Subject: Sinning and Sanctification - 1 John 1-3

1 John 3:9
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

Subject:  Sinning and Sanctification

The verse written by John just before this says the following:

1 John 3:8
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came to destroy the devil, who is the father of sin and the instigator of sin in our lives.  The devil stirs up the sin nature inside of us with temptations from the world.  The sin nature needs no stirring up, but the devil adds to the already hot flames.   They world's sinful systems also add to this bed of hot embers.  Our sin nature, the devil and the world WILL BE successful in getting us to sin ... even getting believers to sin.   However, this is where our original verse comes into play.  We WILL sin, but we WILL NOT keep on sinning, if we are truly believers of Christ.  Jesus came to break the power of sin and the cycle of sin in our lives.  IF we are truly believers we cannot "keep on sinning because we have been born of God."  It does not say we WON'T sin, but that we won't keep on sinning.   This is the glorious truth of our sanctification.  God is in the process of changing us from one degree of glory to the other (2 Corinthians 3:18).   In that changing we will sin, but we will not be practicing sin, which is the point of John's teaching in this chapter.  Those who are born of God are not free of sinning but they won't practice sinning.   When a believer sins they should have a sense of guilt and a sense of repentance.  They will sin again, even after confessing, but those not born of God don't confess, repent or recoil from sin.  If you are born of God your attitude toward you sin should tell you something about your sanctification process.  Those born of God don't continually practice sin, but will confess it and allow the power and work of Christ to purify them.