"In Him Is No Sin"
I John 3:5
When John says, "In him is no
sin," he is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ in his mediatorial office
as the Head and Representative of his elect. John is telling us, not only that
Christ has no sin personally, but that he has no sin mystically. That is to
say, there is no sin in his mystical body, the church, because he was
manifested to take away our sins. In ourselves we are sinners. We are full of
sin. We are nothing but sin. Sin so thoroughly pollutes us that everything we
do, even our best thoughts and deeds, are sin. But in Christ, before God, in
the sight of God, the believer has no sin. Imagine that! The Lord Jesus Christ
was manifested to take away our sins. And he has done it. "In him is no sin!"
The all-seeing eye of God sees no sin in the believer because in Christ the
believer has no sin. "In him is no sin!"
In the covenant of grace the Lord God
promised that he would forgive all our sins (Jer. 31:33-34; Heb.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, by his atoning
sacrifice, has put away all the sins of God's elect forever (Rom. 8:3; Col.
2:14; Heb.
Now, believing on Christ, as our only,
all-sufficient Substitute and Savior, we are freed from sin. Being united to
Christ by a living faith, we are in him. "And in him is no sin." In
him we have no sin (
And God Almighty, who once imputed our
sins to Christ and punished him in our place to the full extent of his holy law
and the full satisfaction of his justice, will never impute sin to us again (
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we
perfectly fulfill the law of God by faith, because Christ has fulfilled it for
us (Rom.
Don Fortner