That inward change St. Paul describes as dying to sin, being buried with Christ through baptism into death, a crucilixion or dj'ing with Christ, a re- surrection and living with Christ (Ro 6'-", Eph 2'""'). By this he does not mean insensibility to temptation, or cessation from struggle, but a deliverance from the impotence felt in bondage to sin, and a con- fidence of victory through Christ. Nor does he mean a process completed in man by Divine power apart from his effort ; for believers are to reckon themselves to be not only dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. IJut they are not to let sin reign in their mortal selves, nor are they to present their members unto sin (Ro 6"''^) ; and they are to mortify by the spirit the deeds of the body (8'* ; cf. Col 3=). Thus St. P.aul knows from his own personal experience a complete remedy for the universal fatal disease of sin ; and all that in his letters he presents regarding this subject is
presented that he may commend the gospel to men, as the sole, suflicient. Divine provision for the universal <l<>miiiiuit human necessity.
2. St. John's teaching.— ('!) In the Fourth Gospel sin is priuuirily represented as unhclief, the rejec- tion of ('111 ist (i" Hi'), aggravated by the ]>retension of knowlcilge (9'"). As Christ is one with God, this involves h.atred of the Kather (1.5-'). The choice reveals the real disposition (3'"'-'), and so justly incurs judgment. Sin is a slavery (8-"). Giie notable contrihution to the doctrine of sin is the denial of the invariable connexion of sin anil sullering (9^), although it is not denied (S") that often there is a connexion.
In the Fii-st Epi.itle sin is described as lawless- ness (3*, dvonia) and unrighteousness (5", aStxta) ; and, as love is the supreme commandment, hatred is especially condemned (3'-). Further, as righteous- ness is identilied with truth, sin is ccjuivalent to falsehood (2-- 4'-") ; but this is not an intelleclualist view, as truth has a moral and spiritual content ; it is the Divine realitj' revealed to men in Christ. On the one hand, Christ is Himself sinless, and was manifested to take away sins and to destroy the works of the Devil (3"- ") ; and, on the other hand, believers by abiding in Him are kept from sin (v."), because the Evil One cannot touch them (.">").
Hence arises what has been called the paradox of the Epistle. On the one hand, the reality of the sinfulness even of believers is insisted on ; to deny sinfulness is self-deception, and even charging God with falsehood (I"''"), and confession is the condi- tion of forgiveness and cleansing (v."). On the other hand, the impossibility of believers sinning is asserted ; whoever abides in Christ cannot sin (3"), the begotten of God cannot sin (v.'), because kept hy Christ and untouched by the Evil One (5"). The explanation is that e.ach of these declarations is directed against a different form of error. Of the first declaration Westcott says: 'St. John therefore considers the three false views which man is tempted to take of his position. He may deny the reality of sin (6, 7), or his responsihility for sin (8, 9), or the fact of sin in his own case (10). By doing this he makes fellowship with God, as He has been made known, impossible for himself. On the other hand, God has made provision for the realisation of fellowship between Himself and man \ni<x>iteo(»m'(TheEpi.'!tk.ir,fSt.John, lSS3,p. 17^. Regarding the second declaration, he oflers this ex- planation : 'True fellowship with Christ, Who is absolutely sinless, is necessarily inconsistent with sin ; and, yet further, the practice of sin excludes the reality of a professed knowledge of Christ ' {ib., p. 101). What the Apostle is referring to is not single acts of sin, due to human weakness, but the deliberate continuance in sin on the assumption that the relation to God is not, and cannot be, atl'ected thereby. The one class of errorists denied the actuality of sin, the other declared that even the habit of sin did not deprive the believer of the blessings of the Christian salvation.
(6) Another contribution to the doctrine may be found in the conception of a sin unto death (,5'"), for which intercession is not forbidden, and yet cannot be urged. The reference is not to any particular act, but rather to any act of such a character as to separate the soul from Christ and the salvation in Him. It may be comiiared to the sin aj^ainst the Holy Ghost (Mk S'-*) and also to the sin of apostasy (He'6'-« 10-'8).
(c) It must be noticed that in this Epistle there is a very marked em|ih.'isis on Satan as the source of man's sin. The Devil has sinned from the be- ginning, and he that sinneth is of the Devil (3"), and the whole world lieth in the Evil One (.5"' : cf. Jn 8", where the Devil is described as a murtlcrer and a liar).
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SIN
3. St. James's teaching. — (a) St. James oflers us, as does St. Paul, allliuu<{h much more briefly, a psychological account of the development of sin in the individual. Having asserted tlie blessedness of enduring temptation, he denies thattjod does or can tempt (l'-- "). Temjitation arises when a man is drawn a\vay and enticed Ijy his desire {iin.0v/ila). Tliis desire need not itself be evil, but it acquires a sinful character when indulged in opposition to the higher law of duty. This desire has sin as its oft'spring, and this sin full grown is in turn the parent of death (w."' '"). This natural analogy, with which may be compared St. Paul's figure of sowing and reaping (Gal ti"), does not, in suggesting a necessary .sequence of desire, sin, and death, ex- elude either man's free will in consenting to the desire or God's free will in decreeing death as the penalty of sin. Nor does the passage teach that every sin must issue in death. The sin must reach its full development before death is its re- sult. We can also here compare 1 Jn 5'", 'a sin unto death.' As St. James teaches the possibility of conversion (5"- '") and enjoins the confession of sin and mutual intercession for forgiveness (v."), this development from sin unto death may be arrested by Divine grace. The sequence is a possibility, not a necessity.