What Does 1 John 3:9 Mean? The Seed That Cannot Sin
In this book's reading, 1 John 3:9 describes your born-again spirit. It was born of God's incorruptible seed, it is righteous, and it cannot sin, which means sin is no longer inevitable for a believer. The verse is not a call to strive for perfection; holiness comes from being with God while your soul and body are renewed.
What does 1 John 3:9 actually say?
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."1 John 3:9 (KJV)
John writes that whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, that his seed remaineth in him, and that he cannot sin because he is born of God. Those are strong words, and I do not think we should soften them before we have understood what they point to. In Chapter 13 I take the verse as the reason sin is not inevitable for a believer.
I should say plainly that Christians have read this verse in more than one way, and I am not here to argue with anyone. I am telling you what this book teaches, and the rest of this page lays out exactly what that is, so that you can weigh it against the Scriptures yourself.
What is the seed that remaineth in him?
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."1 Peter 1:23 (KJV)
In Chapter 9 I connect the seed in John's verse to what Peter says we were born from, which is incorruptible seed, by the word of God. That seed is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word that says Jesus died and rose again and that a person can be freed from sin and made alive to God. When a person receives that Word in the heart, something more than information enters them, because seed enters them.
That seed produced your born-again spirit, which is not a decoration added to your old life but a brand-new life. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a seed, small in appearance but not small in nature, and the seed remains in you because it is incorruptible. What is still growing is its expression, and the expression grows out of something that is already whole.
Who exactly cannot sin?
The book teaches that it is your born-again spirit that cannot sin. In Chapter 13 I say that my born-again spirit does not have the capacity to sin, because it is righteous and is the same spirit of Christ that Jesus had. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life so that He could give you the very spirit that lived that life.
Paul puts the same truth as a promise in Galatians 5:16, where he says to walk in the spirit and that ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. He does not say that you will fulfil it less often or that you will fight it more successfully, because a person walking by their born-again spirit is walking by a nature that does not sin.
I keep a careful distinction here between your spirit and your flesh. Your flesh is where sin is actually carried out, and Chapter 5 explains that it was trained by the old nature and still remembers what it learned. So I am not saying that every part of you has already stopped struggling, but that the real you, the spirit, cannot sin, and that if all you did from this day forward was listen to and obey your spirit, you would never sin again.
Does 1 John 3:9 mean I will never struggle with sin?
No, and I want to state this exactly. The book teaches that sin is no longer inevitable for the born-again believer, which is a different claim from saying that you will never be tempted or never fall. If you have not been born again, sin is inevitable because you have a dead spirit and a sin nature, but if you have been born again, it is not.
There will be moments when you fall short, especially while your flesh is still being retrained, and the book says that when that happens you are not a sinner again but someone righteous who made a mistake. John himself wrote in 1 John 2:1 that he wrote so that you sin not, and that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. For the daily side of this, see habitual sin.
I also ask why the Old Testament saints fell so often, and my answer is that they did not have your nature. They loved God, but they did not have a born-again spirit, so there was always something in their nature that pulled against Him, and you are not in their position.
Am I supposed to strive for perfection?
"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."Hebrews 10:14 (KJV)
No, and I say it directly in Chapter 13 after laying all of this out that I am not telling you to strive to live a perfect life, because that would send you right back into the striving of Chapter 7. My goal is to be like Jesus, and He did live a perfect life.
To say that I cannot be perfect would be to say that the blood of Jesus was not enough to make me fully righteous, and it was enough. Notice both halves of Hebrews 10:14, because you have been perfected forever in your spirit, and you are among them that are sanctified, which is the work God is still finishing in your soul and your body.
The way to become like Him is not striving at all but being with Him, in tongues, in fasting, in worship, and in the Word. As you do, your flesh is starved of its desires and your soul learns to live through the spirit. Holiness is not the reward for trying harder, but the fruit of a spirit that is being built up and a flesh that is being starved, in the presence of a God who teaches you every day.
How does 1 John 3:9 fit with Romans 7?
Many believers set John's words beside Romans 7, where Paul says that what he hates, that he does, and they wonder how both can describe a Christian. The book's answer is that Romans 7 is not describing the new man at all, but the illustration of a man with a dead spirit trying to keep the law, which I lay out in what Romans 7 means.
Both passages point back to the same thing in this book, that the old man is dead and that the new man was born of incorruptible seed. John tells you what your spirit is, and the chapters around it show you how to live from it.
From the book
This page is drawn from New Creation, Old Habits by Benjamin Riggins. Read more in:
- Chapter 5: The Habits Outlived the Man
- Chapter 9: The Incorruptible Seed
- Chapter 13: You Don't Have to Fall
Questions people ask
Does 1 John 3:9 mean a Christian can never sin?
In this book's reading, it means the born-again spirit cannot sin and that sin is no longer inevitable for a believer. It does not say you will never be tempted or never fall, and John himself writes in 1 John 2:1 for the believer who does sin.
What does "his seed remaineth in him" mean?
The seed is the incorruptible seed of the Word of God that produced your born-again spirit (1 Peter 1:23). It remains in you because it is incorruptible, and the life it produced is a life that cannot sin.
Does this verse mean I have to be perfect?
No, and I say plainly in Chapter 13 that I am not telling you to strive to live a perfect life, because that sends you back into striving. My goal is to be like Jesus by being with Him, and holiness is the fruit of that, not the reward for trying harder.
If my spirit cannot sin, why do I still sin?
Because sin is carried out in the flesh, and your flesh was trained for years by the old nature. The old man is dead, but the habits outlived him, and the flesh is retrained by starving the old patterns and building up your spirit.
Is the old man still alive in me?
No, because Paul says that our old man is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), and the book teaches that feeling an old habit pull on you means your flesh remembers, not that the old man has come back to life.