Born Again
9Whoever is (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.
this passage has caused a many a Christian to just turn from it and ignore it, or explain it away, but such should never be. Regretfully we all sin from time to time, but once saved we never return to the practice of sinning. While we may struggel greatly with a particular sin and the battle may seem overwhelming, the person who is born of God will never return to sinning as a practice and this is the promise that we are given.
"Is born" is a perfect participle in the Greek trext,speaking of the completed act of regeneration, namely, the impartation of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) or devine life, and the present result, the fact that the personwho has been made the recipient of divine life is now by nature, and permanently, a spiritually alive individual.
"Commit" is "poieo" in the present tense which always speaks of continuous action unless the context limits it to particular action, without the mentioning of detatils. The translation reads, "Every one who has been born out of God, with the present result that he is a born-one (of God), does not habitually do sin."
"His seed" refers to the principle of divine life in the believer. It is this principle of divine life that makes it impossible for a Christian to live habitually in sin, (habitually= 1) commonly practiced or served) for the divine nature causes (forces) the child of God to hate sin and love righteousness, and give him both the desire and the power to do God's will, as Paul says, "God is the One who is constantly putting forth energy in you, giving you both the desire and power to do His good pleasure" (Phil 3:13).
"Cannot sin" is "dunamai," (I am not able), and the present infinitive of "harmartano, "to sin." The infinitive in the present tense in Greek always speaks of continous, habitual action, such as living in a daily lifestyle,(marriage is a good example since the person is daily married as long as they are married) and never the mere fact of the action of a sin in a moment of time. So the translation therefore reads as follows. "He is not able to habitually sin." The Greek text is not teaching sinless perfection, but is dealing with the fact that God, once indwelling a person, makes it impossible for sin to ever again to be that which the "born one" is subject to in the form of daily practicing. There may be great struggles and temptations, but the "born one" will always never return to a sinfull lifestyle because he is kept by God.
The passage would be translated as follows;
Everyone who has been born out of God, with the present result that he is a born-one (of God), does not habitually do sin, because his seed remains in him. And he is not able to habitually sin, because out of God he has been born with the present result that he is a born-one (of God).
While we all battle our particular temptations on a daily bases, but we who are saved will never again return to the life we once had and live again theirin to practice sin because of God's seed that abides in us. This is God's promose to the believer and the evidence that we are His children. In verse 10 we see the contrast and the evidence of the devils children. As can be seen there is a clear distinction so that there is no confussion as to the new birth in the person.
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