If you plant a fruit tree, let’s say an orange tree, you will expect oranges to grow. An orange tree will not produce pears. It is not part of the orange tree’s nature to produce a different fruit. This is a good way to imagine how the natural is a resemblance of the Spiritual. Just as a physical seed cannot produce something outside its genetic code, so God’s seed cannot produce something opposing to His nature. John shares a powerful and profound message that can help us to better understand our nature in Christ and to identify and be aware of the work of the Devil.
8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 1 John 3: 8-10
The child of the Devil cannot produce divine fruit: “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). This is saying, satanic roots will produce satanic fruit. Someone who is doing the works of the Devil must have a nature within him like the Devil’s.
The sinful nature we have today is one of the results of the fall of Adam. Adam was not created sinful, but his choice to defy the Lord and sin somehow twisted his make-up, and this twisted nature has been passed down to the human race through his seed (Psalm 51:5). It is therefore logical to conclude that an unbeliever cannot stop from producing the works of the Devil—it is in the unbelievers nature.
Thankfully and blessedly, a child of God cannot remain in sin. John tell us in verse 9, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” You might ask yourself at this point: “Wait, I still sin, does this mean that I am not a child of God?” If you read Paul’s parallel statements in Romans 7:14-25, the evil which I do, although is done my me, it is from my sinful nature. Therefore, the divine good I do is not done by me, it is done by my Spiritual, divine nature. Both of these natures dwell in the child of God simultaneously.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:14-25
However, a new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) knows that when he knowingly sins, he is not acting in accordance with the change that took place when he was born-again. As he has the mind of Christ, he acts in harmony with his new identity in Christ. We tend to act in accordance with how we see ourselves, that is why it is fundamental to understand who we are in Christ.
As children of God, we make visible, or demonstrate (manifest), who we really are when we produce divine righteousness. On the contrary, when we sin we are hiding God’s glory. So, remember who you are. You were created for God’s glory, so manifest God everywhere you go. Wherever you are, manifest who you really are as a child of God. Manifest God’s glory.
Believe in Christ! Receive Christ! Become a Child of God!
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