When a baby is born, one of the first things you’ll hear ladies ask is, “Who does he look like? Who does she look like?” As the years go on, the resemblances become clearer, and quite striking. And it goes beyond physical resemblance. We see them have some of the same talents, abilities. Sometimes we spot strange resemblances: an odd facial expression, quirky habit, a way of holding a fork, a, trouble pronouncing a certain word, a certain way of sitting or standing. On the sad side, we sometimes realise some negative habits seem to have passed down: a quick temper, an impatience with detail, a laziness towards chores. What makes these moments remarkable is that usually they are things they did not actively learn from us, we did not teach them, or try to foster it, it just appears. And when we see them, we know exactly where they came from – from us.

One of the sure signs of regeneration has to do with whose nature or character we possess and therefore imitate. If we have God’s nature in us, then like a child takes after the parent, there will be a habit, and an imitation of God’s nature. On the other hand, Jesus looked at the Pharisees and made this statement about family traits: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do (Jn. 8:44)

We are considering sure signs of regeneration, which are the marks that Scripture gives of what is a definite sign of having been born from above. Many, many things could be circumstantial evidence of being a Christian. We’ve already seen things such as being intellectually interested in Christianity, feeling personally assured that you are a Christian, being religiously involved, being included in a church, being in active ministry. These are things that should be true of a true Christian, but they are no sure sign of being a Christian. But to find out what are the sure signs of life, we are looking for Scripture’s clear statements regarding what is true of someone born of God. These statements are the Bible’s equivalent of a DNA test, to see if the nature of God is present.

So once again, we turn to the book of 1 John, which is the ultimate book about signs of eternal life. The third sign has to do with nature, which we can break down into three stages.

I. Implantation

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:8–9) The first part of this sure sign is the implantation of a new nature.

John shows that those who are God’s children have God’s sin-hating nature implanted in them. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

Here the word for seed is using very biological vocabulary. This is the Greek ancestor word for our English medical term for human seed. And the idea is to use this analogy to connect what God does to us spiritually with the physical conception of a child. New life begins and is implanted in the womb of a woman, and so in the same way, spiritual life begins with God implanting His nature in a human being, making that person born again.

By nature, we mean the whole inner man: your attitudes, your interests, your ambitions, your conscience, your emotions and desires. Above all, your nature is your loves. It’s what you love and desire. It’s what you see as lovely, beautiful, attractive. It is what you are inclined towards.

What the Bible means by regeneration is that God plants His nature in you. by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4)

This is the fulfillment of the prophecies spoken by Ezekiel I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

But there are some signs which look like the implantation of God’s holy nature, but are not. Indeed, they are things which can be true of unbelievers.

It is no sure sign of regeneration that a person’s character or temperament is what we call ‘nice’. We live in a time when ‘niceness’ is really considered the supreme virtue. When we speak positively about another person, we don’t say things like people in other times said, “He is a noble man” or “She is a woman of honour” or “He is a man of courage and integrity” or “She is a woman of virtue”. No, we say – and it is thought of as the highest compliment – “He is such a nice guy”, or “she is just the nicest person.” By that, we mean someone is pleasant, courteous, even-tempered, considerate. He is amiable, likable, and his outward personality is easy to get along with. In our secular culture, this is basically holiness: being sweet, non-judgemental, someone who gets along with others and doesn’t upset the apple cart.

Now, let me say that Christians should be courteous, considerate, and pleasant overall. We should work on being winsome. We should seek peace, as long as it lies within us, and as long as the truth is not compromised. But niceness is not holiness. C.S. Lewis reminds us, “But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world — and might even be more difficult to save. For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now…God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.”

And sometimes we get the idea that niceness is a sure sign of being saved. But some of the nicest people I know are unbelievers and happy to stay that way. And some of the people whom I think show the sure signs of regeneration are not nice people – they struggle with being nervous, or jumpy, or socially awkward, or suspicious, or irritable. They are the timid, lonely, passionate, unbalanced, sometimes even nasty. They fight against this because they are regenerate, but they are not at this time in their lives, nice, and maybe never will be until glorification. Niceness, or the lack thereof is no sure sign of regeneration.

But you can change someone’s spiritual nature if you implant a new one, and it steadily takes over.

II. Inclination

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Notice the logic: God is sinless. So when God reproduces something of Himself in a human, that part of Himself is going to be like Him. God is sinless and righteous, so those with God’s nature now are inclined towards doing what God loves. Those with God’s nature no longer delight in what offends God.

He even gives us the opposite case. If you are ‘of the devil’, then you act like the devil He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

Verse 10 puts the contrast between two kinds of spiritual seed in stark relief: In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

Now, this raises the question of being sinless. So we’ll return to that question in a moment, but for now, notice that the Bible is saying whatever is inside manifests on the outside. Internal desires, inclinations, work their way out.

Do you have the inward desire to please God? Do you sense a war between desires, sensing the flesh wanting to please self, but the pressure of the Spirit from within creating in you desires to please God? Has there been a time when you were aware of a new interest, a new appetite, a new longing towards God and His Word?

It also is no sure sign of being born from above that you have visible morality. Or to put it another way, it is no sure sign that you are a child of God because you appear to be a good person, who does good things.

Morality is starting on the outside, and trying to get it to stick. It takes certain rules, certain manners, certain attitudes, assumes them as one’s own, and then tries to make them habitual. And depending on the discipline of the person, they may or may not stick.

Visible, outward goodness and morality is not a sure sign of regeneration, because unbelievers are capable of being moral, and keeping certain standards. Remember what Jesus said of the Pharisees? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt. 23:25-28)

Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked what system of morality would earn him eternal life? Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and the young man said he had kept them all. He had visible external morality, but when Jesus told him to, out of love for God, part with his possessions and follow Christ, he could not. He did not have a new nature of love for God, of death to self, so he went away sorrowful, that his system of morals would not guarantee him entrance into Heaven. Visible morality is not the same as being born from above.

Ask an unbeliever why he does certain things or avoids others, and you are sure to get answers about how it is practical to do one thing, dangerous to do another. The unbeliever thinks in terms of profit and loss to himself.

But the born again believer thinks in terms of, “Is this pleasing to God? Will this honour my Saviour? Is this a true reflection of Him? Am I representing my Father properly when I do this? Will this shame my Lord?”

Is holiness for you a matter of becoming like your Saviour? Do you desire to be like your Lord, so that love of His beauty is what compels you? It is not heavy, begrudging obedience, but the glory of God that you want to be like, and the longer you spend time with Him, the more you want to be like Him?

A sure sign of regeneration is a new nature that gives you new inclinations.

But this inclination that is now implanted is supposed to become imitation.

III. Imitation

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 Jn. 2:3-6)

John says, if you are in Him, God’s nature is in you, then that will manifest in inclinations that lead you to imitate Him.

The pattern is: implantation leads to new inclinations which leads to imitation. God puts a new nature in you, that produces new desires, which if you act upon them becomes an imitation of God’s character.

You have this internal new nature, but that new nature does not immediately and perfectly replicate God’s nature. Not instantaneously giving you the final, perfect, completed 100% form. That’s known in the Bible as glorification. But in baby form, in absolute beginning form, you gain God’s attitudes, desires, loves. Implantation leads to new inclinations.

Instead, it seems God prefers the slow process of growth, of development, of putting off old sinful ways and replacing them with new ones. Children inherit much from their parents, but they begin to be like their parents through conscious imitation. They pick up our accents, and our vocabulary. They pick up our attitudes, and even our mannerisms. They begin to imitate our likes and dislikes. They copy our tones of voice.

Now, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, you will now have an inside-out righteousness. Your new nature is growing and developing, and so your Christlikeness is coming from the inside out.

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

What does all this about not sinning mean? Well, it does not mean what certain groups have taken it to mean. Some people have taken these verses to teach that Christians reach a place where they no longer sin, where sinless perfection has been achieved, and now all they do is righteous. Now we know that that is not what John meant, because just a chapter earlier, he tells us that no Christian reaches this place.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.(1 Jn. 1:8-10)

John makes it clear that true believers never come to a place where they can claim they have not sinned or do not sin. Rather, true believers confess their sins as they become aware of them. So John is not going to write this and then just a few verses later say, if you are a believer, you will at some point stop sinning altogether.

So what does he mean? The verbs here for sin, commits sin and practice righteousness are present tense verbs. Present tense verbs can be translated in different ways though, with a difference in meaning. In other words, in the present tense, we can say, Fred is stealing, and we can also say Fred steals. If I say, Fred is stealing, I am referring to an act that is progressing as I speak. But if I say, Fred steals, I am referring to something more- Fred’s way of life.

So in the same way, the present tense here can mean: he is sinning, or he sins. He practises righteousness or he is practising righteousness. Clearly, because of what we read in chapter 1, John means sin or righteousness as a habit, as the mode of life, as what characterises you.

He means those born of God do not sin as their dominant way of life. Those born of God do sin without stopping to confess it and fight it. Sinning is not the momentum of their lives, not the way they walk, not their mode of life. Who is the Christian imitating? More and more, it should be his father.

And in fact, Jesus told us, we always end up imitating whoever our real father is. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)

When John says that a Christian cannot sin, he means that it is impossible for someone with the new nature to have sin as the root principle of their life. Because that is like saying, a child of God lives habitually unlike God. A child of God lives as if he is a child of the devil.

This is possible only to people who are slaves to sin, people whose righteousness are as filthy rags. For them, the sin is so repetitive, that the noun used to name the sin becomes a noun to name them.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8)

Christians can lie, like Peter did, but they cannot be liars. Believers could murder and commit adultery, like David did, but they could not be murderers and adulterers. Instead, because people born of God have God’s nature in them, their mode of life is seeking to imitate their Father, and Saviour, and Comforter. Their habit of life is now striving to be more like the Saviour, and less like the world or the flesh or the Devil.

They are not sinless, but they are sinning less. They are not perfect, but they desire perfection. Sinning is the interruption of their fellowship with God.

An unbeliever may interrupt his selfishness to do something unselfish. But a Christian is the opposite. His manner of life is seeking to be like Christ. Yes, he sins. He may sin often. He may feel that his sins vastly outnumber his obediences. But for the Christian, those sins are like the falls of a toddler learning to walk. However many times he falls, a Christian knows he is meant to walk – walk like Christ. So he keeps fighting his sin, he keeps confessing it, and striving to be like Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He does not give up and decide that living in sin is the life for him. He might be flat on his face again and again, but like Peter, he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? So he confesses, and forsakes, and learns better ways of defeating sin and conquering old habits. He learns what he must do to better imitate Christ.

The unbeliever uses language like, “I know I’ve made mistakes.” or “Nobody’s perfect, and I’m sure I could have done better.” The merely moral man does not have an inward pressure to obey God. The merely moral man or nice person does not desire to imitate Christ out of love. The merely moral man does not see sin as an interruption, a fall to be confessed and forsaken.

The believer says, “I displeased my Saviour. I acted like my old family, and not like my new one. I grieved the One I love, and I want His forgiveness and cleansing.” There is hatred of sin, brokenness, and true humility. Because the believer habitually imitates the implanted divine nature.

Along those lines, here is another ambiguous sign, something which is no sure sign of regeneration. It is no sure sign of regeneration that you feel guilt or conviction over sin. Some people think that if they experience any level of guilt or acknowledgement that something is wrong or sinful in their lives, that this is a sign that the Holy Spirit is within them. But that is not true. Look at what Jesus said, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”(Jn. 3:19-21)

The only reason to hide from the light is because you feel guilty about what you are doing in the dark. Scripture has many people who came under conviction, but were not converted. Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned” but he was not repentant, and in my view, not regenerate. Pharaoh admitted to Moses that he had sinned, but he was not regenerate. Judas agreed that he had sinned, but he was never regenerate. The Pharisees were convicted that certain parables were spoken about them, but they did not repent. Felix asked Paul to preach the Gospel to him, and the Bible says Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.” (Acts 24:25)

Right now, world over, there are people heavily medicated on anti-depressants, sedative or psychiatric drugs, who do not have a brain problem, they are simply living under conviction and don’t know what to do with it. Their guilt is literally driving them crazy. Mental hospitals across the world would probably have a fraction of their patients if those people dealt with guilt and conviction of sin in their hearts. But feeling guilty, feeling convicted, is no sure sign of regeneration.

It is no sure sign of regeneration that you feel conviction, and feel guilt, and want to escape your guilt. This is merely human.

According to John, the sure sign is an implanted divine nature, with new inclinations, which leads to imitation. A sure sign is the habitual imitation of God’s implanted nature.

One of the greatest things that will ever be said of a true believer will be when angelic eyes can look at us one day and say, “You’re just like your Father!”

One of the things we enjoy doing is looking at children and asking which parent the child most resembles. We ask, “Whom does he take after most?” That very same question can be asked spiritually. Who does he or she take after? If the life is filled with self-will, with habitual disobedience, with open and deliberate defiance of God, we know whom he takes after. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

If the life has new inclinations, which habitually seek to imitate Christ, we have a positive sign for regeneration, for an implanted new nature.