INTRODUCTION
In the first letter of John, there are 16 occurrences of the noun hamartia (“sin”), and 10 occurrences of the verb hamartanō (“to sin”). The definition of hamartanō is “to miss the mark; to be in error; to sin” (Mounce) and “to act contrary to the will and law of God” (Louw and Nida). Some of the passages including the noun “sin” or the verb “to sin” seem to contradict each other, and I will make an analysis of these passages.
AN ANALYSIS OF JOHN’S USE OF THE WORD “SIN”
In order to understand the text of the Bible we need:
- To understand the grammar and syntax of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
- To understand the basic Christian doctrines.
- To analyze the context of the saying we are considering.
All three points are important for our understanding of what John says about sin. I start with the following texts that seemingly contradict each other:
1:10: If we make the statement: “We have not sinned (hamartanō),” we are making him a liar.
2:1: And yet, if anyone does commit a sin (hamartanō), we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one.
3:9: Everyone who has been born from God does not carry on (poieō) sin (hamartia), because His [reproductive] seed remains in such one, and he cannot (dynamai) practice sin (hamartanō)
From a linguistic point of view, the words of 3:9 contradict the words of 1:10 and 2:1.
THE TRANSLATION OF CLAUSES DEALING WITH SIN
The verbs in the Greek language express some nuances that are not found in the English language. The translators of the original NWT, and the slightly revised NWT84 did their utmost to render the nuances of the verbs into their English translation. The translators of the NWT13 did not follow the same principles as the original translators, and a great number of nuances are not conveyed into English in this version.
I will now show how the Greek verbs have different temporal references and make visible different sides of the actions. I start with 1:8-10:
8 If we make the statement: “We have (ekhō) no sin (hamartia),” we are misleading ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins (hamartia), he is faithful and righteous so as to forgive us our sins (hamartia) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we make the statement: “We have not sinned (hamartanō),” we are making him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Greek present shows that an an action is going on at present and is continuing or that a state is holding at present and is not terminated. The expression “to have sin” is a state, and the word ekhō (“to have”) is Greek present. This shows that the state of “having sin” was holding for all the addressees of John’s letter, and this state had not been terminated.
The verb hamartanō (“to sin”) in the clause “We have not sinned” in 1:10 is Greek perfect. This refers to a state in the past continuing to the present. And the rendering of English perfect of this clause is excellent. So, John is saying that the Christians to whom he wrote to had sinned in the past and they still were in a state of sin that had not terminated.
Even though the Christians were in a state of sin, they should be happy. We read 1:7 (above) and 2:1, 2 (below):
7 However, if we are walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we do have a sharing with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses (kataharizō) us from all sin (hamartia).
1 My little children, I am writing YOU these things that YOU may not commit a sin (hamartanō). And yet, if anyone does commit a sin (hamartanō), we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. 2 And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins (hamartia), yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.
Verse 7 shows that the blood of Jesus cleanses the Christians from all sin. The verb katharizo is Greek present, and it shows that this cleansing is something that continues. The two occurrences of the verb hamartanō in verse 1 are Greek aorist, a verb form pointing to an action without revealing any details as to the nature of the action. When the aorist form is used, the action may very well continue, but this verb form does not make this visible.
All other occurrences of the verb hamartanō, except in 1:10, where it is Greek perfect, are present, so John made a contrast between hamartanō (“to sin”) in 2:1 in the aorist and all the other occurrences of hamartanō in the present. Because Greek present makes visible an action that continues, and Greek aorist makes an action with no details visible, the NWT84 translators translated the aorist with “commit a sin” and the Greek present with “sinning” or “practice sin.”
In order to show the contrast, “commit a sin” is a good translation. However, in 5:16, the verb hamartanō (“to sin”) in the present has the object hamartia (“a sin,”) Literally the expression is “sinning a sin.” Because the verb hamartanō in this expression is present and not aorist, the translation “commit a sin” for hamartanō in the aorist in 2:1 can be questioned. So, an alternative rendering of 2:1 can be “that you may not sin” instead of “that you may not commit a sin.”
Then I will consider the three texts that seemingly contradict the words that I have mentioned above, namely, 3:6 (above), 3:9 (middle), and 5:18 (below):
6 Everyone remaining in union with him does not practice sin (hamartanō); no one that practices sin (hamartanō) has either seen him or come to know him.
9 Everyone who has been born from God does not carry on (poieō) sin (hamartia), because His [reproductive] seed remains in such one, and he cannot (dynamai) practice sin (hamartanō), because he has been born from God.
18 We know that every [person] that has been born from God does not practice sin (hamartanō), but the One born from God watches him, and the wicked one does not fasten his hold on him.
The three examples of hamartanō in the three verses are Greek present, and the verbs poieō (”to do”) and dynamai (“to be able to”) are Greek present as well. So, the NWT84 renderings of both verses are excellent. Verses 6 and 18 show explicitly that the persons to whom John refers “does not practice sin,” “does not carry on sin”, and verse 9 shows that they “cannot practice sin.”
In view of these clear statements, we must ask how it then can be said in 1:8: “If we make the statement: “We have (ekhō) no sin (hamartia),” we are misleading ourselves.”? One attempt to solve this problem has been to claim that those to whom John addresses can commit one sin (2:1) but they they cannot practice sin, i.e., committing several sins. This attempt is wrong. For the context shows that those John addresses in 3:9 cannot even commit one sin. We can only clear away this seemingly contradiction if we understand the basic doctrine of the difference between those who will reign with Jesus Christ in heaven and those who will live forever in a paradise earth.
THE BASIC DOCTRINE WE NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND JOHN’S WORDS ABOUT SIN
There are almost no Bible readers who understand that there will be two different groups that will get everlasting life: 144 000 persons who will reign with Jesus Christ in heaven, and billions of Adam’s descendants that will live forever in a paradise earth.
Both these groups are mentioned in the first letter to John. We read in 2:1, 2:
1 My little children, I am writing YOU these things that YOU may not commit a sin (hamartanō). And yet, if anyone does commit a sin (hamartanō), we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. 2 And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins (hamartia), yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.
We note that John differentiates between “our sins” and “the world’s sins.” While Jesus is a propitiatory sacrifice for both groups, this sacrifice is applied differently for each group. This has a bearing on the seemingly contradictory statements in 1 John.
THE APPLICATION OF THE RANSOM SACRIFICE FOR THOSE WHO WILL REIGN WITH JESUS CHRIST IN HEAVEN
As I have shown in my article, “Putting a smokescreen over the resurrection hope — part three” and more detailed in my book the Atonement Between God and Man, Jesus bought Adam and all his descendants when he died. And all these, except those who will reign with Jesus in heaven and those who sin against the holy spirit, will get the same chance as Adam got: At de end of the Judgment Day of thousand years, each one will be a perfect human without sin. Then each must choose whether he or she will worship and serve Jehovah or support the Devil — the same choice that Adam got.
Those who will reign with Jesus Christ will not be present on Judgment Day, and therefore their destiny will be decided in this present wicked system of things. This is seen in John 5:24 (above) and 1 John 3:14 (below):
24 Most truly I say to YOU, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.
14 We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love remains in death.
We can understand the expressions “has everlasting life” and “has passed over from death to life” when we understand how the ransom sacrifices has been applied to those who will reign with Jesus Christ in heaven. But before I study this, we should note that those to whom 1 John is addressed had “passed over from death to life.”
Jesus said according to John 3:1-8 that to enter into the kingdom of God one has to be born again. This means that that a person is baptized with holy spirit to become a new creation. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:16-18 (above) and 1 Peter 1:3, 4, 23 below:
16 So from now on we know no man from a fleshly viewpoint. Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we certainly no longer know him in that way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; look! new things have come into existence. 18 But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of the reconciliation.
3 Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. It is reserved in the heavens for you.
23 For you have been given a new birth, not by corruptible, but by incorruptible seed, through the word of the living and enduring God.
In order to become a new creation, one has to be declared righteous on the basis of the ransom sacrifice. We read in Romans 3:22-24, 28:
22 Yes, God’s righteousness through the faith in Jesus Christ, for all those having faith. For there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and it is as a free gift that they are being declared righteous by his undeserved kindness through the release by the ransom paid by Christ Jesus.
28 For we consider that a man is declared righteous by faith apart from works of law.
To be declared righteous means that a person is judicially counted or credited as righteous. Physically, this person is an old creature with sin, but from God’s viewpoint, the new creation that he has become does not have sin, and he cannot sin. We see this in Romans 8:33, 34:
33 Who will file accusation against God’s chosen ones? God is the One who declares them righteous. 34 Who will condemn them? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, more than that, the one who was raised up, who is at the right hand of God and who also pleads for us.
No one can accuse the new creations of being sinners because they have been declared righteous, they “have everlasting life” and they “have passed over from death to life.”
But how can we understand this contrast between the old creation that the person became by birth and the new creation without sin that the person became when he was baptized with holy spirit and was declared righteous? Paul discusses this in Romans 7:14-25:
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate. 16 However, if I do what I do not wish, I agree that the Law is fine. 17 But now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that resides in me. 18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good that I wish, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. 20 If, then, I do what I do not wish, I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.21 I find, then, this law in my case: When I wish to do what is right, what is bad is present with me. 22 Ireally delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, 23 but I see in my body another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my body. 24 Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? 25 Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law, but with my flesh to sin’s law.
Paul was declared righteous and he was a new creation. This is what he refers to when he uses the words “I” and “the man I am within.” So, the new creation that Paul was could not sin, but the old creation with the flesh that he got by his birth was still sinning — this is seen in the words “the sin dwelling in me.”
JOHN’S WORDS APPLIED TO OLD CREATIONS AND NEW CREATIONS
With the discussion above as a background, I now return to the to passages that seem to contradict other words of John, namely 3:9 (above), and 5:18 (below):
9 Everyone who has been born from God [as new creations] does not carry on (poieō) sin (hamartia), because His [reproductive] seed remains in such one, and he cannot (dynamai) practice sin (hamartanō), because he has been born from God.
18 We know that every [person] that has been born from God [as new creations] does not practice sin (hamartanō), but the One born from God watches him, and the wicked one does not fasten his hold on him.
To whom are John addressing these words? To each one “who has been born from God” and therefore is a new creation, each one who “has everlasting life” and who “has passed over from death to life.” I have already shown that those who are born from God are declared righteous and therefore cannot sin. So, these new creations can neither commit one sin nor practice several sins.
But is not everything that John says in his letter addressed to those who are new creations? That is true. But in this letter, we see the same contrast that Paul describes in Romans chapter 7. As Adam’s descendants, the Christians have sin — “the sin that dwells in me,” as Paul wrote. But as persons born from God who are new creations they cannot sin because they have been declared righteous.
| The addressees of 1 John were born as imperfect humans with inherited sin. They “have sinned.” But these Christians with the heavenly hope had been declared righteous, had been born from God, and had become new creatures without sin.
Thus, the words about “having sin” (1:10) refer to the fleshly bodies and what the addressees were as humans. The words that they cannot practice sin (3:9) refer to what the addressees have become, namely, new creations without sin. |
WHAT IS THE SIN THAT INCURS DEATH?
The sin that incurs death is only mentioned in 1 John 5:16, 17 and nowhere else in the Bible. We read:
16 If anyone catches sight of his brother sinning (hamartanō) a sin (hamartia) that does not incur death (thanatos), he will ask, and he will give life (zōē) to him, yes, to those not sinning (hamartanō) so as to incur death (thanatos), . There is a sin (hamartia) that does incur death (thanatos). It is concerning that sin (hamartia) that I do not tell him to make request. 17 All unrighteousness is sin (hamartia); and yet there is a sin that does not incur death (thanatos).
In the Watchtower literature the sin that incurs death has been applied to sin against the holy spirit. But this is impossible because Christians can know what “the sin that incurs death” is, but only God knows who has sinned against the holy spirit.
| Life (zōē) and death (thanatos) are opposite concepts. The key to understanding what John means by the words “sin that incurs death (thanatos).” is the way he uses life (zōē) and death (thanatos). |
In the verses where “sin that incurs death” are discussed, John also uses the word “life” (zōē). When a Christian sees a brother who is sinning, but not committing a sin that incurs death, he may make a request to God about him. And what is the purpose of this request? Verse 16 says: “he will ask, and he will give life (zōē) to him.” So, the purpose is that the sinner can get life (zōē).
How can a sinner get life (zōē)? Verses 11 and 12 says:
11 And this is the witness given, that God gave us[1] everlasting life (zōē), and this life (zōē) is in his Son.And this is the witness given, that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that has the Son has this life (zōē); he that does not have the Son of God does not have this life.
So, the request to God was that the sinner should get life, which would mean that he had to accept God’s Son Jesus Christ and put faith in him “because this life (zōē) is in his Son.” So, the request was that God must help the sinner to get this life (zōē). And now we can understand the words “sin that incurs death (thanatos)” by reading 2:22, 23:
22 Who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one that denies the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone that denies the Son does not have the Father either. He that confesses the Son has the Father also.
Both in his first and second letters, John warns about “the antichrists.” The word means “against Christ,” and John says that the antichrist “denies that Jesus is the Christ.” (2:22) Because “this life (zōē) is in his Son,” the antichrists by denying Jesus deny “this life (zōē).” The purpose of the request was that the sinner would get life (zōē). This could only happen by accepting Jesus Christ. But the antichrists had denied Jesus Christ, “this life (zōē).” Therefore, the sin of the antichrist of denying “that Jesus is the Christ” would incur death because this denial prevented them from getting life (zōē). And there was no purpose the make a request that they should get life (zōē) because they already had rejected “this life (zōē).”
| The antichrists had denied that Jesus was the Christ. This was the sin “that incurs death (thanatos)” because Jesus is the one who “has this life (zōē),” and by denying Jesus, the antichrists had denied “this life (zōē)” — everlasting life (zōē). Therefore, they committed “the sin that incurs death (thanatos),” and their destiny would be death (thanatos). |
[1]. This is the same that Jesus says in Joh 5:24 that he who hears the words of Jesus and believes in God “has everlasting life.”
I have in several articles stressed that the ransom sacrifice of Jesus guarantees that each one of Adam’s descendants will get a personal chance to accept or reject the ransom sacrifice. This chance will Adam’s descendants get at the end of the thousand-year reign of Jesus when they have become perfect and without sin.
Can we say that the antichrists had their chance to accept or reject the ransom sacrifice, they had rejected it, and therefore would not get a new chance on Judgment Day? John shows that the antichrists were a group, and this group probably was the same group that later was called the Gnostics. When Jesus in Matthew 12:31, 32 speaks about the unforgivable sin, he referred to the actions of some Pharisees and scribes. But all Pharisees and scribes had not committed sin against the holy spirit. In a similar way, the antichrists had rejected Jesus and the ransom sacrifice, and by this had committed “the sin that incurs death.” But we cannot know if all those who belonged to the group of the antichrists/Gnostics had sinned against the holy spirit. Therefore, “the sin that incurs death,” according to John, would in many instances be sin against the holy spirit. But that would not necessarily be the case in all instances. Therefore, we cannot say that “the sin that incurs death” is sin against the holy spirit.
[1]. This is the same that Jesus says in Joh 5:24 that he who hears the words of Jesus and believes in God “has everlasting life.”
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In order to understand the Holy Scriptures, we must analyze the original text, understand the basic Christian doctrines, and carefully consider the context.
An analysis of the original text has shown that the renderings of the verbs in NWT84 are correct, and they convey the full force of the Greek verbs into English. The result is that the text seems to be contradictory — it says that all humans have sin and that humans do not have sin.
This seeming contradiction is done away with when we accept that there are two different groups that will get everlasting life. One group that will reign with Jesus Christ in heaven, and the other group that will live forever in the coming paradise earth.
Those who will reign with Jesus Christ have been baptized with holy spirit, have been declared righteous, and have become new creations. Their flesh is imperfect and sin dwells in it. But as new creations they are declared righteous and the new creations cannot sin. John is aware of the mentioned difference, and he both speaks about the sin of the flesh of the Christians, and that they as new creations cannot sin.
In chapter 5, John speaks about “the sin that incurs death.” This cannot be sin against the holy spirit because John shows that Christians can identify “the sin that incurs death.” But only God knows who have committed the unforgivable sin.
The context shows that the antichrists have denied that Jesus is the Christ. A person can only get life through Jesus Christ, and when the antichrists have denied Jesus Christ, they have also rejected life. Therefore, by denying Jesus Christ they are guilty of “the sin that incurs death.
