear a completely different
message. “Christ is your life. You can do all things through him who
strengthens you. Now fix your eyes on him and walk, baby walk!”

You
may say, “But what about all these sins I’m still dealing with?” And the new
covenant preacher will remind you of Jesus our advocate, who defends us, and
Jesus our high priest, who deals gently with those going astray.
[65]
Then, after giving you an assurance of your secure position in Christ, the new
covenant preacher will encourage you to, “Set your mind on things above, not on
earthly things. Put off the old self (it’s dead) and put on the new (it’s who
you are).”

I’m paraphrasing the New Testament here because I
want you to see that
the epistles are full of encouraging exhortations for saints who are learning
how to walk. “Gird up the loins of your mind.” “Walk in the light.” “Walk as
Jesus did.”
[66]
These exhortations should not be read as commands to be obeyed as though God
was judging our walking performance. What kind of Father faults his children
for stumbling when they are learning to walk? Rather, they should be received
as Daddy’s words of loving encouragement as we take our first steps into the
new life he has given us. God is for you! He and that great cloud of witnesses
are cheering you on!

Of course
there is much more to this new life than “not sinning,” just as there is more
to marriage than “not being single.” We are not defined by who
we used to be
but by
who Jesus is
. “As he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Boom! So much for the idea that there are levels to Christianity and that you
have to work your way up to Christ-likeness. His supernatural life is not
something you achieve; it’s something you receive.

Christianity is Christ; nothing more, nothing less. We need to
define life through the unfiltered lens of Jesus. He is not our role model;
he
is our life
. He is in you and he wants out. He has a hand to play and,
guess what, it’s your hand.

Jesus said anyone who believes in him would do the works he did
and greater works besides (John 14:12). This comment usually sparks an
incredulous response. “Have you seen the sorts of things Jesus did? And we’re
supposed to top that?! I just can’t see that happening.” Either Jesus was
fibbing or we don’t believe what he says about us. I’m not saying we
consciously reject the truth. It’s just that we haven’t learned to walk in it.
So learn. Ask God to give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you
may know him better, and so that you may begin to understand every good thing
that is in you in Christ Jesus.
[67]

Learning
to walk in the newness of life can be scary but the Holy Spirit is a wonderful
teacher. He knows exactly how to coach us and he is so gentle. He never scolds
us but patiently encourages us to be the new people we already are. As we learn
to trust him, we discover that walking in the newness of life is quite simply
the most thrilling occupation there is.

The cross is good but
the resurrection’s better. The reason we died with him was so that we might
live with him—not fifty years hence, not in the hereafter, but here and now.
Eternal life is the sheer adventure of knowing and experiencing God today. It
is dancing on the grave of our self-centeredness and enjoying the abundant life
of the Spirit. It is saying goodbye to sin and hello to righteousness. It is
revealing his supernatural life to those we live, work, and play with. It’s a
whole new way of life for a whole new kind of people.

The
gospel is not a half-baked hope that you can extend your old, broken life
indefinitely. The gospel is the joyful announcement that in Christ the old has
gone and the new has come.