1 John, i. 7–10.
From that passage we learn that those who are walking in the light, as He is in the light,—
(1) Are continuously being cleansed from sin (ver. 7).
(2) ‘Have sin’ (ver. 8), ‘and have sinned’ (ver. 10).
(3) ‘Have sin to confess, for which they need forgiveness’ (ver. 9).
2. That original sin will ever in this present life be either ‘destroyed,’ ‘dead,’ or ‘rendered inert.’
Rom. vi. 12.
The words, ‘Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,’ are addressed to those who are to ‘reckon themselves dead unto sin and alive unto God.’ It is clear, therefore, that sin was still alive in them, or else it would have been quite needless to exhort them not to let it reign, and not to obey its lusts.
Compare also Rom. viii. 13; Col. iii. 5.
3. That sin is not sin till we discern it. So that ‘to-morrow I may discern evil in things in which to-day I am living without condemnation.’ Sin is the transgression of the law, and what will be wrong to-morrow is wrong to-day, whatever we may think of it. If the conscience is so deadened, or seared, or perverted, that it does not perceive sin, that deadness of conscience does not take away the sinfulness of sin, but only adds the sin of not feeling sin to the sin of committing it. The insensibility of a deadened conscience amongst those who have received the Gospel must never be confounded with the ignorance of those who never heard it