The Sinlessness of the Second Birth

“Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin.”

I John iii. 9.

IS not this a startling statement — a most discouraging statement? Is there any one of us that has not something bad in him? Is that bad thing a sign that I am not born again? St. John does not say so. What he says is that the new life which is born will not be held responsible for the bad thing. It is not that the old impurity is not there, but that it is no longer imputed. When the sun of a new day rises, it rises amid the clouds of the old day. It does not all at once become glorious. It dawns amid the shadows gathered and left behind by yester eve; with these shadows, for a time, it walks side by side. Yet we do not impute these shadows to the new day; we impute them to the past night. The rising sun is guiltless of them. Its new birth is unspotted by them. It has become heir to the corruptions of a previous day; but the previous day bears all the reproach, and the new liht goes free. So is it with the new light in my soul. It is born amid the clouds of yesterday. It dawns amid the shadows of the past — the vices of the past. It does not wait for the death of old habits; it comes before they die. None the less do we hold it sinless, guiltless. The old habits which strew its path are no part of its attire. They belong to the garments which the vanished night has left behind, and they dim not our sense of the Divine beauty which is rising.

My Father, I thank Thee for the revelation that there may be a sinless Christ within me where the memorials of sin yet remain! Often have I been distressed at the clouds after conversion. There have come to me moments of rapt vision — moments when heaven was near, and earth seemed far away. Yet by and by they have passed, and I have found myself repeating the deeds of yesterday, and I have cried with exceeding bitterness “The sinless vision was a delusion; I have not been born again!” At such times, O Lord, let me hear this message of Thine that the clouds of yesterday are not imputed to the rising sun! Let me hear the new life within me saying, ‘’ These sins are not mine! ‘’ Let me hear the new man within me singing, “It is not / who have done it; it is an heirloom of yesterday!” Teach me that, though my Christ is born in the manger, the manger is not a part of my Christ! Teach me that, though He is born with the beasts of the stall. He lives by another life than theirs! Teach me that, though He cometh with clouds, the clouds belong to my yester eve — not to the light of His morning! Teach me that the new life is sinless, though it wears the garments of the old! Let me not sink before the sight of shadows after dawn! Let me not quail before the view of grey amid the gold! Let me not deem my Christ still dead because the stone is not rolled away! Let me remember that His rising precedes the opening of the grave! So shall I not despair though evil lingers; so, even amid corruption, shall I cherish hope that already in my soul there maybe a life without sin.