Ever thought about when you sin? Find a moment in your life when you sinned. Got one? Now think about your connection to Jesus. When you sinned, your connection with Jesus was broken; you were not abiding in him. Every time we sin, we chose to break connection with Jesus. But when we refrain from sinning, it is because we remain in connection with Jesus.
There is hope. Abiding in Jesus keeps us from sinning, and even when we do sin, we have one, Jesus, who stands in our defense and reconciles us to God. Consider the following verses:
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
But you know that he [Jesus] appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
- 1 John 3:4-6
Scripture is clear that when we sin, we do not live in accordance with how God has designed us to live. We miss that mark of what God intended and sin puts a wedge between us and God. And that is why Jesus appeared, to take away our sin. This is the great hope. In Jesus, we have one who did what we could never do - that is, take away sin. Only because Jesus had no sin, could he take away sin. If Jesus had even one sin, he could not have accomplished this great work. Because all humanity has sinned and fallen short of God's standards (Romans 3:23), God needed a sinless offering to make right what humanity had fractured (1 Peter 1:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21). Only the death of the sinless God-man, Jesus, could make restitution.
"No one who lives [abides] in him keeps on sinning." When we abide or live in unbroken fellowship with Jesus, we are kept from sinning. So what is the abiding? I believe abiding has two aspects to it - a withdrawing to be alone with Jesus and a continued unbroken (at least that is our aim) fellowship with Jesus as we live our our daily life. Withdrawing to abide in Jesus is the foundation for remaining in him throughout your day. And you cannot have one without the other. When we withdraw to be alone with Jesus, we are following Jesus' pattern in Luke 5:16 by which Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. The text implies that this became a habit, something done on a consistent basis. So Jesus withdrew to be alone with the Father for the withdrawing abiding. Then as Jesus lived his daily life, he only spoke what the Father spoke and only did what the Father did (John 5:16, 8:28). Jesus continued in unbroken fellowship with the Father as he lived his daily life so much so that he only spoke what the Father directed him to speak and only did what the Father directed him to do. Similarly, when we withdraw to be alone with Jesus in prayer, Scripture, etc., we are practicing the withdrawing abiding. And when we live in constant fellowship with Jesus throughout the day, we are practicing the daily abiding that Jesus lived. The abiding keeps us from sinning and requires human effort in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
You may ask, what is the big deal about sinning if Jesus takes away my sin? Good question. Sin keeps us from seeing and knowing Jesus (v.6). When we sin, it hinders us from seeing Jesus in our lives and knowing Jesus more fully in general. It is like when you are driving a car and get mud on the windshield which is not easily removed by the windshield wipers; your vision of the road is impaired. Likewise, when we sin it is like getting mud on our eyes and heart. It becomes more difficult to see and know Jesus.
Sin impacts our relationship with God. So even though Jesus takes away our sins in the big picture when we surrender our lives to him and believe in him, sin still causes a block in our relationship with God. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I had held sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened." Sin causes our fellowship with God to be hindered so much so that our prayer lives can be negatively effected. Also, in Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus talks about how if we do not forgive those who sin against us, God will not forgive us our sins. What this means is that if we hold unforgiveness (which is sin) in our hearts, then it will put a wedge in our relationship with God.
The remedy to the problem of sin? Abiding in Jesus keeps us from sinning. When we remain in connection with Jesus, we are kept from sinning. But as we break connection with Jesus, we are more likely to sin. So as we remain in Jesus, we will naturally lean away from sinning. And this is important because sin keeps us from seeing and knowing Jesus. So as we keep our lives free from sin as much as possible and ask God to forgive us when we do happen to sin (1 John 1:9), our relationship with Jesus has a greater ability to deepen and grow. Abiding in Jesus keeps us from sinning and allows us to see and know Jesus more fully.
Jesus, would you give us the grace we need to abide in you so that will not sin. And when we do sin, let us remember we have One who stands in our defense. Let us reconcile with you and others through forgiveness and appropriate reconciliation. May our desire be to see and know you more fully through the abiding. Amen.
Additional Resources on the Abiding:
Practicing His Presence, Brother Lawrence, & Frank Laubach
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