Objection 29

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

1 John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin... he cannot sin.

Set beside 1 John 1:8 ("If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves") from the same pen, the verse cannot teach sinless attainment without making John contradict himself in his own epistle. The Greek tense is continuous: the born-of-God does not practice sin as a settled course, "for his seed remaineth in him", the new nature neither sins nor consents to sin. The regenerate man is two men, as Paul confesses at length in Romans 7: "it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (7:17). The verse describes the incorruptible seed, not the total person, and thereby comforts the very saints whom perfectionism drives to despair.