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1 John: Sinless and Sin Less, Part 3: Not Measuring Up

NOT MEASURING UP

John Phillips explains sin as coming short of the divine standard. He gives this illustration:

Two men went to the recruiting office in London to join the guards regiment. The standard height for a guardsman was a minimum of six feet. One man was taller than the other, but when they were measured officially both were disqualified. The shorter of the two measured only five feet seven inches and was far too short; his companion measured five feet eleven and a half inches and, stretch to his utmost, as he did, he could not make it any more. Nor did his pleas avail. It mattered nothing that his father was a guardsman, that he promised to be a good soldier, that he had already memorized the drills and knew the army regulations by heart. He was short of the standard.

          Yes, he is taller than his friend (just like some people may seem holier than the rest of us) but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that he is taller, he still isn’t tall enough and there is nothing he can do about that. There is nothing he can do to grow any bigger. Thus he failed to obtain his goal. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, employer or employee, a missionary, a relatively good person, or what have you… for we have all sinned and thus fall short (Romans 3:23). 

This is important. The word John uses in 1 John here is that same hamartanō when he says that “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” No matter what we do, we have all fallen short[iii] but as Chapter 3 makes clear that does not give us a right to just keep sinning and doing whatever we want because “No one who lives in him [Christ] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” We cannot do anything to measure up but, in Christ, we certainly do have the freedom to be delivered from our sins. Jesus wants us to be free from the power of sin. As Christ makes us sinless we can sin less.
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