GO AND SIN NO MORE

John 8:3-11

3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,

4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses, in our law, commands us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her....

This is a rich passage with more than one applicable lesson, but I would like to focus on “Go and sin no more.” Oh, this is a tough one for, I dare say, a majority of Christians (these days). Everyone I have encountered, up to this point, says, “We cannot go and sin no more. We will sin in this body.” And it’s easy to determine why… To justify our sinning! They support that hypothesis with 1 John 1:8… “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

…and with 1 John 1:10… “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Both of those verses are true enough. But so is 1 John 3:9… “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.” How do we reconcile (all) the verses?

Two things I should like to point out…. he who IS without sin… and sin no more.

NO ONE is without sin. Everyone is a sinner…period. But we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

“for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” Rom. 3:23.

It is a condition… our nature in the flesh; (that’s another whole study…life in the flesh and life in the Spirit, which would help this study).

So… there is sin in us. It is our nature. It is inherent; it is our character; it is our kind; it is our ilk; it is our soul. From the instant of conception, we are pro-created as our parents – sinners… we are born slaves to sin. We very easily grow into sinning individually from a very young age. If I could go all day without “sinning” I would still BE a sinner. No human that was born of man and woman was ever born without sin – not even Mary. Do I have to say it? Jesus was without sin because God planted the Holy Seed.

Sin corrupted our soul… corrupted meaning: ruined, spoiled, infected, altered (from holy to unholy) …and unholy cannot have fellowship with Holy. As it is our nature, we ourselves reject God. Even though our conscience may, at times, want to be “better” we cannot of our own will, make ourselves acceptable to God. There is nothing we can do and there is nothing a “priest” can do.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold as a slave to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:14-25

So we are a ruined race and we cannot change ourselves. Therefore, WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
"Ye must be born again" John 3:7

Being born again is a spiritual act of God in Christ which renders us a holy, cleansed soul in a sinful man. But the power of God keeps us holy… NOT sinless, but HOLY. And yet, God does not want us to sin… He has freed us from the bondage of sin… He has given us a NEW nature in Christ… AND He has given us His Holy Spirit to in-dwell us; to KEEP us. God the Father does it all. WE have to give ourselves to Him… we have to ABIDE in him. So abide, and SIN NO MORE! God demands it, and He has provided the means. NO EXCUSE.

[Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very diligent to take heed that we really are "born again," for there are many who fancy they are, who are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian; and that being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there be something more added to it - the being "born again," is a matter so mysterious, that human words cannot describe it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt: known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the entire man. It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other. If you have then, been "born again," your acknowledgment will be, "O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, Thou art my spiritual Parent; unless Thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses and sins.' My heavenly life is wholly derived from Thee, to Thee I ascribe it. 'My life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me." May the Lord enable us to be well assured on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.] 

~ C.H. Spurgeon

And so we come back to…

“Go and sin no more.”

“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.”

“I have hidden your words in my heart that I shall not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” Eph. 4:26

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.” 1 John 2:1

“Whoever abides in Him does not sin.” 1 John 3:6

“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin” 1 John 5:18

I can go on. Maybe YOU should go on and study it out further?

Scofield says in his notes on Romans 3:23:

[The literal meanings of the Heb. (and Greek - ajlektorofwa sin," "sinner," etc.), disclose the true nature of sin in its manifold manifestations. Sin is…

transgression, an overstepping of the law, the divine boundary between good and evil; Psalms 51:1; Luke 15:29,

iniquity, an act inherently wrong, whether expressly forbidden or not;

error, an act or condition of ignorant or imprudent deviation from a code of behavior;

a departure from right; Psalms 51:9; Romans 3:23,

missing the mark, a failure to meet the divine standard;

trespass, the intrusion of self-will into the sphere of divine authority Ephesians 2:1,

lawlessness, or spiritual anarchy; 1 Timothy 1:9,

unbelief, or an insult to the divine veracity; John 16:9.

Sin originated with Satan; Isaiah 14:12-14, entered the world through Adam; Romans 5:12, was, and is, universal, Christ alone excepted; Romans 3:23; 1 Peter 2:22, incurs the penalties of spiritual and physical death; Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Ezekiel 18:4; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23, and has no remedy but in the sacrificial death of Christ; Hebrews 9:26; Acts 4:12,availed of by faith; Acts 13:38 Acts 13:39.

Sin may be summarized as threefold:

an act, the violation of, or want of obedience to the revealed will of God;

a state, absence of righteousness;

a nature, enmity toward God.] ~Scofield Reference Notes. 1917 Edition

an ACT! a STATE! a NATURE!
God has given us a NEW nature, has He not? Therefore, SIN NO MORE!

God has declared us to be RIGHTEOUS in Christ, therefore we are NOT in a state of unrighteousness, has He not? Therefore, SIN NO MORE!

He DEMANDS that we stop ACTING like sinners! Therefore, SIN NO MORE!