Love’s Victory Over Original Sin (Rewritten)

What theologians often call original sin—sometimes described as inbred sin—is the inner condition of the heart from which sinful actions either arise or are always threatening to arise. It is an condition of inner selfishness in which human ego reigns. As long as this inner condition remains unchanged, love has not fully conquered the soul.

Regeneration—the new birth — introduces a real power that restrains original sin from regularly breaking out into actual sin. Still, occasional lapses may occur, often in moments of weakness or inattention, and usually without deliberate intent. These moments deeply grieve the justified believer. They feel humiliating, even condemning — but they are temporary defeats, not final ones. For believers who are well taught, there is always a return to Christ’s atoning blood and to the promise: “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous....” (I John 2:1 NRSV).

The Justified State

"Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin." (1 John 3:9 KJV)

This is my idea of a justified state. I believe justification is a very great work; I do not believe in belittling justification, or regeneration, in order to make more of sanctification. "Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." That is, to be born of God is to be like God, to take on His moral likeness; and whoever is possessed of that moral likeness to God, while retaining such a likeness will not sin against God. So from the very beginning the truly justified and regenerate soul is endued with grace to be victorious over acts of sin. But it costs a struggle; the remains of the old nature are within, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, in order that ye may not do the things that ye would." Thank God for the Revision upon that point, in that text which has been a pillow under the head of many a man to comfort him in a life of sin! The Revision teaches "in order that ye may not sin" (Gal. v. 17), in striking contrast to the conflict going on in the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans, where it is all on the level of nature, the upper story in conflict with the lower, the conscience in collision with the animal and sinful propensities. In the hopeless struggle delineated in Romans seventh, the Holy Spirit does not appear as one of the combatants in the strife going on in the breast of the unregenerate, yet thoughtful moralist. But in Gal. v. 17, He appears on the field of conflict in the regenerate soul before it has reached the moment where sin is instantaneously slain by the power of God, through faith in the all-atoning blood of His Son. Yet, as I understand it, there is grace available by which every regenerate soul from the moment of regeneration may go on in a career of victory, never falling into acts of sin. 

— Mile-Stone Papers, Part 1, Chapter 11.