1 John 3:5 And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. I. Consider, first, FOR WHAT END HE WAS MANIFESTED. It was to "take away our sins." John has just described sin as "the transgression of the law" (ver. 4). He has fastened upon this as constituting the essence of sin. He is of the same mind with Paul (Romans 8:7). His, like Paul, knows that as our sins are against the law, so the law is against our sins. In the grasp and under the power of the law, as condemned criminals, we are fettered; and can no more get rid of our sins than a doomed felon can shake off his irons. An impotent sense of failure deadens and depresses us, while the feeling of our prostrate bondage in our sins irritates our natural enmity against God. And if we do not relapse into indifference, or take refuge in formality, or sink into sullen gloom, we are shut up to the one only effectual way of ending this miserable struggle between the law and our sinful nature — the way of free grace and sovereign mercy; the way of embracing Him whom "God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood." Then indeed "sin shall no more have dominion over us, when we are not under the law, but under grace"; when "there is now to us no condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus." All this, I think, must be held to be comprehended in the fact stated — "He was manifested to take away our sins." And it is all consistent with the object for which John reminds us of it: our purifying ourselves, as He is pure. He was manifested to take away our sins, root and branch. Their power to condemn us He takes away; and so He takes away also their power to rule over us. Nor is this all. In virtue of His being manifested to take away our sins, we receive the Holy Ghost. The obstacle which our sin, as a breach of the law, interposed to His being graciously present with us and in us is taken away. A new nature, a new heart, a new spirit, as respects the law of God and God the lawgiver, a new character as well as a new state, is the result of Christ being manifested to take away our sins. We know that, personally, practically, experimentally, and our knowledge of it is what enables as well as moves us to purify ourselves as Christ is pure. It is so all the rather because, secondly, we are to consider that He is manifested as Himself the Sinless One — "In Him is no sin." II. WITH THIS SINLESS PERSON WE ARE ONE, "abiding in Him as the Sinless One manifested to take away our sins." And that is our security against sinning — "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." This is the statement of a fact. Between abiding in Christ and sinning there is such an absolute incompatibility that whosoever sinneth is for the time not merely in the position of not abiding in Christ, but in the position of not having seen or known Him. 1. We abide in Christ by faith; by that faith, wrought in us by the Spirit, which unites us to Christ. Our abiding in Him by this faith implies oneness, real and actual oneness. When we sin, when we suffer any such thought, or feeling, or wish to find harbour in our breasts, we cease for the time to be abiding in Him. 2. We abide in Christ by His Spirit abiding in us. That is a filial spirit — the Spirit of God's Son in us crying Abba Father — the Spirit of adoption in us whereby we cry Abba Father. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.WEB: You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. |
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